Thursday, August 07, 2008

Jack Kamen 1920-2008

Brooklyn-born Jack Kamen, best known for his work at EC Comics in the 1950s, passed away on August 5th. Cancer was the cause of death.

Coming more out of a tradition of accomplished commercial art, Kamen was one of the best of the stable of talented EC artists.

Here's Tom Spurgeon:


"Scripts that flattered Kamen's ability to draw female characters were created and sent his way; they frequently featured women in domestic battles or going off the deep end."

Links:

Tom Spurgeon on the life of Jack Kamen

Mark Evanier remembers

I had no idea that Mr. Kamen had been living in New Hampshire, the same state I moved to, since 1982. Mr. Kamen's son Dean is also well known as the creator of the Segway.

3 comments:

Trade Loeffler said...

This is sad news. I went through an EC phase in the '80s when Gladstone was publishing reprints of all the EC material and Jack Kamen was one of my favorites. It seems like he drew a story in practically every issue EC put out and his work was always tops.

Thanks for posting this, Mike.

The Cartoonist said...

Oh, no. Kamen was fantastic! 2008 seems to be a tough year for actors and artists.

Mike Lynch said...

Trade, I collected those same issues! Kamen always reminded me of one of the more illustrative comic strip artists of the time, like Stan Drake. He just had that polished illustration style.

Ralf, I agree. It seems like every year we say goodbye to so many greats. Heartbreaking.