From Wired:
Jack Davis, the legendary Mad magazine illustrator and movie poster artist, is finally hanging up his pencils.
It’s not that the iconic 90-year-old cartoonist can’t draw anymore—he just can’t meet his own standards. “I’m not satisfied with the work,” Davis says by phone from his rural Georgia home. “I can still draw, but I just can’t draw like I used to.”
Davis has probably spent more time in America’s living rooms than anyone. Mad was a million-seller when Davis was on the mag, and when he was doing TV Guide covers in the 1970s, the publication boasted a circulation of over 20 million. Yet, Davis is largely unaware of his massive cultural significance. “I never really thought about that, but I guess I’m very blessed,” he says. “I’ve been very lucky.”
[…]
Whereas Norman Rockwell’s images represented Americana of the 1940s and ’50s with his Boy Scouts and pigtailed girls, Davis’ work epitomized the ’60s and ’70s—the smirking, sardonic face of the emerging counterculture. By the time the Beats and the Hippies (who came of age reading Davis cartoons) took over, he was doing movie posters for Woody Allen’s Bananas, The Long Goodbye, American Graffiti, and others [note: one of those others was the original Bad News Bears, an original one-sheet of which I have a framed copy – ed.]
“Jack Davis is probably the most versatile artist ever to work the worlds of comic books, illustration, or movie poster art,” Scott Dunbier, a former art dealer and current director of special projects at comic book publisher IDW. “He can work in a humorous style or deadly serious style, historical or modern, anything. His work transcends that of almost any other cartoonist.”
A great talent who, along with Mort Drucker, George Woodbridge, and Paul Rickard, taught me to draw as a youngster. His work is most certainly iconic — and for those of us who grew up during the 70s, indisputably unforgettable, as well.
How many kids bought that life-size Frankenstein monster poster? I wish I had one.
I *urrrrp*
Did he do those folding pix on the rear cover?
No, Al Jaffe did the fold-in
More of a Don Martin fan, myself.
Still, he’ll be missed…
I was an avid consumer of Mad in the magazine’s early years (my older brother would buy them) and they definitely inspired me to draw. I remember cleaning our old house before moving in 1960. The Mads, along with other old magazines and newspapers, were consigned to the furnace in our basement *sniff*.
Aside: I comfort myself somewhat with knowing that I have well over a hundred covers of old Saturday Evening Posts going back to the late 1800s. I got them when I helped clean out my grandmother’s attic in 1968.
I have a box full of Mads from the 70s but, almost all are sans cover. They always fell off because I read them several times.
Holy potrazebies!
Check it out: the #IllRideWithYou meme was based on an embellished event.
An event that starred a woman who imagined herself performing such an act of virtue that it broke Twitter.
::spit::
Bleeeech!
C’mon. Someone had to do it.
Well, darn… and just when he was getting warmed up…! Not that Mad is worth the trouble anymore…
baracky -super genius- explained
Reading The Small Print
OT: Me and the Missus are heading to the Live Free Or Die State tomorrow for our annual vacation, so, chances are, I won’t be online for the next week or two.
So…a Very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year to all the gang here at Protein Wisdom.
I’ll be eating many steaks [protein] and enjoying frequent pourings of Maker’s Mark [wisdom] and thinking of you all.
OUTLAW.
Bob, welcome to LFOD state! Where are you going?
Wolfeboro. We’ve been going there since the mid-90’s and plan on moving to the area.
A bit northwest of you beyond the notch. Merry Christmas!