"After seeing the portfolio samples that DiPreta brought to him during a lunch hour in 1940, Quality publisher Everett M. "Busy" Arnold hired DiPreta as a staff letterer for $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.