Profile of Norman Saunders on Famous Like Me

Norman Saunders (1907-1989) was a prolific commercial artist who produced paintings for pulp magazines, paperbacks, men's magazines, comic books, and trading cards. He was born in Minot, North Dakota. His earliest training in his eventual profession was though a mail order art course. He soon landed a job at Fawcett Publications, where he was employed from 1928-1934. He left this job to become a freelance pulp artist, moved to New York, and studied under Harvey Dunn at the Grand Central School of Art. He painted for all the major publishers and was known for his fast-action scenes, his beautiful women, and his ability to meet a deadline. He worked in almost any genre--westerns, weird menace, detective, sports and even the 'saucys' (under the psuedonym of Blaine). He was able to paint very quickly, producing one hundred paintings a year--two a week from 1935 through 1942.

In 1958 Saunders obtained his first job at the Topps company, painting over photographs of baseball players who had been traded, so that they would appear to be wearing the jersey of their new team. Topps soon employed Saunders' talents for many other assignments working on their bubble gum cards. He was hired to paint scenes for one of the most successful nonsport-card sets in history: Mars Attacks!, in 1962. They were so successful that letters of protest poured in from parents, and Topps had to use a different brand name. His Wacky Packages cards were even more commercially successful. He also produced a number of less well known trading card series including Ugly Stickers, Your Own Name, Civil War and others.

His daughter, Zina Saunders, is also a prolific and successful illustrator for magazines, books and trading cards.

External link

Gallery of Saunders' work

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