A Superboy Oddity

I looked at the covers of the first 145 issues of Superboy, spanning 1949 to 1968. You can do it for your self over here if you like. Nice artwork, bright colors, great lettering. But there is one non-sequitur. Let's focus in on the cover of Superboy #69 from 1958.

This artwork by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye is very nice and even the lettering is great. But wait! The lettering of this cover is exactly what I'm here to talk about today. I'll magnify that word balloon.

There's nothing at all bad about this lettering, but it is clearly not the handiwork of Ira Schnapp. Superboy #69 is the only one of the first 145 issues of Superboy to display lettering by anyone other than comics legend Ira Schnapp! Five covers in that long run featured no lettering at all other than the title logo, but this is the only one with non-Schnapp lettering. Why did Mr. Schnapp not letter this one cover in the middle of his 20-year run? I don't know. So, who did letter it? I'm not sure but the shape of each S suggests Gaspar Saladino to me . Please write in if you know these answers!