Gretta, J Clemens
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Artist.
Working name of US illustrator Joseph Clemens Gretter (1904-1988); he began signing his work simply as "Gretta" in the early 1930s. He illustrated many volumes for the Stratemeyer Syndicate, mostly for nonfantastic series like The Hardy Boys and the X Bar X Boys, though occasionally he did sf covers, like that for Castaways of the Stratosphere; Or, Hunting the Vanished Balloonists (1935) as by Franklin W Dixon in the Ted Scott Flying Stories sequence. His covers for tales by Eustace L Adams may have been restricted to nonfantastic work; certainly his cover for Harold M Sherman's Tahara sequence – one cover served for every volume in the series – showed only a very modest interest in the fantastic. His work as a cartoonist and illustrator for Comics, which extended from the beginning of his career in 1926 until a few years short of his death, was various but without particular distinction; in this context he is of greatest sf interest for illustrating a seventeen-issue sf comic book feature, "Don Drake on the Planet Saro" (February 1935-? 1936 New Fun Comics) by Ken Fitch. He also did the January 1942 cover for Weird Tales. [JC]
Joseph Clemens Gretter
born Benton County, Indiana: 11 December 1904
died Wilton, Connecticut: 8 April 1988
links
- Tellers of Weird Tales: Gretta
- Gretta at Pulpartists.com
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Picture Gallery
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