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Behind the Cover: George Gross
Nov. 6th, 2010 10:28 amGeorge Gross was born February 16, 1909 in Brooklyn. His parents, David and Serena Gross, were both young Jewish immigrants from the city of Szeged, Hungary. They married in 1908 and raised three children, George, his younger brother Arthur, and youngest sister, Beatrice. They lived at 105 Bay 29th Street, Brooklyn. The father, David Gross, attended Pratt Institute and became a successful artist in the fashion industry. He ran his own midtown art studio called Fashion Paper. One of his best clients was the popular Montgomery Wards mail order catalog.
When George Gross finished high school he also attended Pratt and graduated in 1931. Even before graduation, George worked for his father, and he was soon joined by both of his siblings. The Gross family business provided George with a uniquely practical approach to commercial illustration.
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His first pulp cover assignments were for Mystery Novels Magazine and Double Action Western, which were both Winford Publications. George Gross next found work at Fiction House, where he soon became their top illustrator. He painted hundreds of freelance pulp covers for Action Stories, Air Stories, Baseball Stories, Complete Northwest, Detective Book Magazine, Fight Stories, Football Stories, Jungle Stories, North West Romances, and Wings. He also sold pulp covers to A. A. Wyn's Periodical House, for titles such as Ace Sports and Western Aces.
George Gross produced all of his pre-war pulp covers while working in his father's art studio, Nangro Ferrod Studios, Inc., at 15 West 38th Street, in Manhattan, while sharing the space with his brother and sister.
In 1940, George married his first wife Dora and moved to Flushing, Queens. They bought a Summer home in Milford, Pennsylvania. They had one son.
In 1942 George Gross reported to his draft board for induction in WW2. Although his age was thirty-three, he was disqualified from military service because of a lifelong serious impairment of vision in his right eye, which effected his depth perception and required corrective glasses.
After the war George Gross began to sell freelance illustrations to paperback books from such publishers as Dell, Star Books, Lion Books, Bantam, Berkley Books, Cameo Books, and Ace Publications.
In the 1950s George Gross shared an art studio with the illustrator, Mort Kunstler, on White Street in the Tribeca warehouse section of Lower Manhattan.
In the 1960s he worked for men's adventure magazines, such as Male, Cavalcade, Action For Men, Argosy, Bluebook, Man's Conquest, Man's Illustrated, Man's World, Real, Saga, See, Stag, and True Adventures.
In 1972 Dora Gross died. George soon married his second wife, Gidge Gross, and they moved to Rockaway, New Jersey.
In the 1970s George Gross painted covers for The Avenger series of paperback books, published by Warner Paperbacks.
In the 1980s he painted covers for the popular Nick Carter series of paperbacks for Ace Publications.
According to pulp writer Bill Cox, "George Gross could do exciting paintings even when there were no scantily clad damsels around, and what's more amazing, Fiction House let him!"
George Gross died at age 94 on February 23, 2003.
http://www.pulpartists.com/Gross.html
When George Gross finished high school he also attended Pratt and graduated in 1931. Even before graduation, George worked for his father, and he was soon joined by both of his siblings. The Gross family business provided George with a uniquely practical approach to commercial illustration.
( more covers )
His first pulp cover assignments were for Mystery Novels Magazine and Double Action Western, which were both Winford Publications. George Gross next found work at Fiction House, where he soon became their top illustrator. He painted hundreds of freelance pulp covers for Action Stories, Air Stories, Baseball Stories, Complete Northwest, Detective Book Magazine, Fight Stories, Football Stories, Jungle Stories, North West Romances, and Wings. He also sold pulp covers to A. A. Wyn's Periodical House, for titles such as Ace Sports and Western Aces.
George Gross produced all of his pre-war pulp covers while working in his father's art studio, Nangro Ferrod Studios, Inc., at 15 West 38th Street, in Manhattan, while sharing the space with his brother and sister.
In 1940, George married his first wife Dora and moved to Flushing, Queens. They bought a Summer home in Milford, Pennsylvania. They had one son.
In 1942 George Gross reported to his draft board for induction in WW2. Although his age was thirty-three, he was disqualified from military service because of a lifelong serious impairment of vision in his right eye, which effected his depth perception and required corrective glasses.
After the war George Gross began to sell freelance illustrations to paperback books from such publishers as Dell, Star Books, Lion Books, Bantam, Berkley Books, Cameo Books, and Ace Publications.
In the 1950s George Gross shared an art studio with the illustrator, Mort Kunstler, on White Street in the Tribeca warehouse section of Lower Manhattan.
In the 1960s he worked for men's adventure magazines, such as Male, Cavalcade, Action For Men, Argosy, Bluebook, Man's Conquest, Man's Illustrated, Man's World, Real, Saga, See, Stag, and True Adventures.
In 1972 Dora Gross died. George soon married his second wife, Gidge Gross, and they moved to Rockaway, New Jersey.
In the 1970s George Gross painted covers for The Avenger series of paperback books, published by Warner Paperbacks.
In the 1980s he painted covers for the popular Nick Carter series of paperbacks for Ace Publications.
According to pulp writer Bill Cox, "George Gross could do exciting paintings even when there were no scantily clad damsels around, and what's more amazing, Fiction House let him!"
George Gross died at age 94 on February 23, 2003.
http://www.pulpartists.com/Gross.html
I really did like the previous book in this series, The Janitor, like I liked this one, even if, in both of them, there was something that sometime made me frown. Dane is a big man, a boxer, but he is also a simpleton; he has not really any physical problem, on the contrary, he is in a perfect physical shape, and he is also very strong (good thing since he is a boxer), but his brain simply sees the world in a different way from most people. I wouldn’t say he is retarded, Dane is plenty capable of understanding good and bad, he is more than capable to love, well, maybe he is not really able to hate, but that is not enough reason to say that he is a blockhead.
I really did like the previous book in this series, The Janitor, like I liked this one, even if, in both of them, there was something that sometime made me frown. Dane is a big man, a boxer, but he is also a simpleton; he has not really any physical problem, on the contrary, he is in a perfect physical shape, and he is also very strong (good thing since he is a boxer), but his brain simply sees the world in a different way from most people. I wouldn’t say he is retarded, Dane is plenty capable of understanding good and bad, he is more than capable to love, well, maybe he is not really able to hate, but that is not enough reason to say that he is a blockhead.