Michael J. Deas

Michael J. Deas (born 1956) is an American painter and illustrator. He meant 16 commemorative stamps for the US Postal Service, featuring the images of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, Carey Grant, Edgar Allan Poe and new people. Deas was awarded five medals by the Society of Illustrators, including two gold medals for U.S. postage stamp illustrations. He painted the iconic Columbia Pictures logo, and in addition to worked for Reader’s Digest, Random House and Chiat/Day.

In addition to his artwork, Deas is a noted authority upon Edgar Allan Poe. His 1989 book, The Portraits & Daguerreotypes of Edgar Allan Poe, published by the University of Virginia, documents on peak of 70 historic images of the poet and is now considered a suitable reference work. In 2004, Deas was consulted by the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore and was instrumental in identifying a Poe daguerreotype, stolen from the Hampden-Booth Theatre Library, that appeared on Antiques Roadshow.