Jeffrey Catherine Jones, illustrator and artist passed away on May 19th due to complications from severe emphysema and bronchitis at the age of 67. Jones had been battling illness for some time.

Born in 1944, Jones describes an encounter at the age of six with the work of Joe Kubert began a lifelong passion for illustration:

In 1951 or so, I, a six year old squirt, peered way up at a circular comic rack in a drug store and spied Kubert's TOR 3D comic. I had no idea there was a Kubert back then, but I know that I suddenly wanted to draw comics, to create heroes (maybe to protect me from my parents and other bullies in the neighborhood). I grew, I drew, I took art history and saw what painters had done with visions. Now I wanted to paint (to protect myself from the bullies in life). I drew comics for fanzines starting around 1964 and did my first professional comic job for Witzend in 1966, though it was published years later. I went underground": Last Gasp comics, SCREW Magazine, The East Village Other, while fighting with publishers all the while in New York. Comics are "real art" to me. The combination of words and pictures is a literal, vastly unexplored territory.

You have to be a real talent for the late, great Frazetta to call you "the greatest living painter," or experience the outpouring of affection from comics creators during the course of the day. But then, Jones amassed a healthy body of work which will live on after her death, including numerous fantasy and sci-fi covers including Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. During her career, Jones amassed a World Fantasy award for Best Artist, and was nominated multiple times for the Hugo award, first as Best Fan Artist and then later as Best Professional Artist (via Wikipedia).

Although many forthcoming obituaries and write-ups about Jones will make note of her transition in later years from simply "Jeffrey" to "Jeffrey Catherine," as well as the emotional and financial difficulties that troubled her final years, Jones should be primarily remembered for her bold, frequently haunting artwork that on occasion excelled the prose with which it was associated.

You can see some of Jones' work on her site.

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