Behind the Cover: Gerald Gregg

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Gerald Gregg started out free-lancing for Western Printing & Lithographing Co. and in 1935 was given a permanent position. In 1943 he was assigned to do the covers for the new Dell paperback line and produced 176 covers for them. He worked with an airbrush which made his work for Dell unique and striking. During his stay at Western he also drew comic strips and the back covers of their Little Golden Books.





The Dell Mapback Airbrush Guy, Gregg was born in 1907 in Lamar, Colorado and graduated from the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee in 1928. When he was hired to do cover illustrations for Dell paperbacks in 1943 he often used secretaries and stenographers as models. Gregg's highly-distinctive Dell mapback covers (he did over 170 of them) are unique among mass market paperbacks, and are among the most coveted mass-market collectibles.

Extraordinary airbrush technique and an often-abstract approach, stylistic contrasts of light and shadows, with a few bright colors used to accentuate particular features of his characters, Gregg called his style "a combination of graphic design and stylized realism."

Source: http://www.goodgirlart.com/coverartists.html

Comments

Covers

[(Anonymous)]

Those covers have a feeling of scariness and spookiness, with a feeling that you must finish the book or else... But what great titles by Dashiell Hammett, Rex Stout, John Dickson Carr, James M.Cain on and on. Makes you want to curl up and read a good mystery.

Mick

http://www.MykolaDementiuk.com
Lambda Literary Awards Winner 2009/Bisexual Fiction for Holy Communion

Re: Covers

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

Gregg was more famous for his mystery covers, but I quite like also the romance one. And he had definitely an unique style.