James Bama, a legendary commercial painter whose work covered over five dozen Doc Savage novels before transitioning to award-winning fine art depicting Native Americans and cowboys in Wyoming over the course of five decades, has passed away at the age of 95.

Bama grew up in Manhattan during the Great Depression and started drawing as a child, inspired by adventure comic strips like Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon. He sold his first drawing when he was just 15. He graduated from high school during World War Ii and served in the Army Air Forces for a year and a half. When he was discharged, he studied at the Art Students League and went to work at the Charles E. Cooper Studios as a commercial illustrator in 1951. He did illustrations for magazines, movie posters and covers of novels. Starting in 1964 with his iconic cover for The Man of Bronze, Bama painted over 60 Doc Savage covers for Bantam Books...

During this period, he also famously did the paintings for the Aurora monster model kits...

Bama's work was widely beloved, and he became a major influence on a number of other painters and illustrators, including famed comic book painter, Alex Ross, who described Bama's influence, "Bama's influence on me is in his monochromatic approach, which I have tried to replicate on many different subjects. A lot of James Bama's lighting style is what I try to go for, pushing heavy charismatic shadows on the figures to amplify drama. When I think of the realistic painters I admire, like Rockwell, their work is often not as similar to my objectives as Bama's is."

After marrying in 1964, Bama eventually moved to Wyoming as a guest of the Bob Meyers, a Charles E. Cooper Studio colleague of Bama's who gave up a very successful career as a commercial illustrator to move to Wyoming to run a ranch. Bama and his wife visited Meyers a few times before moving to Wyoming permanently themselves in 1968 (living in a cabin on Meyers' ranch), drawing contemporary Western subjects during the day while continuing freelance work at night.

His paintings of Native Americans and cowboys in Wyoming drew him a new wave of critical acclaim...

His 1970 portrait of Roy Benzona (as "Old Man Wyoming" - Benzona was born the day Wyoming became a state) is displayed at the Smithsonian Art Museum...

Bama just recently received the Governor's Art Award in February, where he spoke of his subjects as “the last survivors of a vanishing world."

Bama was just four days shy of his 96th birthday when he passed away on April 24.