Reed Leonard Crandall (February 22, 1917 – September 13, 1982)[1][2] was an American illustrator and penciller of comic books and magazines.

[8] Crandall's art influences included the painters and commercial illustrators N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle and James Montgomery Flagg.

[11] Other early work includes inking the pencil art of future industry legend Jack Kirby on two of the earliest Captain America stories, "The Ageless Orientals That Wouldn't Die", in Captain America Comics #2 (April 1941),[12] and "The Queer Case of the Murdering Butterfly and the Ancient Mummies" in #3 (May 1941).

Joining a group that included artists Johnny Craig, Jack Davis, Will Elder, Frank Frazetta, Graham Ingels, Jack Kamen, Bernard Krigstein and Wally Wood, Crandall made his debut there with the six-page story "Bloody Sure", written by Al Feldstein, in The Haunt of Fear #20 (August 1953).

Crandall's work for Classics Illustrated consisted of joint projects with EC veteran George Evans on four titles: No.

[15] In 1960, he went under contract[citation needed] with the publisher of Treasure Chest, a comic book distributed exclusively through parochial schools.

[18] Crandall, who had left New York City in the 1960s in order to care for his ailing mother in Wichita, Kansas, had developed alcoholism.

[6][19] Recovering by the time of his mother's death, he nonetheless suffered debilitated health and left art in 1974 to work as a night watchman and janitor for the Pizza Hut general headquarters in Wichita.

[6] After suffering a stroke that year, he spent his remaining life in a nursing home and died in 1982 of a heart attack.