Woodsy's 2017 piece, 'Knaresborough, Dean Koontz and Jack Davis', had me hunting the house for Jack Davis.
No, not Jack Davis himself. He doesn't live here.
I was actually looking for an old Coronation tin containing a set of You'll Die Laughing cards.
You'll Die Laughing features an ever popular menagerie of monsters, ghosts, ghouls and aliens.
The colourful cards are visually interesting and nostalgically appealing.
The set was illustrated with quirky caricaturesque creatures drawn from Jack Davis' visionary imagination, back in 1959.
The UK set of 48 cards from A&BC (1967), derives from the original US set of 66 cards (1959); by Topps under their pseudonym, Bubbles Inc.
Monsters have always appealed to the twisted imagination of kids. The more gruesome the ghoul, the better we liked it!
Jack's monster mad world was populated with alluring, out-of-proportion characters, who would personify his style of art.
Perhaps the satirical captions on these cards are dated. But they belong to a different era, when 'funny' often came in simple joke shop packages. The gags are anachronisms guaranteed to arch the cynical eyebrows of today's sophisticated gamers.
But back in 1959, the 'Funny Monsters' wrapper, humorous captions and simple jokes, not only made kids laugh; but served to market taboo monsters to kids, whilst subverting and subduing parental reaction.
Jack was a prestigious pop culture illustrator and cartoonist at the top of his game. I saw his art on the gallery of shelves in the news agents I'd wander into as a kid.
But perhaps my favourite Jack Davis piece wasn't a magazine cover or even a gum card!
Jack illustrated one of the cinema posters for the movie Kelly's Heroes.
Jack's poster illustration was also used on the cover of the films music LP.
It was a prized album I hunted down as a kid and still treasure today.
His poster art personifies the fabric of the film.
The enterprising ensemble are drawn with Jack's glorious hallmark for the disproportionate and the unbalanced.
Kelly, Oddball, Crapgame and Big Joe are cinematic mavericks and misfits...
illustrated and immortalised as only Jack could draw them!
John Burton "Jack" Davis, Jr. (December 2, 1924 – July 27, 2016)
Tony K
A brill article Tone about an ace artist. Jack Davis was one of those unique illustrators who had an instantly recognisable style. I learnt something new too, the Kelly's Heroes connection, one of my dad's fave films along with the Dirty Dozen! I shall have to dig out my own Jack D You'll Die Laughing cards from the attic. I always prefered his colour cartoons to the black and white monster photos with the same You'll Die Laughing brand. It also reminds me how much I liked reading MAD magazine in the Sixties and early Seventies. I so miss folding the back cover to create the hilarious sketches that would appear!
ReplyDeleteHiya Woodsy. Jack Davis certainly gave us a lot of cool art during his lifetime. I'm really pleased the piece reminded you of reading MAD. It maintained a high profile presence on the magazine shelves during that time. A pleasure to share this brief snapshot of Jack Davis with the blog :)
ReplyDeletethe cards, both colour and black and white, always reminded me of a great monster mag I got from Preston Market in the early Seventies. It was called CRACKED. I had a few issues I think. there was also MONSTER HOWLS as well, very similar. Not sure if JD illustrated them but they were in the same "vein"! I may have copies in the attic but its so cold up there that a family of polar bears have moved in!
DeleteI can't recall ever seeing either CRACKED or MONSTER HOWLS magazines, Woodsy? They sound very interesting though. Thanks for the heads up, I'll see if I can find them on google. :)
DeleteAnother great article Tony, and once again I've discovered someone who I never knew about this being Jack Davis - I LOVE his illustrations, infact his drawings look like tarot cards - to a degree - especially the one with the ghosts - I think they probably have multiple uses :)
ReplyDeleteI guess that's you Doc, ha ha. Glad you enjoyed it. Tarot cards... that's an interesting perspective of Jack Davis' card illustrations! Eye of the beholder perhaps. Great to hear from you, as always :)
ReplyDeleteAn awesome article Tony. I have seen some of these cards in the wild but never been lucky enough to own one. They are brilliant illustrations with so much imagination to them. It is also especially interesting to learn of the connection to Kelly’s heroes as I had never seen this before.
ReplyDeleteGreat work!
Rich
Hi Rich. It's a testimony to Jack's versatility that his art could effortlessly leap from one genre to another. Thank you for our comment :)
ReplyDelete