In addition to being an illustrator, George Fort Gibbs (1870-1942) was also an author, having written more than 50 books, mainly in the spy and adventure genres. Eleven of these were made into films.
He painted the Post’s first color cover, for its January 27, 1900, issue. Gibbs also created the Post’s first military cover, an action depiction of U.S. soldiers on horseback in the Philippines from the March 31, 1900, issue.
Gibbs sold his first illustration in 1896, to the new magazine Vogue, for ten dollars. Two years later, he moved to Philadelphia at the invitation of Cyrus Curtis, founder of the Curtis Publishing Company, and publisher of The Saturday Evening Post. Gibbs ultimately painted 44 covers for the Post, many of them reflecting the military and exotic adventure themes of his novels.