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Cravath Comics

Glen Cravath

 

Frank Buck confers with commercial artist Glen Cravath. Original Cravath artwork for Jungle Menace.

Born May 11, 1897, Cravath started as an illustrator for the New York Journal in the 1920's. He worked for King Features Syndicates as a comic illustrator and did Sunday Frank Buck comics for the New York Journal. In 1928 he began to freelance for movie studios, among them RKO and Columbia. His last published work was The Unforgiven with Burt Lancaster in 1960. He died in January 1964, leaving his house and collection (containing copies of his published work) to his son Douglas (1918-2002). Douglas, in turn, kept his father's collection intact until his own death in August 2002, leaving no heirs. Because almost none of his artwork was ever sold, Cravath is a relatively little known artist today.

Among the films he worked on were Bring 'Em Back Alive (1932), King Kong (1933), Son of Kong (1933), Call of the Wild (1935), Clive of India (1935), Elephant Boy (1937), The Big Broadcast of 1938, Blondie Meets the Boss (1939), The Reluctant Dragon (1941), Jungle Cavalcade (1941), Song of India (1949), Apache War Smoke (1952), The Petty Girl (1955), as well as Jungle Jim (1948 - 55).

For the most part, Cravath started with a still and worked from there. Occasionally, the still was simply colorized and used directly on the poster, but more often, Cravath used it as a model for his art work.

Frank Buck probably only knew Cravath professionally and did not mention him in Buck's autobiography, All in a Lifetime (1941).


Frank Buck in Jungle Menace, 1937