Richard Bassford (born 1936) is an American

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

who has worked in both

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

and

comic books A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

. Born in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, Bassford lived from age three in the

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

neighborhoods of Maspeth, Corona and Whitestone until his marriage in 1961, when he moved to Flushing. In 1975, Bassford settled in

Cold Spring, New York Cold Spring is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in the town of Philipstown, New York, Philipstown in Putnam County, New York, United States. The population was 1,986 at the 2020 census. It borders the smaller village of Ne ...

Comic books

As a teenager, he took particular note of comic books drawn by

Wally Wood Wallace Allan Wood (June 17, 1927 – November 2, 1981) was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, widely known for his work on EC Comics's titles such as ''Weird Science (comic), Weird Science'', ''Weird Fantasy'', an ...

, who became a major influence. In Manhattan, Bassford studied at the School of Industrial Art (which later became the High School of Art and Design), and he entered the

commercial art Commercial art is the art of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. Commercial art uses a variety of platforms (magazines, websites, apps, television, etc.) for viewers with the intent of promo ...

field in the early 1950s with

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

gag cartoons and packaging art for

toy A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and p ...

boxes. His pen-and-ink illustrations were published in the magazine ''Amateur Art & Camera'' in 1954. Bassford's first work in comics came in 1957 with "What Happened on the Mountain!" for Atlas Comics' ''World of Mystery'', reprinted in Atlas' ''World of Fantasy'' #13 (August 1958). At the Wally Wood Studio, Bassford was an artist on Tower Comics' '' T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'' almost from the start. Beginning with the second issue, he assisted Wood on the penciling of "Dynamo Battles Dynavac" (reprinted in Tower's ''The Terrific Trio'' paperback). Bassford, Wood and Dan Adkins teamed on ''

The Munsters ''The Munsters'' is an American sitcom about the home life of a family of benign monsters that aired from 1964 to 1966 on CBS. The series stars Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster (Frankenstein's monster),Episodes referring to the fact that Herman is ...

'', a comic book adaptation of the 1964-66 CBS

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

. Bassford also worked with

Gil Kane Gil Kane (; born Eli Katz , ; April 6, 1926 – January 31, 2000) was a Latvian-born American comics artist whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s and virtually every major comics company and character. Kane co-created the modern-day vers ...

on ''Undersea Agent''. An interview with Bassford about Wally Wood in CFA-APA #40 noted the educational aspect of the Wood Studio: "His later black-and-white work using Craftint doubletone board was truly amazing. I learned to use the valuable tones available with Zip-A-Tone Benday shading sheets simply by studying Woody's application." After James Warren recruited Bassford for Warren Publishing in the early 1970s, beginning with an illustration in '' Vampirella'' #11 (May, 1971), he contributed to both ''Creepy'' and ''

Eerie Eerie may refer to: * Feeling of creepiness * Eerie (magazine), ''Eerie'' (magazine), an American horror comic first published in 1966 * Eerie (Avon), ''Eerie'' (Avon), a 1947 horror comic * Eerie (film), ''Eerie'' (film), a 2018 Filipino horror fi ...

''. For '' Creepy'' #39 he drew "The Dragon Prow" from a Steve Skeates script, and in issue #41, he executed "The Hangman of London" for "Creepy's Loathsome Lore." For ''

'' #39, he illustrated

Doug Moench Douglas Moench (; born February 23, 1948, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American writer of comics, novels, short stories, newspaper feature articles, weekly newspaper comic strips, film screenplays and teleplays. He is notable for his ''Batman'' wo ...

's "The Mysterious Men in Black!" for "Eerie's Monster Gallery." His work as an illustrator spans a wide range of subjects from

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

interiors to color cartoons and the poems of Nick Kenny. His

airbrush An airbrush is a small, air-operated tool that atomizes and sprays various media, most often paint, but also ink, dye, and make-up. Spray painting developed from the airbrush and is considered to employ a type of airbrush. History Up unt ...

ed informational-card illustrations for International Masters Publishers have covered military aircraft; mermaids and creatures for IMP's ''Myths and Monsters'' series; and ''Sports Heroes, Feats & Facts''. Bassford's drawings have appeared in a variety of publications, including ''Screw'' and Bill Pearson's ''Sata''. For the magazine '' Fantastic'' he illustrated two stories: "The Forest of Unreason" by Robert F. Young (July 1961) and ''The Trekkers'' by Daniel F. Galouye (September 1961).

Ad art

The client list for Bassford's advertising art includes

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

, Nestle, People's Bank and Waldenbooks. Over decades, he continued to do cartoons and illustrations for corporate audio-visual advertising art presentations, such as a slide show of 79 cartoons for GE Lighting and 36 cartoons for a People's Bank promotion. He returned to comics in 1986 when he teamed with Pearson on the story "Daddy's Little Girl" for ''Lurid Tales'', published by Eros Comix, an imprint of

Fantagraphics Books Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and (formerly) the Erotic comics, erotic Eros Comix imprint. They have managed sev ...

Books

For Hope Farm Press, Bassford illustrated ''Crisis in the Lower Hudson'' (1995), about

Benedict Arnold Benedict Arnold (#Brandt, Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American-born British military officer who served during the American Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of ...

’s attempt to sell West Point to the British during the American Revolution, the capture of British Major John André and his execution in

Tappan, New York Tappan ( ) is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Orangetown, New York, United States. It is located northwest of Alpine, New Jersey, north of Northvale, New Jersey and Rockleigh, New Jersey, northeast of ...

. In 2003, he was a contributor of both text and art to Bhob Stewart's ''Against the Grain: Mad Artist Wallace Wood'', and his ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'' pages were reprinted in the hardback ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archive'' series (2003–05), published by

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

. In 2006, he provided illustrations for Bill Pearson's novel, ''Drifter's Detour''.

References

Comic & Fantasy Art Amateur Press Association

Sources consulted

External links