Lou Brooks

Lou Brooks (born 1944 in Abington, Pennsylvania) is a self-taught American illustrator, cartoonist, and author. He is best known for his precise bold line work and graphic reinterpretation of mid-twentieth century comics, magazines, advertising, and other popular culture from the period.

Until the age of nine, Brooks lived with his parents and grandparents in Warminster, Pennsylvania. His grandfather, an immigrant brick layer from Piacenza, Italy, built the house by hand. By this time, Brooks's father had returned from World War II, and, in order to raise his family, had abandoned his pursuit of having a career as a comic strip artist. Brooks found himself immersed in his father's art supplies and discarded sketch books of unfinished comic strips, and easily took to drawing cartoons at an early age.

In 1954, he and his family moved to Levittown, Pennsylvania, and a life of postwar conformity in a community of over 17,000 assembly-line homes on 22 square miles. It was the largest suburban planned community in the United States. Living there greatly affected what was to become Brooks's lifelong aversion to sameness. Nevertheless, the suburban baby boomer popular culture of the 1950s, which included comic books, cars, rock and roll music, and television, influenced Brooks's sensibilities to a large extent.

His career in art began in 1965 as a production artist in the advertising art department of a Philadelphia newspaper, which he credits as giving him a thorough well-rounded knowledge of the graphic arts. He and his wife, Clare Vanacore, relocated to New York City in 1977, and lived there until 1994. They now reside in Northern California.

Beginning in the 1970s, Brooks's art has appeared in just about every major national publication, including fourteen commissions for Time and Newsweek covers, as well as six for the German news publication Der Spiegel. Other publications in which his illustrations have appeared include The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The LA Times, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, Fortune, Money Magazine, Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, Wired, and Reader's Digest, to name a few.

In 1985, Parker Brothers commissioned Brooks to redesign the Monopoly game logo and illustrate an updated version of the character Mr. Monopoly (formerly known as Rich Uncle Pennybags). He was also commissioned at the time to develop and illustrate the game's special "50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition" embossed tin box packaging. The art was also carried over onto the more traditional cardboard game box which was revised especially for the Anniversary. His Monopoly design and logo is still familiar to anyone who has played the game.

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