Editing Curt Swan (section)

===Early life and career===
Curt Swan was born in [[Minneapolis]]<ref name=Aamodt>{{cite web|url= https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2015/12/minnesotan-curt-swan-helped-create-superman-we-know-today|title= Minnesotan Curt Swan helped create the Superman we know today|first= Britt|last= Aamodt|date= December 1, 2015|work= [[MinnPost]]|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151212040728/https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2015/12/minnesotan-curt-swan-helped-create-superman-we-know-today|archive-date= December 12, 2015|url-status= dead|df= mdy-all|access-date= July 9, 2017}}</ref> on February 17, 1920,<ref>{{cite web|last=Avila|first=Mike|title=The Enduring Greatness of Curt Swan, the Forever Superman Artist|date=2020-02-18|website=[[Syfy]]|url=https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-enduring-greatness-of-curt-swan-the-forever-superman-artist|accessdate=2024-11-15}}</ref> the youngest of five children. Swan's [[Swedes|Swedish]] grandmother had shortened and Americanized the original family name of Svensson.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} Father John Swan worked for the [[Rail transport|railroads]]; mother Leontine Jessie Hanson<ref name="marriage">{{Cite web |url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2M5-SW2T |title=Minnesota, County Marriages, 1860–1949 – Marriage Certificate between John Swan and Leontine Jessie Hanson on December 5, 1910 |access-date=March 13, 2017 |work=FamilySearch}}</ref> had worked in a local hospital.<ref>{{cite book |last=Eury |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Eury |date=2006 |title=The Krypton Companion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fcm4JrX-F54C&pg=PA58 |location=Raleigh, North Carolina |publisher=[[TwoMorrows Publishing]] |page=58 |isbn=1-893905-61-6}}</ref> As a boy, Swan's given name – Douglas – was shortened to "Doug," and, disliking the phonetic similarity to "Dog," Swan thereafter reversed the order of his given names and went by "Curtis Douglas," rather than "Douglas Curtis."<ref>Swan's former wife Helene, in {{cite book|last = Zeno|first = Eddy.|chapter= Helene Swan|title = Curt Swan A Life in Comics|publisher = [[J. David Spurlock|Vanguard Productions]]|year = 2002|location= Lebanon, New Jersey|page = 56|isbn = 978-1887591393}}</ref>

Having enlisted in Minnesota's National Guard's 135th Regiment, [[34th Infantry Division (United States)|34th Division]] in 1940, Swan was sent to Europe when the "federalized" division was shipped initially to Northern Ireland and Scotland. While his comrades in the 34th eventually went into combat in North Africa and Italy, Swan spent most of World War II working as an artist for the G.I. magazine ''[[Stars and Stripes (newspaper)|Stars and Stripes]]''. While at ''Stars and Stripes'', Swan met writer [[France Herron]], who eventually directed him to [[DC Comics]].<ref>Zeno "The First Fifteen Years", p. 10</ref>

During this period Swan married the former Helene Brickley, whom he had met at a dance at [[Fort Dix]], [[New Jersey]], and who was stationed near him in Paris in 1944 as a [[Red Cross]] worker; they were married in Paris in April 1945.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hoytfuneralhome.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=564624 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240528090052/https://www.webcitation.org/71npi2WsC?url=http://www.hoytfuneralhome.com/memsol.cgi%3Fuser_id=564624 |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 28, 2024 |title=In Memory of Helene Rose Swan |publisher=Hoyt Funeral Home |df=mdy-all |access-date=March 3, 2017}}</ref> Shortly after returning to civilian life in 1945, he moved from Minnesota to New Jersey and began working for [[DC Comics]].<ref name="GCD">{{gcdb|type=credit|search=Curt+Swan}}</ref> Apart from a few months of night classes at the [[Pratt Institute]] under the [[G.I. Bill]], Swan was an entirely self-taught artist.<ref>Zeno "The First Fifteen Years", p. 17</ref> After a stint on ''[[Boy Commandos]]'' he began to just pencil pages, leaving the inking to others.{{sfn|Eury|2006|pp=60–61}}