L. B. Cole was born Leonard Hildebrandt Cohen on August 8, 1918 in New York City. At the age of nine his parents divorced and married other spouses, so Leonard went to live with his maternal grandfather who ran a cigar factory. In 1932 at the age of thirteen Leonard finished the eighth grade and then started working at the cigar factory. While there he became interested in the decorative packaging labels that were printed at the Consolidated Lithographic Corporation on Grand Street in Brooklyn. By 1940 he was hired as a commercial artist at that company, where he learned basic art training in drawing, coloring and designing.
In 1942 he changed his name to "L. B. Cole" and married Helen Dolores Kovach (1918-2007).
In 1942 L. B. Cole worked as a freelance artist to paint book covers for Phoenix Press, an erotic publishing company owned by Harry Donenfeld, the owner of D.C.Comics as well as Trojan Publishing, which produced pulp magazines.
L.B. Cole worked as a staff artist for Lou Goodman Ferstadt (1901-1954), an older artist with a long career in newspapers. The Ferstadt Art Studio, at 17 East 45th Street, supplied artwork for comic books produced by Ace Publications, such as Super-Mystery Comics, Lightning Comics, and Four Favorites.
In 1944 L. B. Cole became the art director of Continental Magazines at 220 West 42nd Street, which produced Suspense Comics and Terrific Comics. The business was owned by Frank Z. Temerson, and his associate, Rae Herman. The art department of Temerson's publishing company was the L. B. Cole Shop, where Cole coordinated assignments for freelance artists to create comic pages for Continental and Orbit, as well as for Aviation Press, Leffingwell, and Rural Home. In 1946 Rae Herman replaced L. B. Cole as the head of this small art shop.
According to the artist Mort Leav, "Orbit Publishing did Toytown, Western, Wanted, and Patches, while Our Publishing covered the two love magazines, Love Diar and Love Journey. As the size of publishing houses go, Ray Herman's was pretty modest. Hence, although I drew all the lead features for any book in which my work appeared, and although I did ninety-percent-plus of all the covers during the years I worked for her, 1946-to-1954, and although I assumed a degree of influence with her, Ray had no salaried individual officially titled "Art Director." In fact all her creative people were really free-lancers, because we were paid by the page."
On December 1, 1946 L. B. Cole and his wife, Blanche Helen (Miller) Cole, had a daughter, Jean Ellen Cole.
In 1949 L. B. Cole bought from Novelty Press the right to use the characters that appeared in Blue Bolt Comics, after which he founded Star Publications to continue production.
During the 1950s L. B. Cole painted covers for digests and paperback novels. His work was published by Superior Publications, which was owned by Robert Farrell (1908-1986), who also owned Ajax Comics.
By 1954 the publishing industry of pulps and comic books was rocked by political scandal, self-censorship, and diminishing sales, which resulted from the growing popularity of television. As the industry shrank, many artists and publishers looked for new sources of income.
In 1955 L. B. Cole stopped production of Star Publications.
In 1959 and 1960 L. B. Cole contributed to Classics Illustrated Junior.
In 1962 L. B. Cole became an art editor at Dell Publications.
In 1966 L. B. Cole was the art editor of a short-lived sporting magazine, World Rod & Gun, which was produced by Ace Publications as a knockoff of a more successful magazine, American Rod & Gun, from Fiction House.
L. B. Cole died at the age of seventy-seven in Flushing, Queens, NY, on December 5, 1995.
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L.B.COLE SHOP ARTISTS from 1944 - 1946
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1944
Nina Albright
Jack Alderman
Gerald Altman
George Appel
Marc Borgatta
Milton Cohen
L.B.Cole
Tony DiPreta
Bob Fujitani
John Giunta
Carmine Infantino
Gil Kane
Harvey Kurtzman
Rudy Palais
Paul Parker
Charles Quinlan
Robert Q Sale
Chris Schaare
Manny Stallman
Charles Tomsey
Tom VanBuren
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1945
Nina Albright
Jack Alderman
Gerald Altman
George Appel
Marc Borgatta
Milton Cohen
L.B.Cole
Tony DiPreta
Bob Fujitani
John Giunta
Carmine Infantino
Gil Kane
Harvey Kurtzman
Rudy Palais
Paul Parker
Charles Quinlan
Robert Q Sale
Chris Schaare
Manny Stallman
Charles Tomsey
Tom VanBuren
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1946
Nina Albright
Jack Alderman
Gerald Altman
George Appel
Marc Borgatta
Milton Cohen
L.B.Cole
Tony DiPreta
Bob Fujitani
John Giunta
Carmine Infantino
Gil Kane
Harvey Kurtzman
Rudy Palais
Paul Parker
Charles Quinlan
Robert Q Sale
Chris Schaare
Manny Stallman
Charles Tomsey
Tom VanBuren
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