R.I.P. Jeffrey Catherine Jones (January 10, 1944 – May 19, 2011)

I was sad to hear the news of the passing of an old friend and master illustrator/painter Jeffrey jones today. The art world has suffered a tremendous loss.
In the early 1970s when National Lampoon began publication, Jones had a strip in it for a while called Idyl. (A strip by Jones, taken from Idyl, was used to illustrate the Sonic Arts Network CD publication Otherness, curated by David Cotner in 2007.) From 1975 to 1979 he shared workspace in Manhattan’s Chelsea district, with Bernie Wrightson, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Michael William Kaluta, collectively named The Studio; Dragon’s Dream produced a volume of their work in 1979. By the early 1980s he had a recurring strip in Heavy Metal titled I'm Age. Frank Frazetta was stated that Jeffrey Jones was the grteatest modern painter of our time, no small compliment coming from a master like Frazetta.
Jeffrey passed away today, Thursday May 19, 2011 at 4:00 am. Jeffrey suffered from severe emphysema and bronchitis as well as hardening of the arteries around the heart. Here is a cover by Jeff and one of his best friends Comic art guru Vaughn Bode. I spoke to Vaughn's son Mark Bode this morning (we go way back), and he shared this quote from Jeffrey with me. He said, " Jeff once told me the maple trees know when it's going to rain cause they flip their leaves in the wind. the leaves are flipped today across the globe." Amen Mark

Here are a few of Jeffrey's pieces just to show you how amazingly talented this person was and what a blessing he was to the art community;








The Artist:

My prayers go out to the family. Thank you Jeff for all the kind words and inspiration, You will be greatly missed.