Category Archives: Art
Remembering Jack Davis (1924-2016)
If you grew up reading MAD magazine, you certainly know the name of Jack Davis. His unique style made him one of MAD’s most popular cartoonists, and his exaggerated, “big footed” characters weren’t just confined to the humor mag. Davis, who served in the Navy during WWII, did work for Navy News while in the service. After the war, he relocated to New York, and soon began illustrating for William Gaines’ EC Comics on their horror, crime, and war books. Davis became one of the original MAD artists, and from there drew everything from movie posters to album covers to TV Guide covers. Jack Davis passed away today at age 91, leaving behind a legacy of artwork for all to enjoy. Here are twelve examples of the distinctive art of Jack Davis:
Artwork of the Day: Death Deep Down
Artwork of the Day: The Secret of Zi
Artist Profile: The Brandon House Covers of Fred Fixler
Brandon House (not to be confused with Random House) published pulp paperbacks from 1937 to 2007, with its most popular work coming out in the late 1960s. Though he is best remembered for the advertising work that he did for companies like Coca-Cola and Continental Airlines, illustrator Fred Fixler was also responsible for some of the best remembered paperback covers to come out of Brandon House. Though Fixler (who died in 2010) declined most offers to be interviewed about his time at Brandon House, it seems that most of his covers were done between 1964 and 1966.
A small sampling can be found below and if you want to learn more about Fred Fixler and his non-pulp work, check out this page that was created by some of his former students.
If some of the covers below seem racy, you should see the ones that I didn’t share!

































