JAMES BAMA 1926-2022

King of American fantasy illustration

Favouring realism, James Bama brought classic painterly style and a vivid authenticity to such fantastical universes as Star Trek and Universal Monsters. Born in Washington Heights, New York, Bama found early inspiration in Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon newspaper strip. Making his first sale at 15, he followed military service by becoming a commercial illustrator, specialising in the brawny world of men’s adventure magazines and paperbacks. Bama’s cover for The Man Of Bronze in 1964 launched a phenomenally popular series of Doc Savage books, repackaging the original pulp magazine adventures. Across 62 covers, Bama’s depiction of Doc as a golden-eyed colossus, veins straining beneath the remnants of a torn shirt, reignited interest in the hero, leading to a Marvel comic book run and a movie in the mid-’70s.

Equally memorably, Bama provided box art for Aurora’s line of horror model kits, portraying everyone from King Kong to the Bride of Dracula. “I did the first 22 Monster Kits and I finally quit,” he told menspulpmags.com in 2014.

“They started having

Frankenstein, Dracula, the

Mummy and the Wolfman riding hotrod cars, drinking blood from cocktail girls, driving through cemeteries.

It got to be too much.”

Boosted by Bama’s richly atmospheric art, each kit sold a million copies to ghoul-crazed kids.

In 1966 Bama created one of the earliest and most enduring promotional images for Star Trek: a montage of Kirk, Spock (in their original pilot episode uniforms) and the USS

Enterprise. This illustration went on to adorn everything from book covers to T-shirts.

Moving to Wyoming in the ‘60s, Bama gave up commercial illustration to paint Western scenes. In later years a degenerative eye condition left him legally blind. “I tell my wife the monsters and Doc

Savage are going to outlive me,” he said at the age of 88. NS