On this day, October 20, 1906, the illustrator Crockett Johnson (David Johnson Leisk) was born in New York City. After studying at Cooper Union and at New YorkUniversity, Johnson worked in Macy’s advertising department and for a variety of magazines. Johnson illustrated some of his wife’s children’s books, wrote and illustrated his own children’s books
On this day, October 19, 1853, illustrator and author Edmund H. Garrett was born in Albany, New York. He traveled to Europe with Childe Hassan and studied in Paris at the Académie Julian. Later in Boston Garrett became a prolific illustrator and was renowned for his Arthurian illustrations.
On this day, October 18, 1973, cartoonist Walt Kelly died in Woodland Hills, California. A crime reporter for the Bridgeport Post, Kelly took up cartooning and illustration a biography of P. T. Barnum. Soon after he went to work for Walt Disney Productions from 1936 to 1941 as a story board artist. Kelly went to work
On this date, October 17, 1877, illustrator Fanny Young Cory was born in Waukegan, Illinois. After studies at an art school in Helena, Montana and at the Art Students League in New York, Cory began creating illustrations for many of the turn-of-the century’s important magazines. But perhaps she is best known for her comic strip, Little
On this day, October 16, 1903, pulp illustrator Sam Cherry was born in The Bronx. Cherry studied at the Art Students League in New York and in the 1930s began working doing graphic designs and signs. His first pulp magazine images were published in 1939. After WWII Cherry’s work included story board illustrations, educational film projects,
On this day, October 15, 1987, illustrator Mark (Marco Enrico) Marchioni died in San Bernardino, California. After studying at the Art Students League in New York and the Grand Central School of Art, Marchioni began to illustrate science fiction and pulp magazines. His fascination with machinery led him to invent (with his brother) a coin-sorting machine and
On this day, October 14, 1893, children’s book author and illustrator Lois Lenski was born in Springfield, Ohio. She studied at Ohio State University and at the Art Students League in New York. Early on Lenski worked only as an illustrator, but a publisher suggested she write stories to accompany her drawings. Lenski won a Newbery Medal
On this day, October 13, 1909, cartoonist Herblock (Herbert Lawrence Block) was born in Chicago, Illinois. After studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Block attended Lake ForestCollege and began to work for the Chicago Daily News. In 1933 he became the staff cartoonist for the Newspaper Enterprise Association in Cleveland and won
On this day, October 12, 1988, illustrator Coby (M. Coburn) Whitmore, Jr, died in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Whitmore studied at the Dayton Art Institute and apprenticed in the studio of Haddon Sundblom while he took classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.He was one of the great illustrators of beautiful women during
On this day, October 11, 1913, comic book artist and writer Joe H. Simon was born in Rochester, New York. Simon co-created Captain America with Jack Kirby during WWII. The two men also created a roman comic book, Young Romance, the first of its type.