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| Jack Davis art created for TV Guide announcing the Monkees debut |
When the comedy/music show The Monkees premiered on NBC in 1966, the great Jack Davis was the artist hired to create the first illustrated images of the new musical comedians for NBC promotion and for TV Guide advertising. When I had the pleasure of interviewing Jack several years ago at the Brooklyn Comics Festival about his career, and knowing that he had drawn The Monkees on a few occasions, I privately asked him if he was a fan of their music. "Nope". I then asked him if he was a fan of the Beatles, "Not particularly". No matter, Jack's early depictions of the Monkees are the first and still the definitive caricatures of the singing, comedic foursome.
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| Created by Jack Davis in 1966 to announce the debut of the Monkees, and distributed to local NBC affiliates. This color version was never published |
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| The image ran in B&W in various show business trade publications |
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| From TV Guide, from a spread announcing NBC's 1966 fall lineup. |
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| TV Guide ad announcing the Monkee's debut |
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| At the height of Monkee-Mania, Jack was hired to draw the cover and interior art for this paperback some page spreads from the book featuring Jack's art: |
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| The Monkees in concert in 1966 with Jack Davis's initial Monkees image mounted to the front of the stage |
This is great! Thanks for posting, Drew.
ReplyDeleteGreat JD art!
ReplyDeleteI was late getting around to appreciating The Monkees. It wasn't until I saw the jaw-droppingly lousy The New Monkees (1987) that I realized just how good the originals were - especially Dolenz. (Same with The Munsters and The (ugh!) New Munsters, I'm embarrassed to say. I guess I'm a late-bloomer.)