[4][5] Beginning 1934, during the Great Depression, he spent two years at Midland Lutheran College in Fremont, Nebraska at the behest of his cousin, Dr. Emerson Reck, a journalism professor and director of the school's news bureau.
[4] Self-described as having been "drawing pictures from the first time I could hold a pencil," Norris became art director of The Warrior, the college yearbook, and also performed in plays, served as president of the campus YMCA, and painted signs for businesses.
[4] After two years, Norris left college in an aborted attempt to pursue a career as comic strip cartoonist.
Norris and writer Mort Weisinger revamped that character in superhero attire and introduced sidekick Sandy the Golden Boy in issue #69 (Dec.
[9] Norris and Weisinger introduced the undersea superhero Aquaman in the eight-page story "The Submarine Strikes" in More Fun Comics # 73 (Nov. 1941).
That same year, Norris began drawing the adventure comic strip Vic Jordan for PM, one of the New York's daily afternoon papers.
[7] In 1943, King Features Syndicate assigned Norris to write and draw the existing strip Secret Agent X-9, on which he worked for three months before being drafted into the U.S.
[6] Norris said that during his World War II military service as a tech sergeant, "I did a little [comic] strip for the ship newspaper" that came to the attention of Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. "He saw it and made the order that I be transferred from the 82nd Signal Battalion to JIC POA 10th Army", where Norris illustrated propaganda leaflets to be dropped from aircraft over Okinawa, urging Japanese soldiers to surrender.
Norris was rehired by King Features Syndicate, and in 1948 began drawing the Sunday edition of Austin Briggs' comic strip Jungle Jim.