Julian S. Krupa
(January 7, 1913 – December 18, 1989)
Julian Stanislaus Krupa was a prolific and popular illustrator for the prozines from the 1930s–50s.
After studying at the National Academy of Design and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, Krupa wrote and illustrated an sf comic strip for the largest Polish newspaper in the United States, the Daily Zgoda, in 1936. He worked for Ziff-Davis Productions in Chicago in 1938–52, drawing for all their magazines, including Fantastic Adventures and Amazing Stories. His black-and-white interior art used a distinctive stipple technique done with a brush.
In the 1930s, he also contributed art to fanzines, including Ad Astra.
Forry Ackerman remembered originals of his work being auctioned at Chicon in 1940, donated by Amazing editor Ray Palmer. Krupa and Lillian Conway took out a congratulatory ad in the Chicon program book.
Krupa was also an accomplished violinist, playing with the A & P Gypsies at the Chicago World's Fair of 1933–34. He was born in Rzeszów, Podkarpackie, Poland, then in the Russian Empire. His family came to the United States in 1914. Julian married Lillian D. Weganowski on April 29, 1950, in Cook County, Illinois. (According to his grandson, Josh Stickler, they met on New Year’s Eve of that year, after Krupa returned from military service, so she is not the same Lillian as Conway, above.) They had one daughter.
The Polish Museum of Chicago has a collection of Krupa’s work.
| Person | 1913—1989 |
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