Jeffrey Catherine Jones was part of a group of artists who helped to redefine both book illustration and comics in the 1970s. Jones passed away yesterday at age 67, but her incredible artwork will live on.
Jones was one of four artists who formed The Studio in the mid-1970s — the others were Berni Wrightson, Michael Kaluta and Barry Windsor-Smith. Frank Frazetta referred to her as "the greatest living painter."
Jones' artwork graced the covers of such iconic fantasy works as Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. And her comics work included everything from Batman covers to racy, adventurous comics for Heavy Metal and other publications.
Jones inspired a whole generation of artists to reach for something more vivid and thrilling in their fantasy and comics artwork. Jones was also one of the most successful transgender artists in comics and fantasy art — she told Sequential Tart in 2004, "Men - and I used to be one - can't draw any better than women." There's a documentary about her in the works from former Vertigo Comics art director Maria Cabardo.
As she wrote on her own website, "Do I have a handle on it? Not on your life. I make it up as I go along. Love is daily and unafraid. I have lost and I have gained and I thank God for all that is left."
Check out some of our favorite images from her in the gallery below. (Warning: A few images are probably somewhat NSFW.) Images via Ferret Press and Golden Age Comic Book Stories. [Comic Book Resources, thanks to John Shirley.]