Basil Gogos

Acclaimed illustrator Basil Gogos was born in Egypt to Greek parents. He moved with his family to America when he was sixteen years old. Gogos attended several New York area schools which include the National School of Design, the Phoenix School of Design, and the School of the Visual Arts. Moreover, Basil studied with noted illustrator Frank J. Reilly at the Art Students League of New York. After winning a competition sponsored by Pocket Books, Gogos began his professional career with his first cover painting for the Western paperback novel "Pursuit" in 1959. He provided cover illustrations for men's adventure magazines in the early 1960's. Basil achieved his greatest enduring popularity with his remarkable cover illustrations for nearly 50 issues of the beloved horror cinema magazine "Famous Monsters of Filmland" (the first cover he did was for the ninth issue in 1960). Gogos not only did drawings of such iconic horror thespians as Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Lon Chaney, and Peter Cushing, but also such classic horror characters as Dracula, the Mummy, Frankenstein's monster, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Godzilla, King Kong, the Wolf Man, and the Phantom of the Opera. Other publications Basil did cover art for are "Eerie," "Creepy," "Spaceman," "Wildest Westerns," and "The Spirit." In the late 1970's Gogos decided to focus more on fine art; he did personal art pieces in watercolor and other media. He also worked as a photo retoucher in the ad department for United Artists, did occasional illustrations for movie posters, and later moved into advertising where he produced presentation sketches and storyboards for a major ad agency. Basil returned to the horror genre in the mid-1990's; his work has appeared on trading cards, lithographs, and the covers of the magazine "Monsterscene." In addition, Gogos painted CD covers for Rob Zombie, The Misfits, and Electric Frankenstein. The coffee table book "Famous Monster Movie Art of Basil Gogos" was published by Vanguard Productions in 2005. In 2006 Gogos was the recipient of the Rondo Hutton Classic Horror Awards' Special Monster Kid Hall of Fame Award for his exceptional contributions to classic horror. Basil died on September 14, 2017.