American cartoonist
Reed Leonard Crandall
(February 22, 1917 – September 13, 1982)
[1]
[2]
was an American
illustrator
and
penciller
of
comic books
and
magazines
. He was best known for the 1940s
Quality Comics
'
Blackhawk
and for stories in
EC Comics
during the 1950s. Crandall was inducted into the
Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame
in 2009.
Biography
[
edit
]
Early life and career
[
edit
]
Reed Crandall was born in
Winslow
,
Indiana
,
[3]
the son of Rayburn Crandall and wife.
[4]
Crandall graduated from
Newton High School
in
Newton
,
Kansas
, in 1935,
[5]
and then attended the
Cleveland School of Art
in
Cleveland
,
Ohio
,
[6]
on a scholarship.
[7]
He graduated in 1939.
[5]
His father died in the spring of Crandall's freshman year at art school, which Crandall left temporarily to return to Kansas.
[8]
His mother and sister moved to Cleveland during Crandall's junior year.
[8]
With his schoolmate Frank Borth, Crandall found work painting signs on storefront windows.
[8]
Crandall's art influences included the painters and commercial illustrators
N.C. Wyeth
,
Howard Pyle
and
James Montgomery Flagg
.
[6]
Another classmate, the son of the president of the Cleveland-based
Newspaper Enterprise Association
syndicate, recommended Crandall for a job at NEA as a general art assistant, where Crandall drew maps and other supporting material.
[9]
Following his desire to be a magazine illustrator, Crandall unsuccessfully made the rounds of glossy magazines in
New York City
and
Philadelphia
,
[9]
and at some point did a small amount of work for a
children's book
publisher.
[3]
Moving to New York with his mother and sister, Crandall found work in the fledgling medium of
comic books
, joining the
Eisner and Iger Studio
, an early
comic book packager
that supplied complete, outsourced comics for publishers.
[3]
Quality Comics
[
edit
]
Crandall drew for comic books from 1939 until 1973. His first work appears in comics from publisher
Quality Comics
, for which he drew stories starring such
superheroes
as the
Ray
(in
Smash Comics
, beginning in 1941 and initially under the playful
pseudonym
E. Lectron
)
[10]
and
Doll Man
(first in
Feature Comics
in 1941, then in the character's own solo title). His earliest confirmed cover art is for
Fiction House
's
Fight Comics
#12 (April 1941) at the Grand Comics Database.
[11]
Other early work includes
inking
the
pencil art
of future industry legend
Jack Kirby
on two of the earliest
Captain America
stories, "The Ageless Orientals That Wouldn't Die", in
Captain America Comics
#2 (April 1941),
[12]
and "The Queer Case of the Murdering Butterfly and the Ancient Mummies" in #3 (May 1941).
[13]
With
S.M. "Jerry" Iger
credited as writer, Crandall co-created the superhero the Firebrand in Quality's
Police Comics
#1 (Aug. 1941) and began his long run as artist of his signature series, the
World War II
aviator-team strip "
Blackhawk
", in
Military Comics
#12-22 (Oct. 1942 - Sept. 1943) and, after his WWII service in the
Army Air Force
,
[6]
in
Blackhawk
and in
Modern Comics
. During this time he also drew the adventures of
Captain Triumph
in Quality's
Crack Comics
. His final "Blackhawk" work was a seven-page story, plus the cover, for
Blackhawk
#67 (Aug. 1953).
EC Comics and afterward
[
edit
]
Crandall went on to become a mainstay of
EC Comics
, whose line of hit
horror
and
science fiction
titles would become as influential to future generations of comics creators as they were controversial in their own time due to their often graphic nature and mature themes. Joining a group that included artists
Johnny Craig
,
Jack Davis
,
Will Elder
,
Frank Frazetta
,
Graham Ingels
,
Jack Kamen
,
Bernard Krigstein
and
Wally Wood
, Crandall made his debut there with the six-page story "Bloody Sure", written by
Al Feldstein
, in
The Haunt of Fear
#20 (August 1953).
He drew dozens of stories across a variety of genres for the EC anthologies
Crime SuspenStories
,
Shock SuspenStories
,
Tales from the Crypt
,
Two-Fisted Tales
,
The Vault of Horror
,
Extra!
,
Impact
,
Piracy
, and
Weird Fantasy
and its sequel series,
Weird Science-Fantasy
.
Following the demise of EC in the wake of the
1954 U.S. Senate hearings on juvenile delinquency
and a wave of anti-comics sentiment,
[14]
Reed freelanced for
Atlas Comics
, the 1950s iteration of
Marvel Comics
, as well as for the
Gilberton Company
's
Classics Illustrated
. Crandall's work for
Classics Illustrated
consisted of joint projects with EC veteran
George Evans
on four titles: No. 18,
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
(Fall 1960); No. 23,
Oliver Twist
(Fall 1961); No. 68,
Julius Caesar
(1962); No. 168,
In Freedom's Cause
(completed 1962; published UK 1963; published US 1969).
[15]
In 1960, he went under contract
[
citation needed
]
with the publisher of
Treasure Chest
, a comic book distributed exclusively through
parochial schools
. Crandall illustrated many covers and countless stories for
Treasure Chest
through 1972. In 1964, he illustrated books by
Edgar Rice Burroughs
for
Canaveral Press
.
[
citation needed
]
The following year, he began contributing to
Warren Publishing
's black-and-white
war-comics
magazine
Blazing Combat
, and soon went on to contribute to the company's line of black-and-white horror publications, including
Creepy
and
Eerie
. In the mid-to-late 1960s, he illustrated
superhero
-
espionage
stories for
Tower Comics
,
[16]
and
space opera
science fiction
in
King Features Syndicate
's King Comics comic-book version of the syndicate's long-running hero
Flash Gordon
.
[17]
In June 1970, Crandall and
Buster Crabbe
were guests at the
Multicon
-70 convention in
Oklahoma City
.
[18]
Final years
[
edit
]
Crandall, who had left New York City in the 1960s in order to care for his ailing mother in
Wichita
,
Kansas
, had developed alcoholism.
[6]
[19]
Recovering by the time of his mother's death, he nonetheless suffered debilitated health and left art in 1974 to work as a night watchman and janitor for the
Pizza Hut
general headquarters in Wichita.
[6]
After suffering a stroke that year, he spent his remaining life in a nursing home and died in 1982 of a heart attack.
[6]
One of his last published stories, "This Graveyard Is Not Deserted", appeared in
Creepy
#54 (July 1973).
[6]
Creepy
#58 contained "Soul and Shadow", possibly his last published comic book work.
[20]
Family
[
edit
]
Crandall married artist Martha Hamilton, and they had two children.
[9]
Their daughter, artist Cathy Crandall, had three children. Their son, Navy veteran Reed L. "Spike" Crandall (Sept. 8, 1945-July 2, 2005), an artist who owned and operated Crandall's Creations (
Clarkesville, Georgia
), had a daughter, Samantha Pledger, and three grandchildren.
[21]
Awards and tributes
[
edit
]
Crandall was inducted into the
Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame
in 2009.
[22]
He is referenced in
Michael Chabon
's
Pulitzer Prize
-winning novel
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
. The fictional character Joe Kavalier refers to Crandall as the "top" comic-book artist of his era.
[23]
In 2023, Crandall was posthumously awarded the
Inkwell Awards
SASRA (Stacey Aragon Special Recognition Award).
[24]
[25]
[26]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Reed Crandall
at the
Social Security Death Index
, via GenealogyBank.com; and via
FamilySearch.org
, citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing. Retrieved on 22 February 2013. Neither gives specific day of death. First cite
archived
from the original on 22 February 2013; second cite
archived
from the original on 22 February 2013.
- ^
Reed Leonard Crandall gravestone
(photo) at FindAGrave.com.
Archived
from the original on May 1, 2012.
- ^
a
b
c
"Reed Crandall"
.
Lambiek Comiclopedia
. Retrieved
March 17,
2023
.
- ^
Root, Vincent C. (1933).
"Exceptional Newton, Kan., Art Student Wins High Honors in National Art Department Contest"
.
The Santa Fe Magazine
. 28?29. Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company.
Full article reprinted at
Jay, Alex (February 20, 2012).
"Creator: Reed Crandall"
.
- ^
a
b
Cooke, Jon, ed. (2005).
The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Companion
.
Raleigh
,
North Carolina
:
TwoMorrows Publishing
. p. 65.
ISBN
1-893905-43-8
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Stiles, Steve
(n.d.).
"A Look at EC Great Reed Crandall"
. SteveStiles.com.
Archived
from the original on May 13, 2005.
- ^
Root,
pp. 35, 58
.
- ^
a
b
c
Interview with art-school classmate and lifelong friend Frank Borth, in Cooke, p. 66
- ^
a
b
c
Borth, in Cooke, p. 67
- ^
Smash Comics
#24 (July 1941)
at the
Grand Comics Database
.
- ^
Fight Comics
#12 (April 1941)
at the Grand Comics Database.
- ^
Captain America Comics
#2 (April 1941)
at the Grand Comics Database.
- ^
Captain America Comics
#3 (May 1941)
at the Grand Comics Database.
- ^
Hajdu, David.
The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008)
ISBN
0-374-18767-3
,
ISBN
978-0-374-18767-5
- ^
Jones, William B., Jr.,
Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History, Second Edition
(McFarland, 2011), pp. 320, 321, 326, 334.
- ^
Bails, Jerry
; Ware, Hames.
"Crandall, Reed"
. Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999.
Archived
from the original on November 24, 2007
. Retrieved
February 27,
2011
.
- ^
Benton, Mike (1989).
The Comic Book in America
.
Dallas, Texas
: Taylor Publishing. pp. 68, 129.
ISBN
0-87833-659-1
.
- ^
"Convention Features Old Films".
Amarillo Globe-Times
. June 16, 1970.
- ^
Borth, in Cooke, p. 68
- ^
"Creepy #58 pg 02 title splash, in kelly b's Reed Crandall Comic Art Gallery Room"
.
- ^
The Times
, Gainesville, Georgia. July 4, 2005.
- ^
Comic-Con.org: 2009 Eisner Award winners
Archived
2011-07-25 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Chabon, Michael
(2000).
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
.
Random House
.
ISBN
0-679-45004-1
.
[
page needed
]
- ^
"Major Spoilers - Frazetta and Shores announced as Inkwell Awards’ 2023 Lifetime Achievement
- ^
"Pop Culture Podium - Frazetta & Shores Win Inkwell Lifetime Achievement Award"
- ^
"First Comics News - Inkwell Awards’ 2023 Lifetime Achievement Winners Announced"
External links
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