Norman Saunders
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Norman Saunders (1907–1989) was a prolific commercial artist who produced paintings for pulp magazines, paperbacks, men's magazines, comic books and trading cards.
Saunders was born in Minot, North Dakota. His earliest training in his eventual profession was though a mail order art course. He soon landed a job at Fawcett Publications, where he was employed from 1928–1934. He left this job to become a freelance pulp artist, moved to New York, and studied under Harvey Dunn at the Grand Central School of Art. He painted for all the major publishers and was known for his fast-action scenes, his beautiful women, and his ability to meet a deadline. He worked in almost any genre—Westerns, weird menace, detective, sports and the saucys (under the pseudonym of Blaine). He was able to paint very quickly, producing one hundred paintings a year—two a week from 1935 through 1942.
In 1958, Saunders obtained his first assignment from the Topps company, painting over photographs of baseball players who had been traded, so that they would appear to be wearing the jersey of their new team. Topps soon employed Saunders to create artwork for many other cards. He was hired to paint scenes for one of the most successful of all non-sports card sets: Mars Attacks in 1962. Letters of protest poured in from parents, prompting Topps to issue the cards under a different company name. His Wacky Packages cards were even more commercially successful. He also produced a number of less well known trading card series including Ugly Stickers, Your Own Name, Civil War News and others.
His daughter, Zina Saunders, is also a prolific and successful illustrator for magazines, books and trading cards.
