Jack Kamen

Jack Kamen was an American illustrator whose versatile career spanned comic books, magazines, books, and advertising. Born on May 29, 1920, he died on August 5, 2008.

Kamen came up through the industry during the early 1940s, accumulating credits across a wide range of titles. Catalog records place him active from 1942 onward, with work appearing in publications such as *Fight Comics*, *Jumbo Comics*, and later the EC Comics line, where he found his most enduring audience. At EC he contributed artwork to titles including *Haunt of Fear*, *Shock SuspenStories*, and *Psychoanalysis*, demonstrating a facility across horror, crime, suspense, and science fiction genres. His draftsmanship — particularly his clean, polished rendering of characters — gave EC's sometimes lurid material an almost domestic normalcy that made the darker turns hit harder.

Beyond comics, Kamen built a successful career in advertising illustration, which represented a significant portion of his professional life. A late-career highlight came in 1982, when he contributed original artwork that appeared onscreen in George Romero and Stephen King's horror anthology film *Creepshow*, connecting his EC-era sensibility directly to a new generation of horror fans. Across his career he logged credits as both artist and inker on roughly 174 issues, leaving a body of work that remains closely associated with EC's celebrated, and controversial, golden period.