Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sunday, I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, and the like that produced them.
Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Mel Crair
Melvin “Mel” Crair was born in Brooklyn on August 17, 1923 to Russian emigrants. Graduating from LaGuardia High School of Music & Art as a budding artist, instead he was drafted into the Army as there was a war on. Serving overseas and seeing hot action, he continued his art education via the GI Bill after the war and joined the ranks of Bruce Minney, Norm Eastman, Gil Cohen, Norman Saunders, Basil Gogos, and Vic Prezio in creating covers and story illustrations for men’s adventure magazines such as Big Western, Man’s, Blue Book and others.
Man’s 1968 March
MEL CRAIR (American, 20th Century). Men’s adventure magazine illustration
Bluebook
Man’s Magazine – 1964 10 Oct
Man’s 1966 March
The Submarine that sank twice!
Man’s cover
He also did paperback cover art for Pyramid, Berkeley, Pocketbooks, Signet, Bantam, and Dell Paperbacks as well as a series of portraits for the same.
Rommel portrait for cover of Fighting Generals by Phil Hirsch 1960
Original Mel Crair portrait, front cover of the Newsweek May 2, 1960, for which it was painted
Colditz
1878 — A novel of the Bannock Indian Wars
He continued working right up until his death at age 83 in 2007.
Archives of his work are available at the American Art Archives, Pulp Covers and Pulp Artists.
Thank you for your work, sir.
