Jack Davis (cartoonist)
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Jack Davis (born December 2, 1924) is an American cartoonist and illustrator. He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2003. He also received the National Cartoonist Society Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Davis drew for his high school paper and then spent three years in the Navy, where he contributed to the daily Navy News. Attending the University of Georgia on the GI Bill, he did drawings for the campus newspaper and helped launch an off-campus humor publication, Bullsheet, which he described as "not political or anything but just something with risque jokes and cartoons." He worked one summer inking Ed Dodd's Mark Trail comic strip, a strip which he later parodied in Mad as "Mark Trade."
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[edit] Comic strips and comic books
Attending the Art Students League of New York, he found work with the Herald Tribune Syndicate as an inker on Leslie Charteris's The Saint comic strip, drawn by Mike Roy in 1949-50. His own humor strip, Beauregard, with gags in a Civil War setting, was carried briefly by the McClure Syndicate. After rejections from several comic book publishers, he began freelancing for William Gaines' EC Comics in 1950, contributing to Tales from the Crypt, Two-Fisted Tales and The Vault of Horror. In the late 1950s, he drew Western stories for Atlas Comics. His 1963 work on the Rawhide Kid (#33-35) was his last for non-humor comic books.
His style of wild, free-flowing brushwork and wacky characters made him a perfect choice when Harvey Kurtzman launched Mad as a zany, satirical EC comic book in 1952. Davis contributed to other Kurtzman magazines - Trump, Humbug and Help! - eventually expanding into illustrations for record jackets, movie posters, books and magazines, including Time and TV Guide. In 1961, he wrote, drew and edited his own comic book, Yak Yak, for Dell Comics. In 1965 he illustrated Meet The North American Indians by Elizabeth Payne, published by Random House as part of their children's Step Up Books line. (ISBN 0-394-80060-5)
[edit] Advertising and magazines
His publishing and advertising client list includes America Online, Arista Records, AT&T, BellSouth, Capital Cities/ABC, Ciba-Geigy, Columbia Records, DreamWorks, Entertainment Weekly, ESPN, Ford, Golf Digest, Indianapolis Speedway, Kraft, MCI, Mennen, Michelob, NBC, Nestlé, Newsweek, Paramount Pictures, Parker Brothers, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, Purina, Reader's Digest, Spalding, Sports Illustrated, Topps, Toyota, U.S. Postal Service, USA Networks, The Varsity drive-in in Atlanta, Georgia, Warner Books and Warner Bros.
Davis' artwork for the comedy Western Viva Max! (1969) formed the centerpiece of that film's promotional campaign. He did the same for the film Kelly's Heroes in 1970. For Raid insecticide Davis created the animated bug that screamed "Raid?!" He also created the cartoon bee which (in decal form) appears on the flanks of all the buses in the Bee Line running from Westchester to New York City. A Westchester resident at the time, Davis lived directly adjacent to one of the Bee Line's bus routes, and he mentioned in an interview how gratifying it was to see his own artwork drive past his window several times every day.
Like fellow MAD alumnus Paul Coker, Jr., Davis also contributed to Rankin-Bass productions; his character design is featured in Mad Monster Party, The Coneheads and the cartoon series The Jackson 5ive.
Because Davis could do cartoon illustrations in a matter of minutes, he was sometimes called upon to save ad campaigns which had gone awry. This combination of speed and top clients at one time made Davis the highest paid illustrator in the world. Davis said many of his assignments came from art directors who had grown up reading Mad.
In a curious bit of synchronicity, when Mad moved to 1700 Broadway, the magazine's fifth-floor production department was next to a wall that had previously been the location, only three feet away, of an immense Davis cartoon for a bank, an advertisement that towered six stories over 53rd Street.
[edit] Awards and exhibitions
A finalist for inclusion in the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1990, 1991 and 1992, he received the National Cartoonist Society Advertising Award for 1980 and their Reuben Award for 2000. In June 2002, Davis had a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Society of Illustrators in New York. He was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 2005.
In 1989, Davis was commissioned by the United States Postal Service to design the 25-cent Letter Carriers stamp. There was some concern that the cartoon would offend some letter carriers as being too informal and not respectful of their position. However, the President of the Letter Carriers Union gave his blessing, and the stamp was well received. Although postal policy does not allow artists to portray living persons on stamps, one of the carriers in the stamp is an unmistakable self-portrait of Davis.
[edit] Reference
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- American Art Archives: Jack Davis
- ispot: Jack Davis
- Jim Woodring talks with Jack Davis
- MAD Magazine
- Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
- National Cartoon Museum
- NCS Awards
- Planet Cartoonist: Jack Davis by Bob Staake
- Spotlight on Jack Davis
- Toonopedia: Jack Davis
- Society Illustators: Jack Davis
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