Remembering Sweet Valley cover artist James Mathewuse

Hi everyone,

I’m sorry to have this be my first post in a while, but some of my recent reader comments reminded me that I have something sad to share with you. This news is from last year and has been mentioned in a few other Sweet Valley fan sites, but I’m not sure how many people are aware: Beloved Sweet Valley High original cover artist, James “Jimmy” Mathewuse, passed away last October. He was 83 years old, and by many accounts (including my readers’) he was continuing to create works of art well into his later years. Along with illustrating covers for Sweet Valley High and Sweet Valley Twins, he was responsible for MANY more popular paperback covers, including those found on Black Beauty and the popular paperback series The Nancy Drew Case Files and The Hardy Boys Files, as well as many adult novels.

Here is a link to his obituary.

Note: As of this writing, his website, jimmyART.com, appears to be down (hopefully only temporarily). In the meantime, you can find an archived version via The Wayback Machine, here. This page also contains a longer and more thorough obituary.

If you commissioned work from Mr. Mathewuse, met or knew him, or have any thoughts to share, please feel free to share a comment with your memories of him!

Thanks for sharing your beautiful talents with us, Jimmy! Rest well.

Jimmy with his iconic SVH portrait that started it all! (credit: JimmyART.com)