$25 per week, a wage equal to that of his now-working father's well-paying job as a defense industry worker. Under editor Ed Cronin and Cronin's assistant Gill Fox, DiPreta was sent to Quality artist Lou Fine's Tudor City studio in Manhattan to observe and learn from Fine's highly regarded draftsmanship. Shortly afterward, Arnold was concerned over what he saw as Fine's undynamic storytelling, and had Fujitani and DiPreta do pencil-breakdowns for a story each that Fine would finish penciling and inking; DiPreta's starred the character Uncle Sam. At some point, he studied at Columbia University and the University of Connecticut. DiPreta's first generally accepted solo art credit in comics is a one-page humor filler in publisher Quality's National Comics #8 (Feb. 1941). His first confirmable credit is a similar filler in the company's Doll Man #2 (Spring 1942). Golden Age of Comics In 1941, DiPreta visited New York City's Timely Comics, the 1940s predecessor of Marvel Comics. Going on a Saturday, DiPreta recalled, he nonetheless met editor-in-chief Stan Lee, who had DiPreta ink a story for the humor feature "Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal". DiPreta recalled, "I was paid either seven bucks or eight bucks a page. The story was seven or eight pages long. However, it all worked out, I was going to get $57 for this job", which he delivered to Lee the following Saturday. "I thought, 'Hey, 25 bucks a week from Arnold is pretty good, but 57 bucks a week is better'. I decided to go freelance", and did so beginning April 1, 1941. Following that initial Timely story, DiPreta drew only sporadically for the company during the 1940s due to steady work from former Quality editor Cronin, who by then was at Hillman Periodicals. DiPreta drew such Hillman humor features as "Buttons the Rabbit", "Captain Codfish", "Earl the Rich Rabbit", "Fatsy McPig", "One Wing Spin", "Skinny McGinty" (in Air Fighters Comics) and "Stupid Manny" (in Clue Comics). DiPreta concurrently drew Quality humor features, including "Blimpy" (in Feature Comics), "Windy Breeze", and "Mayor Midge" for Quality. DiPreta did his first dramatic work, a war story, for editor Vin Sullivan's Columbia Comics. He also drew the lead feature, "Airboy", in at Air Fighters Comics #7-9 (April–June 1943). Also, DiPreta occasionally drew the superheroes "Boy King" and "Zippo" — no relation to the popular brand of cigarette lighter — for Hillman's Clue Comics and "Magno" for Ace Magazines'