Elizabeth Safian

• Born 1943-01-07 · Died 2021-01-12

After leaving the School of Visual Arts in 1961, Elizabeth "Liz" Berube became a colorist and assistant editor for Archie, continuing at that publisher in various freelance capacities until 1975. In the early 1960s, she met DC editor Jack Adler, who later brought her to DC. In the late 1960s, her newspaper strip, Karen (credited to her maiden name "Elizabeth Ann Safian"), was carried by Newsday Syndicate in 40 newspapers at its peak. In 1969 she began working on DC’s romance comics line, bringing more modern, stylized art to the genre, which was still being drawn in the realistic style. One of the few women in the field, Berube worked on such titles as Date with Debbi, Falling in Love, Girls' Love Stories, Girls' Romances, Heart Throbs, Secret Hearts, Young Love, and Young Romance. At some point during this period, Berube was offered the position of editor of the whole line, but as a single mother in her mid-twenties, she preferred the flexibility of working from home that penciling and coloring allowed, and declined. The DC romance line folded a few years later. From the mid-1970s through the 1980s Berube worked as a colorist, mostly for DC. She was known for mixing her own hues and marking the combinations for the printing separators. She also did coloring for Neal Adams’ Continuity Studios in the mid-to-late 1980s. Berube credits Jack Adler and Cory Adams (Neal Adams' wife) for teaching her the techniques of comics coloring.