Mel Odom (artist)

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For the author of the same name, see Mel Odom (author).

Mel Odom (born 1950) is an American artist who has created book covers for numerous novels, notably several books by fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay such as The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy, Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, and The Lions of Al-Rassan. Odom is also the designer of the Gene Marshall collectible fashion doll.

Odom was born in Richmond Virginia and grew up in Ahoskie, North Carolina, where his parents nurtured his interests in drawing and in dolls. He majored in fashion illustration at Virginia Commonwealth University and pursued some graduate studies in England before moving to New York City in 1975.

His distinctively elegant Art Deco-like style quickly established him as a successful commercial artist, at first via erotic illustrations for sexually-oriented magazines such as Blueboy, Viva, and Playboy, the last of which named him their "Illustrator of the Year" in 1980. In the same year, he provided the cover art for Edmund White's novel Nocturnes for the King of Naples, which opened his path to a wider audience.

During the 1980s, his work achieved success in many commercial media. He created album covers for CBS Records and book covers for numerous other novels, usually in the genres of fantasy, mystery, or horror. He provided illustrations for the science/science-fiction magazine OMNI and (in 1989) a front cover for Time magazine. He also received professional recognition from his peers, receiving the Society of Illustrators's Gold Medal (Editorial category) in 1982 and a Silver Medal (Book category) in 1987.

In 1990, he designed a cosmetic facepaint for Mdvanii, a 25cm limited-edition collector's fashion doll^[1]. Although his design was ultimately not used for Mdvanii's actual production, the experience renewed his childhood interest in dolls and led him to create a doll of his own, the 15.5" Gene Marshall.

Gene Marshall's appearance, wardrobes, and elaborate backstory are modelled on the glamour of Hollywood's golden age from the 1920s through 1950s. The doll made its commercial debut at the 1995 Toy Fair and was an immediate success, creating a wider market for large, fully-articulated collector's fashion dolls in contrast to the slightly smaller and less flexible Barbie doll. ^[2] Since then, Odom has largely concentrated his professional pursuits on the Gene Marshall doll, regularly modifying her design to create new variations and creating similar companion dolls to share her world, such as Gene's "co-stars" Madra Lord, Violet Waters, and Trent Osborn.

Odom continues to attend doll collectors' conventions to make personal appearances and buy dolls for his own collection, as well as to support charitable causes. Of his early friends in the art world, he estimates that two-thirds of them died of AIDS in the 1980s before the awareness and treatment of the disease became better known. At a 1997 doll convention entirely devoted to Gene Marshall, a charity auction of uniquely modified Gene dolls raised more than $30,000 for Gay Men's Health Crisis, an AIDS service organization.