Michael Gross, the artist who created two of the most distinctive pop culture images of the 20th century, has died.

His son Dylan said his 70-year-old father died at his home in Oceanside, California. He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2014.

Gross first gained wide attention in 1973 for the National Lampoon cover of a dog with a gun to its head and the words: "If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog."

A decade later he created the enduring symbol of a confused-looking ghost in the middle of a slashed red circle for the film Ghostbusters.

More recently he launched a charity art project called Flip Cancer in which he and others drew raised middle fingers to protest at the disease.