Jack Kaman RIP

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

This is the guy who did most of the images used in Creepshow, he was an EC Comics great.

Brief comments from www.newsfromme.com

Jack Kamen, best known for his work at EC Comics, died yesterday at the age of 88. The cause of death is being reported as cancer.

A native of Brooklyn, Kamen was born May 29, 1920 and at one point in his life was heading for a career in illustration and sculpture. In 1941, he began getting work as an illustrator for pulp magazines...an endeavor that was interrupted by a draft notice. Upon his discharge, he found the pulp market in decline and so began picking up work for comic books, primarily for Fiction House where his clean style fit in well with the preferred look of their line. He was especially good at drawing pretty women, a skill that often typed one as an artist for romance comics.

That's what he was doing when he began his career with EC Comics and then, as they replaced their romance comics with horror, crime and science-fiction books, he stuck around to work on them. Some readers called him their "unfavorite" and wondered what a guy who produced such clean, shiny drawings was doing in horror comics. But publisher William Gaines and editor Al Feldstein believed Kamen was a valuable asset; that his sexy girl drawings added to the commercial appeal of their books. Scripts were written for him with that in mind.

When EC folded their main line, Kamen drew several issues of a new book for them called Psychoanalysis, which mainly consisted of people in therapy lying on a couch and describing their problems. It didn't sell and when EC folded its comic line, Kamen segued to advertising art, occasionally bring a "comic book" look to assignments. In 1982, he supplied the EC-like key art for the Stephen King motion picture, Creepshow.

Also noted on IMDB.com

The prop 10-cent "CREEPSHOW" comic book featured in the film was drawn and inked by veteran artist 'Jack Kamen', one of the artists for the original E.C. crime and horror comics of the 1950's. Creepshow was a tribute to these comic books. Jack Kamen also created the comic book-style poster for the film, which was also featured on the front of the Plume "Creepshow" comic book adaptation (which Bernie Wrightson, another prolific horror comic artist, drew and inked the interiors for). Originally, ('Stephen King (I)' wanted Graham Ingels, another EC artist (famous for his work on the title "The Haunt of Fear") to do the artwork for the film's poster, but he refused. It was head of EC comics 'William M. Gaines' who then suggested Jack Kamen do the assignment. Kamen accepted.

[lashbear]

WOW ! I have creepshow on DVD (it was one of my early influences.. ) and it's wonderful (although bittersweet finding out too late) knowing who created the artwork. I wonder where that Creepshow comic book prop is now ?

...I bet Stephen King has it..

[cirquelover]

That's sad news. I love Creepshow too, he did good work!

[lizziebith]

Bah...have to let Bernie know about this. We still have a lot of those Creepshow pages. Obviously not the Kamen cover though -- I'm pretty sure King has it.

[Chernabog]

I think I still have a comic book of Creepshow somewheres....

[ijwilson]

I haven't heard of the connection to Mad Magazine, however I know that Creepshow's producer Richard P. Rubinstein grew up next door to Jack Kamen, and his parents were good friends with him. It was a reason why Kamen was commissioned to do the poster art for Creepshow.

I'm actually working on an audio doco about the soundtrack to Creepshow, and hopefully it will wind up on radio over the next six months. Although it won't go into a lot of detail about Jack Kamen, it still covers the EC horror comic connection.

My website is mostly only doco production info, you can still sign up for a newsletter, which will let you know where and when it will be broadcast.

www.fotwaudio.com