James Bama was born in Manhattan in 1926 and graduated from the High School of Music and Art in New York before joining the Army Air Corps. After the end of WWII, he resumed drawing studies at the Art Students League. He worked as a commercial artist for fifteen years with Charles E. Cooper Studios beginning in 1951. Both flexible and fast, he carved out a lucrative niche for himself doing illustrations for movie posters, paperback covers for Bantam and other publishers, and both covers and interiors for the sweat magazines.
But it's the box art he did for the Aurora monster model kits beginning with the Frankenstein in 1961 for which he's best known in certain quarters, including UMA, today:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/Aurora_a.jpg)
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/bamaposter1.jpg)
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/bama3.jpg)
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/JCbridefranknstnMIBA_lg.jpg) (http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/aurora-figure-kit-customizing-monster-kit1.jpg)
This James Bama picture initially appeared on the poster inserted into the Aurora kits to advertise the company's monster building contest.
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/bamafrk.jpg)
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/MONSTERMODELCONTESTBANNERMMW.jpg)
It was later used as part of the box art for the Aurora Gigantic Frankenstein kit as well as for the cover of the 1965 Famous Monsters of Filmland Yearbook.
Here's a list of the Aurora monster model kits with James Bama's artwork:
Frankenstein
Dracula
Wolf Man
Creature
Mummy
Phantom of the Opera
Customizing Monster Kit
Customizing Monster Kit Featuring the Vulture & Mad Dog
Godzilla
King Kong
Bride of Frankenstein
Witch
Dr. Jekyll as Mr. Hyde
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Dracula's Dragster
Frankenstein's Flivver
Mummy's Chariot
Wolf Man's Wagon
Addams Family Haunted House
Munsters
Gigantic Frankenstein
Monster Colors (paint set)
More pictures of his Aurora box art can be found in threads such as these:
http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/forum/index.php?topic=13241.0 (http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/forum/index.php?topic=13241.0)
http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/forum/index.php?topic=17099.0 (http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/forum/index.php?topic=17099.0)
This book published in 2007 provides an excellent overview of not only his Aurora monster model kit artwork but his other work as well:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/51I2Ld2zXrL__SS500_.jpg)
cl:)
Nice write up!
I too like James Bama ... 8)
One of the greatest!
But the Aurora box covers are not James Bama's best known work. The 62 covers that James Bama did for the Doc Savage paperbacks published by Bantam Books from 1964 to 1972 are instead the ones regarded as his signature pieces.
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/feathoct.jpg) (http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/alwaysnight.jpg) (http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/annilihist.jpg)(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/pc-wfgob.jpg) (http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/pc-qui.jpg) (http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/mysmullah.jpg) (http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/devilmoon.jpg)
Here's a website that displays them all:
James Bama Doc Savage Covers (http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.ca/2011/04/james-bama-doc-savage-covers-1964-1972.html)
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Gotta love Bama.
One correction Hep - Mort Künstler did the "Forgotten Prisoner..." artwork.
Didn't Mort also do the artwork on the Mad Mad Mad Scientist Lab game?
Quote from: ChrisW on April 10, 2012, 06:54:49 PM
Gotta love Bama.
One correction Hep - Mort Künstler did the "Forgotten Prisoner..." artwork.
Yes, you're correct. I goofed.
:(
Quote from: Flower on April 11, 2012, 08:21:39 AM
Didn't Mort also do the artwork on the Mad Mad Mad Scientist Lab game?
Yes, Mort did that one too and it's my single favourite monster related item!
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/Mad20Scientist.jpg)
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Here's a picture I lifted from the net of the rarely seen Aurora Monster Colors set for which James Bama did the box art:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/AColors.jpg)
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Great thread for a great artist !!!!
Hepcat, were did you find that poster of the six paintings with Bama's name underneath them? Very nice!
I found the poster at the Morbid Monster site:
Morbid Monster (http://www.morbidmonster.com/scart/product_details.asp?ItemNum=AMB-108)
cl:)
Yup, one of the Big 3, w/ Basil Gogos & Jack Davis, artists who made our monster memories.
Quote from: Hepcat on April 12, 2012, 08:43:36 AM
I found the poster at the Morbid Monster site:
Morbid Monster (http://www.morbidmonster.com/scart/product_details.asp?ItemNum=AMB-108)
cl:)
Thanks.
James Bama also did quite a few fantasy/science fiction covers for Bantam paperback books unrelated to Doc Savage. Here are a few:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/466-1.jpg) (http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/MrHyde.jpg) (http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/bama_frank-kong_pb.gif)
The Frankenstein he painted for the Bantam paperback appeals to me more than even the one he did for the Aurora Gigantic Frankenstein kit. A fan combined this painting of Frankenstein with one of Bama's Doc Savage renderings to create this magnificent faux Doc Savage cover:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/183_Doc.jpg)
The fellow actually did a whole series of these faux Doc Savage covers:
Doc Savage Fantasy Covers (http://www.miscmayhemprods.com/doc/)
Bama's most iconic science fiction cover though was perhaps the one he did for the first paperback adaptation of the Star Trek television series:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/StarTrekBantam1967.jpg)
Bama initially did the piece for a NBC print ad to promote the new Star Trek series which ran in publications such as TV Guide. Bantam Books then bought the rights to use the artwork for the cover of the Star Trek paperback. Oscar Dystel, the president of Bantam, was heard to say at the time "Why can't we get artists to do covers like these?" Ahhhhh, Mr. Dystel sir, this Bama fellow actually already....
;D
Edited by moderator at the request of the poster to fix error.
James Bama has been amazing me with his work for over forty years. My older brother collected the Bantam Doc Savage paperbacks, so I got to see a lot of Bama artwork growing up. A while back I was lucky enough to get this 1977 exhibition catalog, signed by Jim:
(http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc311/illoman/JB1.jpg)
(http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc311/illoman/JB2.jpg)
Quote from: Hepcat on April 12, 2012, 12:12:41 PM
Bama's most iconic science fiction cover though was perhaps the one he did for the first paperback adaptation of the Star Trek television series:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/StarTrekBantam1967.jpg)
Bama initially did the piece for a CBS print ad to promote the new Star Trek series which ran in publications such as TV Guide.
That was awfully nice of CBS, considering the show ran on NBC.
It's nice to see some good Christian charity in the cutthroat corporate world on occasion.
;)
Bama's work to me mirrors that of Gogo's, not in the sense that they "look the same" but the fact that they are the 2 artists that make me want to "live in their work".
Stuff like that Monster Color add is so beautiful and just oozes "classic horror" that I just find it jaw dropping. There is so much depth to the work itself it starts to create new depth.....right in your mind. I want to know whats going on in that house. Who lives there? What great monster battles may have been fought there?.....You can smell that faint, damp mildew smell in the house as the crisp, autmn wind blows through the cracks of the ricketty wood.
When I 1st got the Wolf Man model I put the box on my dresser and was mezmorized daily by the colors....what could be going on in the background that I couldnt see?
I put Bama up there with the greats, right along side the likes of Karloff and Carl Lammle. These are guys that inspired regular people...like me, years and years after they initially got their work out.
I agree!
James Bama also did the illustrations for a lot of the covers for Bantam's western paperbacks. His cowboys were really well rendered:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/bama.jpg) (http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/jamesbama2.jpg)
Included among these was the very popular Nevada Jim series of books:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/1397-1.jpg) (http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/NevadaJim2.jpg) (http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/NevadaJim.jpg)
Bama also did the illustration for the movie poster of this classic western:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/204332_1020_A.jpg)
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James Bama couldn't be pigeon-holed as best for certain genres. His cover renderings for Bantam spanned their entire range of books. A few more examples:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/bama_ianfleming11.jpg) (http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/312028149_2de38fea9f_o.jpg)
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/5521297665_83b4e26562_z.jpg) (http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/RobertMaguire_IPreferGirls.jpg) (http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/james-bama-messalina.jpg)
His WWII action renderings for Bantam, such as those for "Cross of Iron" and "Hitler Moves East", and for the men's sweat magazines also rank up there with the best of genre:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/JamesBama1.jpg)
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/HitlersbaboontorturesMansDaringJan1962-8x61.jpg)
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Baboon tortures! "Like"
Man that WWII plane shot is pretty awesome!
We should have his work on a U.S. Stamp.
Quote from: BlackLagoon on April 20, 2012, 11:22:44 PM
Man that WWII plane shot is pretty awesome!
A lot of his excellent WWII paperback covers are reproduced in the "James Bama - American Realist" book but I can't find that many good images on the web. Here are a couple of military themed pictures he did that aren't in the book:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/JimBama2-pageduotone-MalemagazineJan_1961-8x6.jpg)
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/310829529_4a6a836823.jpg)
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Here's one of James Bama's sci-fi paintings:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/6475503741_0f34220141_b.jpg)
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Hep, thanks for posting that one. Never saw it before.
That one certainly highlights the breadth James Bama's artwork. His work certainly wasn't one-dimensional.
:)
Wait, did he not do Godzilla's Go-Kart and King Kong's Thronester? I hadn't realized that before.
No, he did not. He hated the monsters in rods concept and refused to do any more.
cl:)
Quote from: Hepcat on October 30, 2017, 10:01:09 PM
No, he did not. He hated the monsters in rods concept and refused to do any more.
cl:)
Ah, I knew he hated them but didn't know that he skipped those two. Do you know who did paint them, then?
I always wonder why Godzilla's driving around a graveyard on the box art. Not exactly his standard territory. And with the size of it, it must have been made by and for giant monsters.
I just discovered that a 56 minute film devoted to James Bama's artwork is available:
(https://bookpalace.com/acatalog/BamaDVD-L.jpg)
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Quote from: BlackLagoon on April 20, 2012, 11:22:44 PM
Man that WWII plane shot is pretty awesome!
We should have his work on a U.S. Stamp.
Where are you, BlackLagoon?!🔎👁🙁🙋♂️
Quote from: marsattacks666 on March 17, 2019, 04:46:27 PM
Where are you, BlackLagoon?!
Can you believe it's been 5 years? Where does the time go?
Quote from: Mike Scott on March 17, 2019, 04:57:36 PM
Can you believe it's been 5 years? Where does the time go?
I know?! How weird.🤖🧟♂️
Quote from: marsattacks666 on March 17, 2019, 04:46:27 PMWhere are you, BlackLagoon?!🔎👁🙁🙋♂️
Is it just the impact of Facebook on traditional discussion forums? Or are we all steadily dying off?
:(
Quote from: Hepcat on March 18, 2019, 11:10:48 AM
Is it just the impact of Facebook on traditional discussion forums? Or are we all steadily dying off?
Maybe both?
Quote from: Hepcat on April 20, 2012, 03:35:29 PMHis WWII action renderings for Bantam, such as those for "Cross of Iron" and "Hitler Moves East ... also rank up there with the best of genre:
Here are the pics:
(https://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%203/General%20Album%203001/Cross_zps0ceggbfg.jpg) (https://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%203/General%20Album%203001/Hitler_zpsc8aiiybz.jpg)
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Here are a few more mega cool renderings by James Bama:
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/g434/Balticprince/FOR_MEN_ONLY_July_1957._Art_by_James_Bama-8x6.jpg)
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/g434/Balticprince/STAG_Aug_1957._James_Bama_art_Eva_Lynd_model-8x6.jpg)
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/g434/Balticprince/MALE_June_1957._Art_by_James_Bama-8x6.jpg)
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/g434/Balticprince/MEN_June_1959._Artwork_by_James_Bama_-8x6_1_.jpg)
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/g434/Balticprince/Aurora_model_racetrack_(1962)_box_art_by_James_Bama-8x6.jpg)
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