John Lehti

Artist 1912-1991 Grew up in Brooklyn and studied at the Art Students League and the Beaux Arts Institute. His first published work appeared in pulp magazines in 1935. He also assisted on the 'Secret Agent X-9' comic. Lehti eventually moved to comic book art and joined the staff of National Periodicals (the future DC Comics). There, he worked on features like 'The Crimson Avenger', 'Sgt. O'Malley of the Redcoat Patrol', 'Steve Conrad, Adventurer' and 'Cotton Carver'. In the spring of 1946, Lehti sold his comic strip 'Tommy of the Big Top' to King Features, which ran until 1950. With the strip's demise, he returned to DC to draw 'Big Town' and 'Tarzan'. In the early 1950s, Lehti switched to Western, where he illustrated stories with 'Lassie', 'Tom Corbet, Space Cadet' and 'Flash Gordon'. Lehti sold 'Tales from the Great Book' to Publishers Syndicate in 1954. It became a Sunday feature for many newspapers and ran until 1972. John Lehti returned to DC once again and worked on 'Sgt. Rock' and 'The Losers' in the mid-1970s. He retired in the 1980s.