THE ART OF ROGER KASTEL

An American artist, most famous for creating the poster for the film Jaws

- Matthew Kastel

Stacked unceremoniously in a box among other mementos from Roger Kastel’s career can be found a well-preserved copy of his first paid job as an artist. It’s a full-sized comic book designed to teach industrial workers how to perform their trade better.

As his son, I’m quite familiar with my father’s work—or at least thought I was—but this found work was new to me. I’m shocked at how sophisticated these early cartoons are, especially considering Dad was only 15 years old at the time. I recall what I was doing with my life at the same age, and the comparison embarrasses me.

As an early dusk falls outside my father’s Massachusetts home on the short days between Christmas and New Year’s, I pull up a seat next to Dad, each of us within an easy arm’s length of eggnogs with a spot of whiskey in them.

My father is best known for his Jaws and Empire Strikes Back movie posters and countless illustrations of best-selling and popular books. Now entering his seventy-third year of being a professional artist, he has enjoyed an extraordinary career. At age 88 he is still painting and is still sought out frequently by the media and those in the memorabilia business for interviews and public appearances.

For the next several hours I do something long overdue: interview him, partly for family history and partly to preserve a little bit of Americana because, after all, he is a man who produced some of the most recognizable images of the 20th century. I push the record button and begin talking with a man who tries to come off as unremarkable. But I know better, and have known so for a long time.