On this day, April 23, 1926, illustrator and artist Joseph Pennell died in New York City. Pennell first studied art in Philadelphia and then went to Europe to complete his education. A friend of James McNeill Whistler, Pennell also made his home in London. With war looming in the teens, Pennell returned to the U.S. and
On this day, April 22, 1968, Ernest Nordli died in San Francisco, California. Nordli worked for Disney as a production artist, also for Warner Brothers, and then he returned to Disney. He worked on Dumbo, Fantasia and later on Sleeping Beauty, and on One Hundred and One Dalmatians including the background drawing style on this movie.
On this day, April 21, 1959, cartoonist Tim Jacobus was born in New Jersey. He began drawing in high school and has since become known for creating the covers to all the issues (67) of R. L. Stone's series Goosebumps until the series' cancellation.
On this day, April 20, 1968, comic strip artist Rudolph Dirks died in New York City. In 1897 Dirks created The Katzenjammer Kids for the New York Journal. In 1914 Dirks moved to work for Pulitzer's New York World where he produced Hans and Fritz and then The Captain and the Kids.
On this day, April 19, 1873, Charles M. Lefferts was born in New York City. After serving in the New York National Guard and then the federal army, Lefferts retired in 1921. The rest of his life Lefferts spent studying the uniforms of the American Revolution And making illustrations of those uniforms.
On this day, April 18, 1883, the illustrator Clara Elsene Peck was born in Allegan, Michigan. Peck studied at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and later at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. By 1906 she was earning her living as an illustrator. After Harvey Dunn began his school and colony of illustrators in
On this day, April 17, 1914, cartoonist Emmanuel "Mac" Raboy was born in New York City. Raboy worked on Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel Jr. and as the Sunday strip artist of Flash Gordon for over 20 years.
On this day, April 16, 1959, illustrator Robert Casilla was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. Casilla studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He has illustrated a variety of biographies and various children’s books.
On this day, April 15, 2000, writer and illustrator Edward Gorey died in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Gorey studied French at Harvard University and for a semester at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His early work was illustrating book covers and sometimes interior illustrations. By 1953 he was writing and illustrating his own published work.
On this day, April 14, 1920, illustrator and writer of science fiction, Morris Scott Dollens was born in Indiana. His creations include cover illustrations for sci fi books and magazines. Dollens began producing magazine illustrations in the 1950s.