Wednesday, February 15, 2012

John Severin, 1921 - 2012


Veteran comic book artist John Severin died on February 12 at the age of 90. Severin worked for just about every comic publisher and drew comics in just about any genre. His gritty and realistic style made him especially suited to war and western comics such as EC's legendary Frontline Combat and western titles like Marvel's Kid Colt Outlaw. He was one of the original artists for Mad and enjoyed a long career working for Cracked magazine.

John Severin was an extremely skilled and consistent artist, and has left with a wonderful legacy of beautifully rendered artwork.

Below is a moodily colored (probably by his sister Marie) collaboration with Will Elder from Frontline Combat #8 (September 1952.

Below that is some more samples of Severin's work.



















Annie Oakley #11, June 1956.




Tomb of Dracula #2, May 1972.






Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos Annual #6, August 1970.





Cracked #111, September 1973.




Unknown, scanned from Dark Age artzine, 1982.




Lord of the Rings illustration, scanned from Trumpet #12, 1981.


Witchcraft


"Creepy's Loathsome Lore: Witchcraft," Creepy #10, August 1966.


2 comments:

Weird WWII said...

I remember his Cracked "Empire Strikes Back" parody and his Sgt. Fury stuff mostly. A truly talented illustrator.

Another legend leaves us,
Brian

John said...

This is truly sad news. Mr. Severin was one of my most favorite humorous monster cartoonists. And his work with MAD and EC was superb. An artistic treasure to always remember.