George Evans (comics)
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George Evans (February 5, 1920- June 22, 2001) was an American cartoonist and illustrator who worked in both comic books and comic strips. His lifelong fascination with airplanes and the pioneers of early aviation was a constant theme in his art and stories.
Born in Harwood, Pennsylvania, Evans studied art from a correspondence course. He was still in his teens when he made his first sales, both illustrations and writing, to pulp magazines. Early in World War II, Evans was an aircraft mechanic at Shaw Field in South Carolina, where he sometimes flew in the planes he had worked on. He studied at the Scranton Art School and then entered the Army. In the post-WWII years, Evans began working for comic books, including an in-house staff position at Fiction House until 1949. His titles for Fawcett included the When Worlds Collide film adaptation and the Captain Video television adaptation.
His work for EC Comics in the early 1950s included powerful covers and crime stories for Crime SuspenStories and memorable WWI aviation stories for Aces High. After EC, he contributed to Gilberton's Classics Illustrated, Dell and Gold Key. His books for Classics Illustrated included Lord Jim, The Oregon Trail, Romeo and Juliet, The Three Musketeers and the award-winning Rough Riders.
During the 1970s, he contributed comics to the National Lampoon. He drew DC Comics' war and mystery tales, and for Marvel Comics he did mystery-horror stories plus work on titles featuring Doctor Doom and Sub-Mariner. For Boys' Life he drew Space Conquerors. During the late 1960s, he was an assistant to and ghost artist for George Wunder on the comic strip Terry and the Pirates. Al Williamson passed Secret Agent Corrigan on to Evans in 1980, and the strip ended with his 1996 retirement.
Evans' first love was World War I aviation, and he did many paintings of WWI dogfights, including a calendar for The Cross and Cockade Society. He also did book jacket art. For David Manning White's Marlborough House, Evans created the cover illustration for The Black Swallow of Death: The Incredible Story of Eugene Jacques Bullard, The World's First Black Combat Aviator by P.J. Carisella, James W. Ryan and Edward W. Brooke (1972). This illustration is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force near Dayton, Ohio.
He also illustrated a children's book, The Story of Flight, for Random House. The last page, which shows a man flying with a rocket pack, shows the rear of the Evans family home with Evans working at his drawing board in an upstairs window.
[edit] References
- Strickler, Dave. Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924-1995: The Complete Index. Cambria, CA: Comics Access, 1995. ISBN 0-9700077-0-1
