the panel beside them. At other times, he would eliminate panel lines altogether and draw the characters in an open white space. Particularly after his return to Archie, he also liked to draw in his own gags or even silent mini-stories in the background. His scenes in the hall of Riverdale High School often feature explosions, pratfalls and other mishaps by characters who aren't directly involved in the story, and Edwards was particularly fond of a gag where Schwartz made it look like Mr. Weatherbee was making a rude gesture at a portrait on his office wall. Schwartz sometimes drew himself into his comics as a background character, particularly on posters asking Riverdale residents to "vote for Samm." Though Schwartz did not usually write his own stories, claiming that "it's much easier for me to draw a person doing something than describe it," he often rewrote the stories he was given, sometimes even including an "additional dialogue" credit for himself. When Schwartz did not like a script, Gorelick would tell him "if you don't like it, see what you want to do with it. If you can make it funny, good." Schwartz's first name was originally "Sam." He added the extra "m" to his signature to make his name seem more unusual. References American comics artists People from Brooklyn 1920 births 1997 deaths Archie Comics Silver Age comics creators