Reynold Brown

He attended Alhambra High School and refined his drawing under his teacher Lester Bonar.For biographical information about Bonar, see {{cite web |title=Lester M. Bonar (1896 - 1973) |url=http://www.askart.com/askart/b/lester_m_bonar/lester_m_bonar.aspx |access-date=2013-03-11}} A talented artist, Brown met cartoonist Hal Forrest around 1936-37. Forrest hired Brown to ink (uncredited) Forrest's comic strip Tailspin Tommy.{{cite web |url=http://www.collectair.com/tailspin.html |title=Tailspin Tommy |publisher=CollectAir Gallery}} Extensive discussion of the comic strip. Norman Rockwell's sister was a teacher at Alhambra High, and Brown later met Rockwell who advised him to leave cartooning if he wanted to be an illustrator. Brown subsequently won a scholarship to the Otis Art Institute.

During World War II he worked as a technical artist at North American Aviation. There he met his wife, fellow artist Mary Louise Tejeda.

Following the war Brown drew numerous advertisements and illustrations for magazines such as Argosy, Popular Science, Saturday Evening Post, Boys' Life, Outdoor Life, and Popular Aviation. Brown also drew paperback book covers.{{cite web |url=http://www.americanartarchives.com/brown,reynold.htm |title=Reynold Brown |work=American Art Archives}} Short biography and 19 medium-resolution images of Brown's poster art.

Brown taught at the Art Center College of Design where he met Misha Kallis, then an art director at Universal Pictures.{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/chapulinas/reynold0000.htm |title=Reynold Brown Movie Poster Art and More |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20010422000338/http://www.geocities.com/chapulinas/reynold0000.htm |archive-date = 2001-04-22}} Page from an extensive website dedicated to Brown and his legacy. Through Kallis, Brown began his film poster work, then did the artwork for dozens of film posters, including:Brown's artwork on film posters was unsigned. Brown's own records of the film posters on which he worked have been posted by his son, Franz Brown. See {{cite web |title=Movie Campaigns, A Listing |url=http://www.franzbrown.com/reynoldbrownart/ReynoldBrown/reynold0407_movie-campaign_list.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130410201941/http://www.franzbrown.com/reynoldbrownart/ReynoldBrown/reynold0407_movie-campaign_list.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-date=April 10, 2013 |access-date=2013-03-12}}

In 1953, Brown was one of the founders of the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles.{{cite web |url=https://www.si-la.org/our-story |title=Our Story |publisher=Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles |website=si-la.org |access-date=December 13, 2021}}

File:Attackofthe50ftwoman.jpg (1958); part of this image was selected as the cover art for a 2009 book about Brown's art and life.{{cite book |title=Reynold Brown: A Life in Pictures |first1=Daniel |last1=Zimmer |first2=David J. |last2=Hornung |publisher=The Illustrated Press |location=St. Louis |year=2009 |isbn=9780982004128 |oclc=437298876}} |alt=Poster art. A giant woman clad in a white bikini straddles an elevated, 4-lane highway. She has an angry expression, and she's holding one smoking car in her left hand as if it were a toy. She is reaching down to grab another. There are several car crashes on the highway, and people are fleeing from her as if they were small insects.]]

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
• Tarantula (1955)
• This Island Earth (1955)
• The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
• I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957)
• Man of a Thousand Faces (1957)
• The Land Unknown (1957)
• Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
• Ben-Hur (1959)
• The Atomic Submarine (1959)
• House of Usher (1960)
• The Time Machine (1960)
• Spartacus (1960)
• Black Sunday (1960)
• The Alamo (1960)
• The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1961)
• King of Kings (1961)
• The Big Wave (1962)
• How the West Was Won (1962)
• Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
• Black Sabbath (1963)
• Godzilla vs. The Thing (1964)
• War of the Zombies (1964)
• Shenandoah (1965)
• Doctor Zhivago (1965)

{{div col end}}

Brown's original painting for the poster of The Alamo hung for many years at the actual Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.{{citation needed|date=October 2012}}

He suffered a severe stroke in 1976 that left his left side paralyzed and ended his commercial work.{{cite book |page=8 |last1=Bogousslavsky |first1=Julien |last2=Boller |first2=François |title=Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists |year=2005 |publisher=Karger}} Brown and his family moved to Dawes County, Nebraska; with his wife's help, Brown continued to paint landscapes until his death in 1991.

In 1994, Mel Bucklin's documentary about Reynold Brown entitled The Man Who Drew Bug-Eyed Monsters was broadcast on U.S. public television.{{cite video |title=The Man Who Drew Bug-Eyed Monsters |year=1994 |publisher=Bucklin Productions |last=Bucklin |first=Mel |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuvpcyCjRMk |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/GuvpcyCjRMk |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|oclc=36633504}}{{cbignore}} A book reproducing many of Brown's artworks, Reynold Brown: A Life in Pictures, was published in 2009.

Reynold Brown was inducted into the Society of Illustrators [https://societyillustrators.org/hall-of-fame/ Hall of Fame] in September 2023.

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{cite web |title=Masters of Illustration Art - Reynold Brown |last=Horberg |first=William |date=May 9, 2009 |url=http://williamhorberg.typepad.com/william_horberg/2009/05/masters-of-illustration-art-reynold-brown.html}} An appreciation of Brown's work on the occasion of the publication of Reynold Brown: A Life In Pictures (2009); Horberg is a film producer.
• [https://www.lambiek.net/artists/b/brown_reynold.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia article]
• Illustration magazine #7 (July 2003)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Reynold}}

Category:1917 births

Category:1991 deaths

Category:American magazine illustrators

Category:American comics artists

Category:20th-century American painters

Category:American male painters

Category:Film poster artists

Category:20th-century American male artists