Pope, Kevin 1958-

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Pope, Kevin 1958-

Personal

Born 1958, in Carmel, IN. Education: Attended Indiana University and John Herron School of Art.

Addresses

Office—Kevin Pope Illustration, 37375 E. Cleve Butcher Rd., Bloomington, IN 47491. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Illustrator and cartoonist. MAD magazine, staff cartoonist for "Melvin and Jenkins" strip; creator of "Fishstiks" daily cartoon blog. Freelance illustrator and animator.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

The Day Gravity Was Turned off in Topeka: and Other Short-lived Phenomena of Modern Life, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1985.

The Dance of the Seven Veals, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1991.

Author and illustrator of "Fishstiks" daily cartoon blog.

ILLUSTRATOR

David Holt and Bill Money, retellers, The Exploding Toilet: Modern Urban Legends, August House (Little Rock, AK), 2004.

Margaret Hamilton and Mitch Weiss, Scared Witless: Thirteen Eerie Tales to Tell, August House (Little Rock, AK), 2006.

Work has appeared in periodicals, including MAD and Forbes.

ILLUSTRATOR; "FRANKLIN WATTS PREP" SERIES

Marc Tyler Nobleman, Extraordinary E-Mails, Letters, and Resumes, Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 2006.

Steven Otfinoski, Extraordinary Short Story Writing, Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 2006.

Tamra Orr, Extraordinary Essays, Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 2006.

Margaret Ryan, Extraordinary Oral Presentations, Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 2006.

Tamra Orr, Extraordinary Debates, Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 2007.

Sidelights

Kevin Pope is an illustrator whose quirky drawings have appeared in print advertising and as editorial cartoons as well as in the pages of children's books. First earning widespread recognition as a cartoonist for popular MAD magazine, Pope's cartoon illustrations gain much of their humor from his surreal distortion of the human form. Since he began his career in the 1980s, his work has appeared in the pages of periodicals such as Forbes, and he has also won new fans through his "Fishstiks" cartoon blog, which satirizes America's corporate culture.

As a book illustrator, Pope has created artwork for picture books as well as for the "Franklin Watts Prep" series of informational nonfiction titles. In Extraordinary Debates, for instance, his humorous and "lighthearted" pictures of chatty bovines help transform the "instructional book into one that is entertaining," in the opinion of School Library Journal contributor Marcia Kochel. In his work for Scared Witless: Thirteen Eerie Tales to Tell, an anthology by storytellers Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss, Pope brings to life stories ranging from "The Hairy Toe" to "The Brave Woman and the Flying Head," and gas-station muggers and unpleasant roach infestations provide ample inspiration for his comic talent in the pages of David Holt and Bill Money's anthology The Exploding Toilet: Modern Urban Legends.

Biographical and Critical Sources

BOOKS

Evanier, Mark, MAD Art: A Visual Celebration of the Art of MAD Magazine and the Idiots Who …, Watson Guptill, 2002.

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2006, review of Scared Witless: Thirteen Eerie Tales to Tell, p. 904.

Kliatt, September, 2004, Claire Rosser, review of The Exploding Toilet: Modern Urban Legends, p. 40.

School Library Journal, August, 2004, Tracy Karbel, review of The Exploding Toilet, p. 138; January, 2006, Linda Wadleigh, review of "Franklin Watts Prep" series, p. 160; February, 2006, Denise Moore, review of Extraordinary Short Story Writing, p. 152; January, 2007, Marcia Kochel, review of Extraordinary Debates, p. 154.