William Douglas Rosa (1932-1977) painted two* Bantam covers in the Doc Savage series: The Lost Oasis and…
William Douglas Rosa (1932-1977) painted two* Bantam covers in the Doc Savage series: The Lost Oasis and The Land of Terror. Vincent diFate postulated that Rosa got the call to do the covers while James Bama was on his honeymoon.
Douglas Rosa was an illustration artist from Long Island, who began his career as a freelance artist at age 19. He is perhaps best known for his depictions of the Viet Nam War where he was among several artists given temporary commissions by the Marine Corps fine arts program to spend seven weeks sketching battlefield scenes. His most famous work portrays the beloved U.S. Marine Corps chaplain and Catholic priest Lt. Vincent Robert Capodanno (1929-1967) on a Viet Nam battlefield. Capodanno lost his life ministering to troops in the Quang Tin province of Vietnam. Rosa’s painting was presented in 1975 to the Naval Base in Newport, Rhode Island, after Capodanno posthumously won the Congressional Medal of Honor. Rosa also has extensive credits for his western cowboy and science fiction illustrations and covers for popular books, including a series by fantasy author Talbot Mundy, as well as a series of Biblical scenes for The Living Story of the Old Testament by Walter Russell Bowie (1959). He worked in a realist style, and expressed a preference for “dramatic scenes and faces.” — George Glazer Gallery
A friend of Rosa’s, Cherane Pefly, wrote that Rosa passed away at the age of 42. I found a record of Rosa at the Long Island National Cemetery. Pefley also republished a flyer about Rosa:
* – James Nobel has suggested that Stanley Meltzoff painted the cover of The Lost Oasis (see entry for more information.)
