Ric Grasso: An Artist for Everywoman

Everywoman magazine, a slim second-tier woman's magazine of the 1950s, employed an interesting assortment of illustrators whose work rarely (if ever) appeared in other publications. We've looked at one previously; H.B. Vestal, another was the subject of my last post; Gustav Rehberger (although Rehberger did regularly work for both Coronet and Esquire as well as Everywoman). Still another was an artist named Ric Grasso.Grasso was a proficient painter...

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Gustav Rehberger: "He speaks softly but he paints with a big stick"

A few years ago I wrote extensively about Gustav Rehberger's career. Since that time I've kept in touch with Pamela Demme, Rehberger's widow, who last week sent me some interesting new (to me) examples of her late husband's work.Before we look at those pieces however, here are a few Rehberger illustrations I still hadn't scanned from some mid-'50s issues of Everywoman magazine I own.Fortuitously, one of those issues included a capsule biography...

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Where Did You Go, Michael Mitchell?

Back in the late 1990s I stumbled upon a stack of old Maclean's magazines at a used bookstore in Toronto. They were a bargain at a dollar a piece, so I snapped them up. I was intrigued by the artwork in them... big double page spreads by illustrators I'd never heard of, including this one by Michael Mitchell.What an interesting, energetic style - I could hardly believe someone had been creating work like this in 1952.Since Maclean's is a Canadian...

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Where Did You Go, John Allen?

An illustrator/cartoonist named John Allen is responsible for three double page story spreads in the short run of Parents magazines from 1961 that I recently acquired.I have never seen anything by Allen before in any other magazines from the '50s or '60s. How is that possible? He was terrific!Maybe Parents magazine was John Allen's "big break." But why then haven't I come across his work elsewhere? It's a mystery...And unfortunately, with a fairly...

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Bob Jones: "This is my Dad" ... "This is my Dad too!"

Way back when I began Today's Inspiration in 2005, the first artist I featured was Bob Jones. I'm a very big fan of Bob's artwork. Back when I was preparing to write about his career, I was a thrilled (and bit star-struck) to be speaking on the phone with the creator of the Esso Tiger, one of Mad magazine's cover artists and a member of the famous Charles E. Cooper studio. Bob is a real gentleman and gave me all the time in the world. He also...

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Howard Terpning, Movie Poster Illustrator

During his long commercial art career Howard Terpning illustrated over eighty movie posters, creating artwork for some of the most famous movies ever filmed.Even when the film is perhaps somewhat less well know, Terpning's magnificent, dramatic posters inspire excitement and awe.Despite being so prolific in this illustration niche, Terpning never received any of the original art back. The originals were owned by the studios that commissioned them...

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