US Stamps

Jack Davis, designer of 1989 U.S. Letter Carriers stamp, dead at 91

Jul 28, 2016, 10 AM

Prolific illustrator and cartoonist Jack Davis, who died July 27 at age 91, designed the 1989 25¢ Letter Carriers stamp for the United States Postal Service.

By Charles Snee

Prolific illustrator Jack Davis, perhaps best known for his work in the pages of Mad magazine, died June 27 in St. Simons Island, Ga.

Mr. Davis’ work also appeared on the covers of Time and TV Guide, and on one United States commemorative stamp.

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The 1989 25¢ Letter Carriers stamp (Scott 2420) features a jaunty cartoon drawing of three smiling U.S. Postal Service workers, each slinging a mail bag over a shoulder.

“Until the Letter Carriers stamp, postage stamps were one of the few places Davis’ distinctive drawings hadn’t appeared,” writes George Amick in Linn’s 1989 U.S. Stamp Yearbook.

Amick notes that Mr. Davis was selected to design the Letter Carriers stamp based on his poster for a 1986 USPS promotional campaign that pictured “a self-confident letter carrier.”

In 1996, Mr. Davis received an award for lifetime achievement from the National Cartoonists Society.

The Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame welcomed Mr. Davis to its ranks in 2005.