Florence Lillian See was born August 31, 1912, in Spokane, Washington, and attended Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles, California. She married Albert Ararat Magarian on May 25, 1937, in Los Angeles, and they started a career as a husband and wife commercial art team. Their only child, Alan, was born on May 2, 1938. Florence later recalled in a 1942 essay for "Fantastic Adventures" magazine those first idyllic days together.
“The team of Magarian was born one morning in May 1937. I can’t remember whether it was Monday or Tuesday but the sky was an aquamarine blue. You might write the Los Angeles license bureau for any further information. “Being more than somewhat fascinated with each other, we played hooky from a life class that morning and took the noble plunge. We soon discovered that two could live just as reasonably as one . . . on nothing. The braver half of the team deserted our charming thatched wigwam for a position drawing rodents in a certain west coast animation studio. Being the lazier of the two, if that is at all possible, I occupied myself painting huge abstract canvases with long, involved titles.
“We acquired a patio full of a million or so sketches of Mickey, developed a sign language acquaintance with a hermit, and presently along came a cute little brown-eyed elf, named Alan, of whom we’re extremely proud. Now that I look back on it all, nostalgia swipes me a terrific wallop in the solar plexus.
"It must have been the morning that we discovered an army of silver fish had literally brought on indigestion by devouring our most prized Daumier print that we packed portfolio and easel and headed east.
“We arrived in Chicago to be greeted by a perfectly stupendous blizzard. Stayed just long enough to meet Rap [editor Raymond A. Palmer], and caught another train back. We finally thawed out. Vowed never to leave California again. We wound up in Manhattan the following year.
“We caught a train to St. Louis, another to San Antonio. The nearest we ever came to getting back to California was the sandy coast off Galveston, Texas. My husband rudely yanked me back into the battle. A week later, we breakfasted near the foam-tinged waves of Lake Michigan. “We barnstormed Editor Rap with some pretty terrible illustrations. Finally “Three Eyes in the Dark” caught on.”
That sketch for a Don Wilcox story was the first in a number of excellent black and white interior illustrations from 1942 through 1948 by the Magarians for the magazines "Amazing Stories" and "Fantastic Adventures". Albert drew the general outlines of each piece while Florence did the finishing work and added details. This may explain why only her signature is found on many pieces, as she was the last person to work on the art. The Magarians also branched out into drawing cartoons and comic books. Two of their comic books in particular, "The Black Orchid" and "Jack of Spades", are highly sought after by collectors.
Sadly, Florence suffered a nervous breakdown and spent the last years of her life in and out of mental hospitals in Illinois until her death in 1960. She was interred in Mount Hope Cemetery on May 16, 1960.
“The team of Magarian was born one morning in May 1937. I can’t remember whether it was Monday or Tuesday but the sky was an aquamarine blue. You might write the Los Angeles license bureau for any further information. “Being more than somewhat fascinated with each other, we played hooky from a life class that morning and took the noble plunge. We soon discovered that two could live just as reasonably as one . . . on nothing. The braver half of the team deserted our charming thatched wigwam for a position drawing rodents in a certain west coast animation studio. Being the lazier of the two, if that is at all possible, I occupied myself painting huge abstract canvases with long, involved titles.
“We acquired a patio full of a million or so sketches of Mickey, developed a sign language acquaintance with a hermit, and presently along came a cute little brown-eyed elf, named Alan, of whom we’re extremely proud. Now that I look back on it all, nostalgia swipes me a terrific wallop in the solar plexus.
"It must have been the morning that we discovered an army of silver fish had literally brought on indigestion by devouring our most prized Daumier print that we packed portfolio and easel and headed east.
“We arrived in Chicago to be greeted by a perfectly stupendous blizzard. Stayed just long enough to meet Rap [editor Raymond A. Palmer], and caught another train back. We finally thawed out. Vowed never to leave California again. We wound up in Manhattan the following year.
“We caught a train to St. Louis, another to San Antonio. The nearest we ever came to getting back to California was the sandy coast off Galveston, Texas. My husband rudely yanked me back into the battle. A week later, we breakfasted near the foam-tinged waves of Lake Michigan. “We barnstormed Editor Rap with some pretty terrible illustrations. Finally “Three Eyes in the Dark” caught on.”
That sketch for a Don Wilcox story was the first in a number of excellent black and white interior illustrations from 1942 through 1948 by the Magarians for the magazines "Amazing Stories" and "Fantastic Adventures". Albert drew the general outlines of each piece while Florence did the finishing work and added details. This may explain why only her signature is found on many pieces, as she was the last person to work on the art. The Magarians also branched out into drawing cartoons and comic books. Two of their comic books in particular, "The Black Orchid" and "Jack of Spades", are highly sought after by collectors.
Sadly, Florence suffered a nervous breakdown and spent the last years of her life in and out of mental hospitals in Illinois until her death in 1960. She was interred in Mount Hope Cemetery on May 16, 1960.
Florence Lillian See was born August 31, 1912, in Spokane, Washington, and attended Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles, California. She married Albert Ararat Magarian on May 25, 1937, in Los Angeles, and they started a career as a husband and wife commercial art team. Their only child, Alan, was born on May 2, 1938. Florence later recalled in a 1942 essay for "Fantastic Adventures" magazine those first idyllic days together.
“The team of Magarian was born one morning in May 1937. I can’t remember whether it was Monday or Tuesday but the sky was an aquamarine blue. You might write the Los Angeles license bureau for any further information. “Being more than somewhat fascinated with each other, we played hooky from a life class that morning and took the noble plunge. We soon discovered that two could live just as reasonably as one . . . on nothing. The braver half of the team deserted our charming thatched wigwam for a position drawing rodents in a certain west coast animation studio. Being the lazier of the two, if that is at all possible, I occupied myself painting huge abstract canvases with long, involved titles.
“We acquired a patio full of a million or so sketches of Mickey, developed a sign language acquaintance with a hermit, and presently along came a cute little brown-eyed elf, named Alan, of whom we’re extremely proud. Now that I look back on it all, nostalgia swipes me a terrific wallop in the solar plexus.
"It must have been the morning that we discovered an army of silver fish had literally brought on indigestion by devouring our most prized Daumier print that we packed portfolio and easel and headed east.
“We arrived in Chicago to be greeted by a perfectly stupendous blizzard. Stayed just long enough to meet Rap [editor Raymond A. Palmer], and caught another train back. We finally thawed out. Vowed never to leave California again. We wound up in Manhattan the following year.
“We caught a train to St. Louis, another to San Antonio. The nearest we ever came to getting back to California was the sandy coast off Galveston, Texas. My husband rudely yanked me back into the battle. A week later, we breakfasted near the foam-tinged waves of Lake Michigan. “We barnstormed Editor Rap with some pretty terrible illustrations. Finally “Three Eyes in the Dark” caught on.”
That sketch for a Don Wilcox story was the first in a number of excellent black and white interior illustrations from 1942 through 1948 by the Magarians for the magazines "Amazing Stories" and "Fantastic Adventures". Albert drew the general outlines of each piece while Florence did the finishing work and added details. This may explain why only her signature is found on many pieces, as she was the last person to work on the art. The Magarians also branched out into drawing cartoons and comic books. Two of their comic books in particular, "The Black Orchid" and "Jack of Spades", are highly sought after by collectors.
Sadly, Florence suffered a nervous breakdown and spent the last years of her life in and out of mental hospitals in Illinois until her death in 1960. She was interred in Mount Hope Cemetery on May 16, 1960.
“The team of Magarian was born one morning in May 1937. I can’t remember whether it was Monday or Tuesday but the sky was an aquamarine blue. You might write the Los Angeles license bureau for any further information. “Being more than somewhat fascinated with each other, we played hooky from a life class that morning and took the noble plunge. We soon discovered that two could live just as reasonably as one . . . on nothing. The braver half of the team deserted our charming thatched wigwam for a position drawing rodents in a certain west coast animation studio. Being the lazier of the two, if that is at all possible, I occupied myself painting huge abstract canvases with long, involved titles.
“We acquired a patio full of a million or so sketches of Mickey, developed a sign language acquaintance with a hermit, and presently along came a cute little brown-eyed elf, named Alan, of whom we’re extremely proud. Now that I look back on it all, nostalgia swipes me a terrific wallop in the solar plexus.
"It must have been the morning that we discovered an army of silver fish had literally brought on indigestion by devouring our most prized Daumier print that we packed portfolio and easel and headed east.
“We arrived in Chicago to be greeted by a perfectly stupendous blizzard. Stayed just long enough to meet Rap [editor Raymond A. Palmer], and caught another train back. We finally thawed out. Vowed never to leave California again. We wound up in Manhattan the following year.
“We caught a train to St. Louis, another to San Antonio. The nearest we ever came to getting back to California was the sandy coast off Galveston, Texas. My husband rudely yanked me back into the battle. A week later, we breakfasted near the foam-tinged waves of Lake Michigan. “We barnstormed Editor Rap with some pretty terrible illustrations. Finally “Three Eyes in the Dark” caught on.”
That sketch for a Don Wilcox story was the first in a number of excellent black and white interior illustrations from 1942 through 1948 by the Magarians for the magazines "Amazing Stories" and "Fantastic Adventures". Albert drew the general outlines of each piece while Florence did the finishing work and added details. This may explain why only her signature is found on many pieces, as she was the last person to work on the art. The Magarians also branched out into drawing cartoons and comic books. Two of their comic books in particular, "The Black Orchid" and "Jack of Spades", are highly sought after by collectors.
Sadly, Florence suffered a nervous breakdown and spent the last years of her life in and out of mental hospitals in Illinois until her death in 1960. She was interred in Mount Hope Cemetery on May 16, 1960.
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