Remember James Bama – From Art To Horror
When I was a kid, I visited my local comic shop where I first laid eyes on the Aurora model kits for Godzilla and King Kong. These kits were bright and colorful and really captured my eyes. However, on a small allowance of $5 in 1990, these were not something I could afford, so I begrudgingly stuck to my monthly issues of Amazing Spider-Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Years later, when I was attending my first convention, I saw more and more of these model kits based on the likes of Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster, The Wolf Man and other various Universal monsters. I came to learn they all bore the artwork of James Bama, a man I would eventually learn more and more about. It turned out, I had seen his art at various points while growing up – from the Man of Bronze, Doc Savage to his depictions of Native Americans and Cowboys and other styles of western art.
Growing up in New York, James learned his style of art from copying the old Flash Gordan comic strips. As the US entered World War II when James was a teenager, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, training to be a navigator and was stationed in several southern states during that time. The war ended before he went overseas, but he still qualified for the G.I. Bill, and thus was able to go to the Art Students League, where he studied under the illustrator Frank J. Reilly. In fact, the first image for the original Star Trek television series that appeared in TV Guide was James’ work. It was in the 1960s when his fame with horror fans would take root, as he secured a job for the Aurora model kit company. While there, James would produce beautiful paintings of the various horror icons of yesteryear – with a total of thirteen monster models produced by Aurora in the early-to-mid sixties. Sadly, the original art for these model kits was lost to time. The kits themselves have lived on, thanks to Polar Lights reissuing the vintage kits – along with their wonderful James Bama artwork.
James Bama passed away April 24 2022, he was 93 years old. James had been inducted into the Illustrator’s Hall of Fame in June of 2000, while also being honored in the Monster Kid Hall Of Fame at The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards in 2005.
A documentary titled The Aurora Monsters: The Model Craze That Gripped the World can be found on select streaming services and second-hand DVD retailers, which goes into great detail about the history of the models – as is hosted by Zacherley. James Bama’s artwork will continue to live in infamy, as being one of the original gateways into horror fandom for the Monster Kids of the 1960s and ‘70s, to the modern HorrorHounds who were able to celebrate these kits during their reissue phases.
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Chris Denmead hosts a midnight horror themed radio show The Dr. Chris Radio of Horror show in Worcester MA. The show has been broadcasting on 91.3 FM from the WCUW building since Oct, 2007 It Airs Sunday night at 10pm. He recently published Vlada a Dracula Tale, a Graphic Novella and Audio Book and Tie in Prequel Comic Book with artist Ken Hunt. He gender swaps the cast of Dracula. He lives in Framingham MA. He has one son and his Black Cat. When he is not writing books on the most unusual filmmakers in New England, he is watching Godzilla movies with his son or playing video games. He is an avid comic book collector.
