George Evans (cartoonist)

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George Evans
Harwood, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedJune 22, 2001(2001-06-22) (aged 81)
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)Penciller
George Evans art print, Death of an Ace (1977)

George R. Evans

comic strips
. His lifelong fascination with airplanes and the pioneers of early aviation was a constant theme in his art and stories.

Early life

Born in

pulp magazines. Early in World War II, Evans was an aircraft mechanic at Shaw Field in South Carolina, where he sometimes flew in the planes he had worked on. He studied at the Scranton Art School and then entered the Army
.

Career

Comic books

In the post-World War II years, Evans began working for comic books, including an in-house staff position at

Captain Video television adaptation, plus horror stories for Strange Suspense Stories, This Magazine Is Haunted, and Worlds of Fear. He contributed to the company's westerns and romance
titles as well. Until the end of his life, Evans believed his work for Fawcett was better than any other in his career. He liked the people there and assembled a team of inkers and assistants after becoming one of Fawcett's top illustrators in 1950.

His work for

Crime Suspenstories #23 was held up at the Senate Hearings On Juvenile Delinquency in 1954, among many other comic book covers from a variety of publishers. He stayed with EC through their new direction and Picto-Fiction experiments, contributing to M.D., Impact, Piracy, Terror Illustrated, Crime Illustrated and Shock Illustrated, among others. After EC, he contributed to Gilberton's Classics Illustrated, Dell and Gold Key. His books for Classics Illustrated included Romeo and Juliet (No. 134, September 1956); Lord Jim (No. 136, January 1957); The Little Savage (No. 137, March 1957); In the Reign of Terror (No. 139, July 1957); The Crisis (No. 145, July 1958); The Buccaneer (No. 148, January 1959); The Three Musketeers (No. 1, revised, May 1959); The Hunchback of Notre Dame (No. 18, revised, with Reed Crandall, Fall 1960); Oliver Twist (No. 23, revised, with Reed Crandall, Fall 1961); Julius Caesar (No. 68, revised, with Reed Crandall, 1962); and In Freedom's Cause (No. 168, with Reed Crandall, 1962; published UK 1963; published US 1969).[3]

Comic strips

For

Secret Agent Corrigan
on to Evans in 1980, and the strip ended with his 1996 retirement. For several years before that, the strip, as with all story strips, was becoming less popular. As the strip's circulation dwindled, the syndicate was about to cancel it in 1991. Originally, Evans had been glad, and had taken on other work. Then Evans was lured back, because it turned out that the strip's popularity in European markets justified keeping it going for five more years.

Aviation art

George Evans in 1953 at work on "Frank Luke!" for Frontline Combat #13 (July–August 1953).

Evans' first love was World War I aviation, and he did many paintings of World War I dogfights, including a calendar for The Cross and Cockade Society. He also did book jacket art. For David Manning White's Marlborough House, Evans created the cover illustration for The Black Swallow of Death: The Incredible Story of Eugene Jacques Bullard, The World's First Black Combat Aviator by P.J. Carisella, James W. Ryan and Edward W. Brooke (1972). This illustration is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force near Dayton, Ohio.

Books and later career

He illustrated a children's book, The Story of Flight, for

Judge Roy Bean in The Big Book of the Weird, Wild West. Along with many other former EC artists and similar talents. he contributed many illustrations to at least nine of the 18 volumes of Art Linkletter's Picture Encyclopedia for Boys and Girls.[citation needed] He was commissioned to do storyboards for the film Jaws 3-D.[citation needed
]

George was also very active in the activities of the US Branch of the Western Front Association (WFA). This group focuses study and research on the 1914-1918 Western Front. Meetings are in the Baltimore - Philadelphia region. He religiously attended meetings, made presentations, and offered his expertise on all things aviation and art related. He once told WFA member Eric Miller that after he died he wanted his ashes brought to the WFA seminars. His passion burned brightly even as his mortal strength declined.

Death

Evans, who in 1982 was living in Levittown, New York, on Long Island,[4] had moved to Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, before he died at age 81.[2] His final work was the Flash Gordon Sunday page of 21 January 2001.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ George R. Evans at the Social Security Death Index. Retrieved August 19, 2012
  2. ^
    Lambiek Comiclopedia
  3. ^ Jones, William B., Jr. Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History, Second Edition (McFarland, 2011), pp. 183-191; 317, 320, 321, 326, 331-332; 334.
  4. ^ Evans, George (April 1982). "Pontifical Unalterability". (Letter-to-the-editor) The Comics Journal #71. p. 29. Archived from the original on August 19, 2012. Retrieved August 12, 2012. Additional WebCitation archive, August 19, 2012.

Further reading

External links
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