James Bama (1926-2022) *95

was an American artist known for his realistic paintings and etchings of Western subjects. Life in Wyoming led to his comment, "Here an artist can trace the beginnings of Western history, see the first buildings, the oldest wagons, saddles and guns, and be up close to the remnants of Indian culture ... And you can stand surrounded by nature's wonders." Born in Washington Heights, New York, in 1926, he grew up copying Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon comic strip. He had his first professional sale when he was 15, a drawing of Yankee Stadium in the New York Journal-American. He graduated from New York's High School of Music and Art and entered the Army Air Forces, working as a mechanic, mural painter, and physical training instructor.

When discharged from the service, and back in New York City, he studied drawing and anatomy at the Art Students League. Beginning in 1951, he was an illustrator at New York's Charles E. Cooper Studios for 15 years. His first paperback cover was Nelson Nye's A Bullet for Billy the Kid (1950). Bama had a 22-year career as a successful commercial artist, producing paperback book covers, movie posters and illustrations for such publications as Argosy, The Saturday Evening Post and Reader's Digest, and his numerous clients included the New York Giants football team, the Baseball and Football Halls of Fame and the U.S. Air Force. Beginning with The Man of Bronze (1964), he did a powerful set of 62 covers for the Doc Savage Bantam Books paperbacks, often using as a model actor Steve Holland, star of TV's Flash Gordon (1954–55). He also painted the box cover art for Aurora's monster model kits, including King Kong, Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy.