Basil Gogos and the Monster Art of Universal Horror Films

Basil Gogos was a fabulous illustrator who is best known for his movie monster portraits which graced the covers of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazines during the 1960s and 1970s. He combined his passion for art with his love of movie monsters to create these colorful and highly detailed oil portraits of such iconic creatures as Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, and the Wolf Man. 

Gogos was a Greek who came to America at the age of 16 to study art. He worked with the noted illustrator Frank J. Reilly and began his professional career of painting book and magazine covers when he received his first assignment to paint the cover to the western novel "Pursuit" in 1959. 

Throughout the 1960s, Gogos kept busy working as a commercial illustrator. The majority of his paintings were created for men's pulp adventure magazines and the monster magazines being issued by Warren Publishing ( Eerie, Creepy, Famous Monsters of Filmland ). During the 1970s, he took time off as a commercial illustrator to pursue his own personal fine art but still worked part-time at United Artists as a photo retouch artist in the ad department. His monster art found a new audience in the 1990s and Gogos returned to that genre to create more paintings that paid tribute to the great monsters of filmdom. 

Today, his paintings can be found in museums across the world and in two fantastic coffee table books, Famous Monster Movie Art of Basil Gogos by Kerry Gammill and The Monster Art of Basil Gogos by Linda Touby.

Since Halloween is just around the corner, we thought we would share some images of Gogos' best works. Let's begin with Dr. Frankenstein's monster....

THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

THE MUMMY

DRACULA

THE WOLFMAN

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

OTHER MONSTERS OF FILM AND TV

THE USPS STAMP SERIES

In the 1990s, Basil Gogos had submitted these designs to the USPS for a Universal Monster series of stamps, but unfortunately, they were not chosen. They would have made fantastic stamps! 

British Pathé - Fabric Pictures by Eugenie Alexander ( 1958 )

Our latest entry in the British Pathé series spotlights a 1958 newsreel about an artist who worked with an unusual medium - fabric. Her name is Eugenie Alexander and her artwork was famous enough to warrant the publication of a book "Fabric Art" published just a year after this short 2-minute newsreel was filmed. 

These days this type of fabric artwork is often called "textile collage" and, while the announcer proclaims that it had existed since ancient Egyptian times, it was rare to find such an artist working with this medium in the 1950s and is still quite rare today ( most collage artists prefer working with paper and glue ). Still, it is a lovely and colorful form of art and Eugenie's designs bring to mind the work of Charles Wysocki who liked to evoke traditional American folk art style in his paintings. 

Eugenie's patterns also remind me of the opening title credits in Walt Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks ( 1968 ) which were created by David Jonas and made to look like the 12th-century Bayeaux tapestry....one of the most magnificent examples of ancient fabric art. Her figures are lanky and the facial features medieval. 

Eugenie's husband, Bennett Carter, holds up some of her works for the camera to see, one of which is this pretty turn-of-the-century tableau ( shown above ). Although Carter is introduced as an "artist and teacher" I was not able to discover any background history about him. 

Ready to watch Fabric Pictures? Simply click on the link below. 

British Pathé - Fabric Pictures.

Other similar British Pathé clips : 

Nature Designs in Fabric  ( 1957 ) - 3:09 min
Fabric Painting and Printing ( 1955 ) - 1:58 min