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Jack Davis tribute thread!

Started by Hepcat,

58 posts in this topic

Hepcat

Hepcat

Posted
Posted

The incomparable Jack Davis is too seldomnly mentioned on this board. I've therefore decided to start this thread to help Jack get the full credit he deserves.

 

I'll begin by posting scans from my collection of two books with Jack Davis cover art:

 

Panic12.jpg

 

YakYak.jpg

 

:headbang:

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Doohickamabob

Doohickamabob

Posted
Posted
The incomparable Jack Davis is too seldomnly mentioned on this board. I've therefore decided to start this thread to help Jack get the full credit he deserves.

The reason people don't often mention Jack Davis is that he was so excellent that he made it look effortless, and people ended up taking him for granted. But I think he's one of the most stylish and consistently top-notch comic artists to come out of the Atomic Age.

 

I don't remember much about his work prior to EC -- I'll have to re-read his chapter in Grant Geissman's "Foul Play!" book (a fantastic book everybody should read). I sure loved his stuff in Mad Magazine for about three decades, as well as the poster art he did for many movies. Somewhere around here I've got the pressbook for the movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," for which he did the cover.

 

Here are two of his standout Tales From the Crypt covers, with nice GGA as well. TFTC was to Jack Davis as Haunt of Fear was to Graham Ingels and Vault of Horror was to Johnny Craig. When I decided to collect EC comics, I opted not to try for a full run, but just my favorites -- and these were on the top of the list:

 

jackdavis-1.jpg

 

Jack Davis also did excellent work for the war title Two-Fisted Tales. These are two of his best, especially the large-face cover, which is a classic and shows what utterly first-rate skill Davis has with textured lines and shading. The Confederate flag cover is of note because Davis was a Southerner, and it would have been a sin to have assigned this cover to any other EC artist but him:

 

jackdavis-2.jpg

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Hepcat

Hepcat

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Jack is well known for the work he did for EC but he was a freelancer who submitted for for several companies. here's the splash page from a story he did in the Atlas title Frontier Western 5:

 

01_davis_fronwest_05.jpg

 

His work on Crypt of Terror though acted to define him as the prototypical monster artist. Here's a piece he did for the front sleeve of RCA Victor's 1959 Monster Rally LP:

 

P4110020.JPG

 

:juggle:

 

 

 

 

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BangZoom

BangZoom

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Great thread, Hepcat. :applause:

 

I'm a big Jack Davis fan, too.

 

I own the original art to one of his Marvel stories. I posted this photo, which shows the splash page, on an earlier occasion but it's worth showing again.

 

Davis' pencil lines are still visible and it was shocking to me when I first got the pages to discover that he basically just drew stick figures to lay out the action, then went ahead and directly inked the panels, apparently without benefit of of any detailed pencil lines to guide him.

 

 

OriginalArtGA.jpg

 

 

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Hepcat

Hepcat

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I own the original art to one of his Marvel stories. I posted this photo, which shows the splash page, on an earlier occasion but it's worth showing again.

 

You're right! It most certainly is worth showing again!

 

Here is a pic of my binder of Jack Davis cards being held up by The MAN:

 

AYoullDieLaughing.jpg

 

And here is a scan of nine of the cards from the You'll Die Laughing set featuring Jack Davis drawings that Topps issued in 1959:

 

YoullDieLaughingcards.jpg

 

Here's a scan of the wrapper:

 

YoullDieLaughing.jpg

 

Finally here's a pic of the box (sadly not mine though):

 

Youll.jpg

 

:cool:

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Larryw7

Larryw7

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I have a 2.0 copy of 46. It was one of the first EC's I read as a kid(when it was reprinted by East Coast Comix as Crypt of Terror 1). It's a great book!

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