The good folks at the University of Georgia at Athens will be hosting the annual Jack Davis Distinguished Visiting Artist Lecture next week and, in a loose moment, invited yours truly. It is a great honor. Not only to be asked to join fellow artists who truly appreciate the traditions of satirical journalism, but also to celebrate the great Jack Davis, who is an alum. I have met Mr. Davis and can tell you a more gentle and courtly man you could not hope to meet. As an artist he is, for me, a paragon of the kind of work that fired me up in the very beginning. If ever there was a perfect illustrator, he is it. Protean in attack and ambition, he has scaled great heights, not only becoming the signature caricaturist of Mad magazine, but also the go-to artist for just about every comedy movie and TV poster and ad in the US for a generation. Here’s hoping to see my southern friends and colleagues who might be able to make it over to the school next Thursday . . . and join me in a toast, in his 90th year, to the Great Jack.
