About Leonard Sansone

Leonard Sansone

Leonard Sansone, (Leonard Pasquale Sansone, also known as Leo, Lenny) was born in Norwood, MA in 1917. His Italian parents were Pat and Margaret and sister Angie. He graduated from Norwood High School, Norwood, MA, in 1935 and then completed his art degree from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA) in 1939 where he met his future wife Emily Stone.

Lenny moved to NYC after college and worked as a freelance advertising artist and cartoonist (during the Golden age of Comics). During WWII, he married Emily was drafted and first stationed at Ft. Belvoir (Virginia). It was there he worked on the publication DUCKBOARD and created his famous cartoon The Wolf (also called G.I. Wolf, Pvt. Wolf). It was so popular he was transferred to NYC to join the staff at Camp Newspaper Services (CNS) a division of YANK magazine where he worked as art director and cartoonist for the duration of the war.

His famous and wonderfully funny Wolf cartoons appeared in over 3000 Camp Newspapers. Sansone was featured in LIFE magazine in 1941 and his cartoon book The Wolf was released in 1945. During this period at CNS Lenny’s colleagues were artists, cartoonists and writers such as Sgt George Baker, Bill Mauldin, Marion Hargrove, Milton Caniff, Walter Farley.

Leonard moved to Miami in 1948 created his popular syndicated comic strip “Willie” ( a family oriented cartoon strip), co-owned Florida Advertising Art Agency located in Coral Gables, Florida. He died in a tragic car accident in 1963. He was 46 years old and survived by his wife Emily and their two children Peter and Maggie who now live in Maryland (USA).

We are updating our website with new information and invite you to visit our links page for lots more information on Leonard Sansone’s life, art and cartoons. Many articles have been written such as article by Ron Goulart (World War II magazine, Sept. 1996 Perspectives) “World War II gave rise to numerous comic strips and brought fame to the artists ho drew them” ; and there is information in The Library of Congress and also The Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum ((The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, Sullivant Hall, 1813 N High St, Columbus OH 43210, Telephone: (614) 292-0538).