Jack Davis
(b. 2 December 1924, USA)
During his adolescence, Jack Burton Davis' first work was published in the juvenile periodical Tip Top Comics. When he was in the Navy from 1945 to 1947, he cooperated on the Navy News, for which he created the character Boondocker. After the second World War, he attended the University of Georgia and cooperated on the campus magazine Bullsheet.
In 1951, he joined EC Comics, after having finished his continued studies at the New York's Art Students League and having assisted artists like Ed Dodd and Mike Roy on respectively 'Mark Trail' and 'The Saint'.
Because Davis was quick and efficient, Feldstein and Kurtzman could always depend on him, making him the most versatile artist of the EC crew. Davis worked for all the EC horror comics, including Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt, Haunt of Fear, Crime SuspenStories, Shock SuspenStories, and Incredible Science-Fiction. When most of the EC titles folded in 1955 due to the Comics Code, Davis continued to work for the company's funny titles MAD and Panic.
Davis continued to do some comics work for Atlas Comics (1958-1963), as well as Playboy ('Little Annie Fanny' stories). But by this time, he mainly focused on illustrating bubble gum cards, movie posters and display advertising. He also worked as an illustrator for magazines like Cracked, Loco, Crazy and Panic.
He did covers and illustrations for TV Guide and Esquire and cooperated with Harvey Kurtzman on several works for Trump, Humbug and Help!. Davis continued to do some comics in the horror genre for the magazines of Warren Publishing in the 1970s. In 2000, the National Cartoonists' Society gave him the Rueben Award for Best Cartoonist of the Year.
(lambiek.net)
