| Norman Saunders |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT NORMAN SAUNDERS | |
| 1907 births | |
| saunders, norman | |
| 1989 deaths | |
| american illustrators | |
| trading cards | |
| people from minot, north dakota | |
| north dakota artists | |
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Norman Blaine Saunders ( January 1 1907 – March 7 1989 ) was a prolific commercial artist who produced paintings for Pulp Magazine s, paperbacks, Men's Magazine s, Comic Book s, and Trading Card s. On occasion, he signed his work with his middle name, '''Blaine'''. Saunders was born in Minot, North Dakota . His earliest training in his eventual profession was though a mail-order art course. Saunders' career was launched when he started contributing to Captain Billy's Whiz Bang , and that led to a job at Fawcett Publications , where he was employed from 1928–1934. He once explained the curious events that led up to his arrival at Fawcett's offices in Robbinsdale, Minnesota : :I was hitchhiking, got into this Model-T Ford with a big trunk strapped up and these two guys in front. One of them had a gun, a rifle. He said, "Keep your eye peeled on the back, kid, see if there are any police or motorcycle cops or something." What the hell was this? These two guys had robbed somebody, or tried to, out in North Dakota, and they had stolen this car from some farmer and were trying to get away. As we got to the outskirts of Bemidji, I was getting awful nervous. There at the town they saw a sand pit with a big hole dug out of it, and they took this car over and got out and pushed it in. They went that way, and I went this way. That night I caught a freight train to Minneapolis. I took a streetcar ride to the end of the line, and there was a two-story bank there and a big sign: "Robbinsdale, the home of Fawcett Publications." I said, "By gosh and by gracious, we got us a real true publisher here!" There was where they were printing ''Captain Billy's Whiz Bang''. He left Fawcett to become a freelance pulp artist, moved to New York and studied under Harvey Dunn at the Grand Central School of Art. He painted for all the major publishers and was known for his fast-action scenes, his beautiful women and his ability to meet a deadline. He worked in almost any genre— Westerns , Weird Menace , Detective , sports, and the saucys (sometimes signed as "Blaine"). He was able to paint very quickly, producing one hundred paintings a year—two a week from 1935 through 1942. In 1958, Saunders obtained his first assignment from the . His daughter, Zina Saunders , is also a prolific and successful illustrator for magazines, books, and trading cards. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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