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Cartier, Edd

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Artist.

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Working name of US illustrator Edward Daniel Cartier (1914-2008). After graduating in 1936 from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, Cartier was hired by Street & Smith to work on their Pulp magazines, notably The Shadow (see The Shadow). His skills were noticed by John W Campbell Jr, who began using him in the new magazine Unknown, for which Cartier did over 200 black-and-white interiors and five covers. For many readers Cartier's combination of whimsy and menace summed up the unique quality of that magazine. He quickly became very popular, perhaps because the humorous feel of his work was then so unusual in sf Illustration. He left in 1941 to fight in World War Two, was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, and did not return to illustration until 1946. Thereafter he worked most frequently for Astounding Science-Fiction, Doc Savage magazine, and Other Worlds, though he also contributed to Fantastic Adventures, Planet Stories, and Universe Science Fiction. Another major market was Small Presses like Fantasy Press and Gnome Press, which often reprinted Astounding material in book form, and he drew for at least two Comic books, Red Dragon and Super-Magician comics. Cartier later went back to college, graduated in fine arts, and left sf illustration around 1954 to work in graphic design.

Even though his career was relatively brief, Cartier will be remembered for the wit and boldness of his black-and-white work for the Street and Smith magazines; for example, his playful illustrations of Poul Anderson and Gordon R Dickson's Hoka stories, both for magazines and for the first edition of the collection Earthman's Burden (1957), have been reproduced in later editions and for many will always define the appearance of the teddy bear-like aliens. His book covers have garnered less admiration, but he did provide the Gnome Press edition of Clifford D Simak's Cosmic Engineers (February-April 1939 Astounding; rev 1950) with a memorable cover showing a spacesuited astronaut in blue discovering a beautiful woman sleeping in a pale green chamber, and for Martin Greenberg's anthology Travelers of Space (anth 1951), he produced "Life on Other Worlds", a sixteen-page portfolio featuring full-colour illustrations of bizarre Aliens. In 1992 he received the World Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement – the first artist to receive that honour. [JG/PN/GW]

Edward Daniel Cartier

born North Bergen, New Jersey: 1 August 1914

died Ramsey, New Jersey: 25 December 2008

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