On this day, April 23, 2009, fashion illustrator Kenneth Paul Block died. Trained at the Parsons School of Design, Block was an in-house artist for Fairchild Publications for nearly 40 years. Block’s distinctive drawing reflect his approach. As he said, “Gesture to me is everything in fashion.”
On this day, April 22, 1887, illustrator Kurt Wiese was born in Minden, Germany. Wiese began his illustration career in Brazil and in 1927 he moved to the U. S. His first success came with the illustration he created for Felix Salten’s Bambi in 1929. He subsequently won Caldecott Honors and Newbery Awards.
On this day, April 21, 1966, cartoonist and illustrator Tim Hamilton was born. Hamilton has drawn comics such as The Trouble with Girls and he has adapted and illustrated classics such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
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, 1918, illustrator William Arthur Smith was born in Toledo, Ohio. Smith studied art with Theodore Keane who had taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to creating many story illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post, Smith also did illustrations for many of the major magazines. He
On this day, April 18, 1884, illustrator Frank R. Paul was born in Vienna, Austria. Paul came to the U. S. to study architecture in New York. Unable to find a job, Paul worked first for newspapers and then for publisher Hugo Gernsback. Paul’s early contributions to the visual worlds of science fiction have caused him
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, 1912, illustrator Garth Williams was born in New York City. As a boy his English artist parents moved back to the United Kingdom where he was trained as an artist. After the war, Williams illustrated E. B. White’s book, Stuart Little. He went on to illustrate Charlotte’s Web, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s
On this day, April 15, 2000, the talented and influential writer and illustrator Edward Gorey died in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Gorey studied 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
On this day, April 14, 1890, Gerald Curtis Delano was born Marion, Massachusetts. After studies at the Art Students League in New York and at the Grand Central School of Art with Harvey Dunn and Dean Cornwell, Delano went west to experience life and settled there. His western subject illustrations were in demand by many of the