Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture: a Career Retrospective

Jack Burton Davis Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on December 2, 1924. After high school, he joined the Navy, serving in Guam, where he drew a comic called Boondocker for The Navy Times. After leaving the Navy, he enrolled at the University of Georgia, where he drew for the student newspaper. Before long, his teachers were encouraging him to go to New York to pursue his art career. He moved and enrolled in classes at the Art Students League.

In 1950, he started selling drawings to EC Comics. Two years later, the company started what became Mad magazine and Davis became one of the illustrators who poked fun at celebrities and politicians for decades. His work appeared on the covers of Time and TV Guide. He also drew movie posters, album covers, and other promotional materials. In 1996, the National Cartoonists Society honored him with a lifetime achievement award and in 2005, he was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. He died from complications of a stroke on July 27, 2016 at the age of 91.

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