James Bama: American Realist

James Bama: American Realist

Flesk Publications, October 2006

James Bama: American Realist (160 pp.) was published by Flesk in October, 2006. Flesk is best known as the publisher of the Spectrum series devoted to sci-fi and fantasy art.

The book is out of print, and copies that come up for sale have steep asking prices, often in excess of $100. I was fortunate to pick it up when it first was published, for $35.

James Bama passed away on April 24 at age 96. His longevity may have been due to the fact that he was a devotee of personal fitness (he was a weightlifter in his younger days, and was doing 100 pushups and 100 situps a day well into his 80s). 

This book provides a chronological overview of his career from the early 1950s, when he began working as an commercial artist at the Charles E. Cooper studio in New York City, and through the 1990s, when he focused on studio art inspired by the culture and landscapes of the American West.

One thing that clearly emerges from James Bama: American Realist is that Bama had a tremendous work ethic (in his younger days he would stay in the studio all weekend, sleeping on the couch and working on multiple compositions), one that saw him producing volumes of high-quality pieces on a weekly basis throughout most of his career in commercial art. At the height of his commercial art career, Bama was capable of producing a painting for the cover of a men's magazine, or paperback book, within 10 - 14 days.

Trying to assemble and analyze even a portion of this output is challenging, but editor Kane does a reasonably good job in selecting pieces that are most representative of Bama's commercial and studio works.

James Bama: American Realist offers the reader portfolios of Bama's compositions for the men's 'sweat' magazine market, the paperback book market, and advertisements and packaging for Aurora's plastic model kits of famous monsters, a franchise that has passed into Baby Boomer legend.

A lengthy interview with Bama, conducted in 2013 by men's magazine curator Bob Deis, is available here. 

Bama's most famous works, all 62 covers for the Doc Savage novels from Bantam books, are presented in the book, some as full-page reproductions.

The closing pages of the book are dedicated to the western art that Bama produced following his departure from the commercial art world.

The 'deluxe' signed edition of the book came with a DVD containing an 80 minute documentary of Bama by Paul Jilbert; unfortunately, the DVD has not been uploaded to YouTube.

The verdict ? Obviously, anyone who is a fan of the Doc Savage franchise, commercial art, and graphic art will want to have a copy of James Bama: American Realist in their possession, which makes the book's rarity and expense all the more doleful...............