Jeff Jones Original Comic Art - Jeffrey Jones was born in Atlanta, Georgia in January 1944. He thought he wanted to be a scientist when he grew up, so he studied geology in college. But when he moved to New York in 1967, he was searching for work as an artist. He found some creative work in the new black & white comic magazines Creepy and Eerie, as well as in Gold Key and King titles and some science-fiction digests, but it didn't pay him enough to support his wife and child. Fortunately those early stories paved the way to more lucrative work in the paperback market. At that time, the 'Conan' covers by Frank Frazetta were very popular, so art directors were looking for artists with a similar graphic style. While it appears that Jeff Jones owes a lot to Frazetta's popularity, he had his own style and talent that had nothing to do with muscular barbarians. His style graced a diverse range of covers, from adventure series books like 'Nick Carter' to romantic adventure, gothic romance, sexy black comedies and more. In 1972, Jeff Jones began his long running comic 'Idyl', which ran in every issue of the National Lampoon until August 1975. 'Idyl' is a romantic, poetic collection of words, which sometimes confuses the reader who has already fallen for his delicious pen work. In 1975, Jones founded the Studio together with Berni Wrightson, Barry Windsor-Smith and Michael Kaluta. There they produced posters, portfolios and illustrations for different publishers. In 1979, Dragon Dreams published the book, 'The Studio', which was devoted to the group's work. Jones' own work was reproduced in 'Yesterday's Lily' (Dragon Dreams 1980), which collects a number of his book covers, and 'Age of Innocence' (Underwood Books 1994) with his more romantic works.
