| Jeffrey Catherine Jones | |
|---|---|
 Jeffrey Catherine Jones byMichael Netzer | |
| Born | Jeffrey Durwood Jones (1944-01-10)January 10, 1944 |
| Died | May 19, 2011(2011-05-19) (aged 67) |
| Area | Artist |
| Awards | World Fantasy Award—Artist 1986 |
Jeffrey Catherine Jones (January 10, 1944 – May 19, 2011)[1] was an American artist whose work is best known from the late 1960s through the 2000s. Jones created the cover art for more than 150 books through 1976, as well as venturing into fine art during and after this time. Fantasy artistFrank Frazetta supposedly described Jones as "the greatest living painter" and she included the quote on her website, but the source of the quote is unknown and Frazetta denied ever having said it when asked.[2] Although Jones first achieved fame as simplyJeff Jones and later asJeffrey Jones, she transitioned to female and added Catherine as a middle name in 1998.
Jeffrey Durwood Jones was born January 10, 1944,[3] and raised inAtlanta,Georgia.[4] As a child, her father was overseas in the military.[4] She graduated fromGeorgia State College[5] in 1967 with a degree in geology and was keenly interested in art and admired the work ofJohannes Vermeer,Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, andRembrandt.[6]
Jones moved to New York City to pursue an art career and quickly found work drawing comics pages forKing Comics,Gold Key Comics,Creepy,Eerie, andVampirella, as well asWally Wood'sWitzend.[3] She painted covers for books, including theAce paperback editions ofFritz Leiber'sFafhrd and the Gray Mouser series andAndre Norton'sPostmarked the Stars,The Zero Stone,Uncharted Stars and over 150 others. For a period during the early 1970s, Jones also provided illustrations toTed White'sFantastic. She drew many covers and short stories for a variety of comics publishers includingDC Comics,Skywald Publications, and Warren[7] but generally avoided the superhero genre.[8]
In the 1972–1975 issues ofNational Lampoon, Jones produced a full page strip entitledIdyl.[9]
From 1975 to 1979 Jones shared a workspace in Manhattan'sChelsea district withBernie Wrightson,Barry Windsor-Smith, andMichael Kaluta, collectively namedThe Studio.Dragon's Dream produced a volume of their work in 1979. Industry journalistTom Spurgeon commented on the broader significance and influence of The Studio in his obituary of Jones atThe Comics Reporter:
The legacy of that much talent doing what was collectively very good work at a point of almost monolithic and degrading corporate influence over the kind of art they wanted to do has provided The Studio with a legacy that can be embraced even by those that didn't particularly care for the artists' output. The idea of a dedicated workplace that would allow for coercive influence one artist to another has been carried over into very nearly [every] cartoonists' collective space initiative since.[10]
By the early 1980s she had a recurring strip inHeavy Metal titledI'm Age.[9] CartoonistsWalter Simonson andJ. D. King said at the time that Jones had a growing interest inexpressionism and did not pursue comic work as closely thereafter.
In 1964, while attendingGeorgia State College, Jones met fellow studentMary Louise Alexander (later notable as writer Louise Simonson). The two began dating and married in 1966. Their daughter Julianna was born the following year. After graduation, the couple moved to New York City but divorced in the early 1970s.[5]
As an adult, Jones recalled wanting to be a girl from her earliest memories. She confronted these issues in 1998 and beganhormone replacement therapy.[4] Comics writer and journalist Steven Ringgenberg elaborated on the transition in an obituary/tribute to Jones atThe Comics Journal:
It's now known from the artist's personal writings that she had felt conflicted about her gender since childhood, always feeling a greater affinity for the fair sex than for her own maleness. Having grown up as a product of the patriarchal 1950s, with a domineering war-hero father, Jones did not know how to cope with her yearning to be female, and felt ashamed. For years she tried to drown these feelings in alcohol, but, after much soul-searching, Jones realized that although she'd been born male, inside she was a woman. She began hormone replacement therapy in 1998, and set out upon a new phase of life as a woman, changing her name to Jeffrey Catherine Jones. Yet even this transition did not bring peace to this gentle, troubled artist, for in 2001, she suffered anervous breakdown, which led to the loss of her home and studio. However, she eventually recovered, and by 2004 began painting and drawing again.[3]
Jones' personal Facebook page reported following her death: "Legendary fantasy artist Jeffrey Catherine Jones passed away today, Thursday, May 19, 2011, at 4:00 am surrounded by family. Jeffrey suffered from severeemphysema andbronchitis as well ashardening of the arteries around the heart..."[11]
In 1967, Jones was nominated for theHugo Award for Best Fan Artist; she was also nominated for theHugo Award for Best Professional Artist in 1970, 1971, and 1972. In 1975 she was nominated for theWorld Fantasy Award—Artist, and won it in 1986. In 2006 she was presented with Spectrum’s Grand Master Award; per her request the name on the award’s plaque reads “Jeffrey Jones.” She explained, “That’s how people know me. That’s how I want to be remembered.” Additionally, Jones was nominated for theChesley Award in 1999.[12]
In 2012 a film retrospective on DVD by Maria P. Cabardo was released byIndiegogo featuring interviews with friends, fellow artists, and the artist herself titledBetter Things: The Life and Choices of Jeffrey Catherine Jones.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)As interim editor for only five issue, series writer Denny O'Neil felt free to experiment, resulting in two very offbeat covers by illustrator Jeff Jones...This [Wonder Woman #199] and the following issue's covers are Jones' only super-hero work for DC.
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