Jack Davis, a cartoonist at MAD Magazine, has died at age 91,
the magazine confirmed Wednesday.
Davis, whose work appeared in the first issue, was one of the founding members of the magazine's "Usual Gang of Idiots."
Davis' work also appeared in TV Guide, Time magazine and on movie posters,
The Hollywood Reporter noted.
"There wasn’t anything Jack couldn’t do," MAD editor John Ficarra said in Wednesday's article. "Front covers, caricatures, sports scenes, monsters — his comedic range was just incredible. His ability to put energy and motion into his drawings, his use of cross-hatching and brush work, and his bold use of color made him truly one of the greats."
Davis had an early start in comics, winning a cartoon contest in “Tip Top Comics” in 1936 at the age of 12,
the New York Daily News reported.
Before turning to illustration, Davis had a career in the U.S. Navy. His early work includes a training manual for Coca-Cola and a comic strip called "Beauregard." He worked for EC Comics in the early 1950s.
Davis's son-in-law, Chris Lloyd,
told CBS News that the illustrator died Wednesday morning in St. Simons, Georgia, of natural causes.
Early in his career, before landing a job with EC Comics, Davis considered giving up and becoming a forest ranger or a farmer.
"Jack Davis was a seminal figure in illustration of the last century," Chris Garvin, director of the UGA Lamar Dodd School of Art, told CBS News. "His work was both timely and timeless. It perfectly expressed the era in which he worked."
Davis is survived by his wife Dena, a daughter and a son.
Many Twitter users shared remembrances.
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