Jack Kamen (; May 29, 1920 – August 5, 2008) was an American illustrator for books, magazines,

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

s and advertising, known for his work illustrating crime, horror, humour, suspense and

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

stories for

EC Comics Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950 ...

, for his work in advertising, and for the onscreen artwork he contributed to the 1982 horror anthology film '' Creepshow''.

Early life

Jack Kamen was born to a Jewish family in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

on May 29, 1920.

Career

Kamen's first professional job was as an assistant to a sculptor working for the

Texas Centennial The Texas Centennial Exposition was a world's fair presented from June 6 to November 29, 1936, at Fair Park, Dallas, Texas. A celebration of the 100th anniversary of Texas's independence from Mexico in 1836, it also celebrated Texas and Western Uni ...

. He studied sculpture with Agop Agopoff and was a student of

Harvey Dunn Harvey Thomas Dunn NA (March 8, 1884 – October 29, 1952) was an American painter and teacher. He is best known for his prairie-intimate masterpiece, ''The Prairie is My Garden'' (1950). In this painting, a mother and her two children ar ...

, George Brandt Bridgman and William C. McNulty. When Kamen attended classes at the

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

and the Grand Central Art School, he paid for his studies by painting theatrical scenery, decorating fashion mannequins and creating sculptures. Shortly after he began his illustration career with Western and detective pulp magazines, he was called into the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

in 1942. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he started drawing comic book stories for

Fiction House Fiction House was an American publisher of pulp magazines and comic books that existed from the 1920s to the 1950s. It was founded by John B. "Jack" Kelly and John W. Glenister.Saunders, David"JACK BYRNE (1902-1972),"Field Guide to Wild American P ...

and the

Eisner & Iger Eisner & Iger was a comic book "packager" that produced comics on demand for publishers entering the new medium during the late-1930s and 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Many of comic books' most significant c ...

studio.

EC Comics

Artist

Al Feldstein Albert Bernard Feldstein ( ; October 24, 1925 – April 29, 2014) was an American writer, editor, and artist, best known for his work at EC Comics and, from 1956 to 1985, as the editor of the satirical magazine '' Mad''. After retiring from ''Mad' ...

also did work for the Eisner & Iger studio, where Kamen and Feldstein became friends. Later, Feldstein brought Kamen into

, as Kamen recalled in an interview with Ken Smith: :He called me up, and I went in and met both of them. Al was there. Bill said, 'This boy wonder of mine is recommending you for this work.' I was delighted, because

Bill Gaines William Maxwell Gaines (; March 1, 1922 – June 3, 1992), was an American publisher and co-editor of EC Comics. Following a shift in EC's direction in 1950, Gaines presided over what became an artistically influential and historically import ...

was always Bill Gaines, and Al was my friend. So I got the work. I was glad to get it. And then, as the popularity increased, Bill one day said, "Look, I don't know what you're getting, but I'll meet anybody's price and I'll keep you busy all of the time. How would you like to be exclusive?" And I said I'd love it! After initially getting EC assignments to illustrate romance comics, he soon became one of the most prolific EC artists, drawing crime, horror, humour, suspense and science fiction stories. He was known for his drawings of attractive women. Describing Kamen's understated style, EC editor

said, "We gave Kamen those stories where the All-American girl and guy are married and then chop each other to pieces." In ''Tales from the Crypt'' #31, Kamen drew a semi-autobiographical self-satire, "Kamen's Kalamity", later adapted to HBO's ''Tales from the Crypt'' TV series as "Korman's Kalamity". The story depicted the transition from romance to horror by Kamen, who called it "my favourite story".CBG Xtra: EC Artist Jack Kamen
/ref> After EC's line of comics fell victim to industry censorship in 1954–55, it was Kamen who suggested to the publisher that the company could avoid the newly imposed

Comics Code Authority The Comics Code Authority (CCA) was formed in 1954 by the Comics Magazine Association of America as an alternative to government regulation. The CCA allowed the comic publishers to self-regulate the content of comic books in the United States. ...

strictures with a pricier magazine format, which Kamen dubbed Picto-Fiction. However, EC's woes followed the new line of Picto-Fiction titles, including those with stories by Kamen. The magazines were underdistributed and soon canceled.

Advertising art

After leaving EC, Kamen began drawing Sunday supplement illustrations and creating advertising art for a wide variety of clients: Esquire Shoe Polish,

Mack Trucks Mack Trucks, Inc., is an American truck manufacturing company and a former manufacturer of buses and trolley buses. Founded in 1900 as the Mack Brothers Company, it manufactured its first truck in 1905 and adopted its present name in 1922. Mack ...

Pan American Airlines Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

, Playtex,

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

Smith Corona Smith Corona is an American manufacturer of thermal labels, direct thermal labels, and thermal ribbons used in warehouses for primarily barcode labels. Once a large U.S. typewriter and mechanical calculator manufacturer, it expanded aggressively ...

and Sylvania. For artist Tom Palmer, Kamen described one of his unusual painting techniques: :Did you know I used Prismacolor pencils along with an acrylic paint wash to create my paintings? I would use a smooth illustration board and apply my basic color in a very watery wash of acrylic, and after it dried I would start rendering with Prismacolor pencil. Then I would take an electric eraser, with a particular eraser, that when you erased anything before you got down to removing color, you could mix the colour pencil very, very smooth, almost like an oil painting. For instance, I would mix a puddle of acrylic paint flesh color and put that down as a watercolor wash. As soon as it dried, I would add all the details in colored pencil. In areas that needed correction, I would paint opaque white acrylic and then go back and do colored pencils again. The electric eraser blended all the pencils into a smooth look. If you look at a painting of Santa Claus, the beard is opaque white acrylic, put down as a watercolor wash, then the shading and gray tones were added in color pencil, the electric eraser gave the fuzzy look to all that. He also drew all the comic book artwork for Stephen King and George A. Romero's 1982 horror anthology film '' Creepshow'', King and Romero's homage to the EC horror comics. Although the bulk of the artwork for the

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

adaptation of the film was done by acclaimed

macabre In works of art, the adjective macabre ( or ; ) means "having the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere". The macabre works to emphasize the details and symbols of death. The term also refers to works particularly gruesome in natu ...

artist

Berni Wrightson Bernard Albert Wrightson (October 27, 1948 – March 18, 2017), sometimes credited as Bernie Wrightson, was an American artist, known for co-creating the Swamp Thing, his adaptation of the novel ''Frankenstein'' illustration work, and for his ...

(along with his daughter who did some of the coloring), Kamen illustrated the cover.

Personal life

Jack Kamen married his wife, Evelyn, in 1946. They had four children. His eldest son, Barton, was a director of pediatric hematology/oncology at the

Cancer Institute of New Jersey The Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) is a cancer treatment and research institution that is a part of Rutgers University and located in New Brunswick, New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey. CINJ is one of only 51 Comprehensive Cancer ...

, a professor of pediatrics and pharmacology at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and the chief medical officer of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Bart died on September 27, 2012. Bart's daughter Libby is Jack and Evelyn's only grandchild. His son

Dean Kamen Dean Lawrence Kamen (born April 5, 1951) is an American engineer, inventor, and businessman. He is known for his invention of the Segway and iBOT, as well as founding the non-profit organization FIRST with Woodie Flowers. Kamen holds over 1, ...

is the inventor of the

Segway The Segway is a two-wheeled, self-balancing personal transporter invented by Dean Kamen and brought to market in 2001 as the Segway HT, subsequently as the Segway PT, and manufactured by Segway Inc. ''HT'' is an initialism for "human transp ...

and the iBOT Mobility System, and Jack Kamen drew the patent renderings of the Segway. He also designed the logo for Dean Kamen's

FIRST First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

program. Mitch and Terri are twins and the youngest of the four children. Mitch is a musician in New York and his only daughter Terri is the owner and general manager of an insurance agency in Palm Beach County, Florida. Kamen died at his home in Boca Raton on August 5, 2008, from complications of cancer.

References

External links

Jack Kamen's EC Cover Art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kamen, Jack 1920 births 2008 deaths Jewish American artists American comics artists American illustrators Deaths from cancer in Florida People from Brooklyn EC Comics 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews