'The Man Who Stole Immortality' (Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #7, 1964).
Mel Crawford was a Canadian-American children's book illustrator and comic artist, starting his work in the Canadian comic book industry at age sixteen. After moving to the USA, he drew horror and fantasy comics, but also stories with a variety of licensed characters, for Western Publishing. With writer Jerry Dumas, he created newspaper features like 'Rabbits Rafferty' (King Features Syndicate, 1977-1981) and 'McCall of the Wild' (Creators Syndicate, 1988-1990). As an illustrator, he is best remembered for his full color artwork for children's books based on popular child-oriented media franchises. Talented in adapting several graphic styles, Crawford produced artwork with some of the most popular fictional characters of the 20th century, from Disney and Hanna-Barbera creations to Jim Henson's 'Muppets'.
Cover illustrations for Golden Magazine and 'Raggedy Ann & Andy'.
Early life and career
Mel Crawford was born in 1925 in Toronto, Canada. His parents divorced when he was four years old, after which he went to live with his mother and grandparents in Drumheller, Alberta. They also spent several years living in Oklahoma, where Crawford developed a passion for horses and cowhands. By the 1930s, the family relocated to Toronto, where he attended Western Technical-Commercial high school.
In 1942, only sixteen years old, he illustrated 'The Three T's', a short-lived children's comic feature by Frank Mann Harris about the adventures of three Canadian boys, published in Joke Comics by Bell Features Publications. He also illustrated the first story of 'The Young Commandos' in Commando Comics issue #1 (October 1942). Over the course of 1942, he did additional illustration chores for ads and fillers in other Bell Features titles. World War II interrupted Mel Crawford's early drawing career, as he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy. After his discharge, he studied art at the Royal Ontario College and then moved permanently to the United States, where he unsuccessfully tried to get a job with the Walt Disney Studios, before becoming a sought-after illustrator for comic and story books. He eventually settled in Washington, Connecticut.
'Heidi' (Dell Junior Treasury #6, 1956).
Comic books
Starting in the late 1940s and lasting through the 1950s and 1960s, Crawford worked extensively for Western Publishing and its subsidiary Whitman Publishing, illustrating many comic books with licensed properties in the Dell Comics and Gold Key lines. They starred characters like UPA's 'Mr. Magoo' and 'Gerald McBoing-Boing', Jay Ward's 'Rocky and Bullwinkle', Johnny Gruelle's 'Raggedy Ann', L. Frank Baum's 'The Wizard of Oz', E. Roger Muir's 'Howdy Doody' and Marge Henderson's 'Little Lulu'. Between 1956 and 1957, he was a prominent artist for the 'Dell Junior Treasury' comic book, doing story art and painted covers for the issues about 'Adventures of Mr. Frog and Miss Mousie', 'The Wizard of Oz', 'Heidi', 'Santa and the Angel', 'Raggedy Ann: The Camel with the Wrinkled Knees' and 'Clementina the Flying Pig'.
Capable in both cartoony art and realism, Crawford also drew stories for such Dell/Western genre titles as 'Grimm's Ghost Stories', ' Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery' and 'Fractured Fairy Tales'. With writer Paul S. Newman, he made the back-up feature starring 'Professor Harbinger' in the early issues of the 'Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom' comic book, before Win Mortimer took over. In 1966, Crawford did almost all the artwork for 'Kosher Comics', an anthology comic by Parallax Publishers, featuring parody characters like The Lone Arranger, Tishman of the Apes, Dick Shamus and Supermax.
Illustrator
Besides comic books, Crawford became a prominent and versatile artist for children's books and record covers, often with licensed characters. For Disney, he created full- color artwork for picture books based on the feature films 'Alice in Wonderland' (1951) and 'Jungle Book' (1967). Over the years, he painted countless characters from cartoon series, comics, television, film and other pop culture outings, from Disney's 'Uncle Scrooge', and Hanna-Barbera's 'Tom & Jerry', 'The Flintstones' and 'Magilla Gorilla', to Jim Henson's 'The Muppets'. His most important client remained Western Publishing, for which he worked on many volumes of the "Little Golden Books" series, as well as The Golden Magazine for Boys and Girls. Later in his career, Crawford illustrated several 'Sesame Street' books.
'Rabbits Rafferty' (17 July 1980).
Newspaper comics
Later in his career, Crawford also had stints in newspaper cartooning, initially doing assistant work on 'Versus' by Jack Wohl (King Features Syndicate, 1969-1973) and 'Iffy' by Steven Amy (United Feature Syndicate, 1971-1973). For the McNaught Syndicate, he was one of many cartoonists for the 'Children's Tales' newspaper feature, drawing 'Wally Gator: Guess What's Hiding at the Zoo?' (20-27 July 1969) and 'Touch Turtle and the Fire Dog' (22 March-5 April 1970). With writer Jack Wohl, he produced the daily gag panel 'The VIPeewees', syndicated between 10 January and 2 September 1972 by United Feature Syndicate. A book collection was published by Price/Stern/Sloan.
With writer Jerry Dumas, Crawford co-created new newspaper features like 'Rabbits Rafferty' (King Features Syndicate, 1977-1981) and 'McCall of the Wild' (McClure Syndicate, 1988-1990). 'Rabbits Rafferty' (1968) was originally a children's novel by Dumas with illustrations by Wallace Tripp, but for the newspaper serialization, Mel Crawford was hired to do the job. Dumas also wrote the scripts for Mel Crawford's gag strip 'McCall of the Wild' (1988-1990), the title being a pun on the phrase "call of the wild". All gags are set in the forest, where young girl Katie McCall and her anthropomorphic pet pig Piggins live together. The comedy style is comparable to Dumas' earlier cameo-heavy comic strip 'Sam's Strip' (written by Mort Walker), as McCall and Piggins regularly with characters from nursery rhymes, fairy tales and children's novels.
Fine artist
As a fine artist, Mel Crawford worked with watercolors and acrylics, specializing in wildlife art. In the 1970s and 1980s, Mel Crawford created artwork for Fleetwood cachet first day covers of stamp series like 'Flags of Canada', 'Flags of the United Nations' and 'Seals of the Fifty States'. In July 2000, Crawford spent two weeks in Glacier National Park in Montana as artist in residence. In the fall of 2001, he was artist in residence for three weeks at Acadia National Park in Maine. In 2001, he additionally did a Christmas-themed set of stamps for the Marshall Islands.
His paintings have won several awards, and can be found in museums, corporate offices and in private collections. In 1973, Crawford's artwork received the Franklin Mint Gold Medal for "Distinguished Watercolor Art". The Kent Art Association bestowed him with a Grumbacher Gold Medal (1985) as "the best in show". His painting 'Summer Treasures' was a finalist in the 1990 Arts for the Parks competition.
Final years and death
Between December 2006 and 2011, Mel Crawford posted artwork from his long career on his personal blog. In 2015, Crawford passed away at age 89. His charming and nostalgic drawing style received praise from several artists, including John Kricfalusi.
'Magilla Gorilla' children's book.