CBR: R.I.P. Al Williamson

[CBR News]

The legendary artist of "Flash Gordon," "Star Wars" and many, many more science fiction and genre comics known for their illustrative power has reportedly passed away at the age of 79.


Full article here.

[jsf]

Sorry to hear this. Legendary only partly describes his talent and output.

Definitely a great artist who provided some amazingly wonderful work.

[steve2275]

he's hanging out with kirby now

[jason_w]

Sad to hear about this.

His talent was absolutely amazing.

[Leocomix]

I was just in the middle of rereading his stellar run on Daredevil with Nocenti and Romita Jr. Yesterday night, I searched where else his inking was and I was planning to get some of the series he inked at Marvel for years. I had bought his Flash Gordon volume earlier this year. I discovered he inked many series in the 90s when I avoided most of Marvel. He leaves an enormous legacy.

[PaxHouse]

He was indeed one of the best Inkers.....And his talents will truly be missed.

[Robert Beerbohm]

At the 1971 July 4th New York City Seulingcon, my partner Steve and Johnson and I had brought along a huge pile of Prince Valiant Sunday fulls we had scored a couple weeks prior at that year's Dallascon from some Oklahoma collectors who had scored several of each from 1928 thru the late 40s.

Seems some pharmacy in Oklahoma had never returned any of their unsold newspapers, which piled up in the basement for decades until comics collectors got in there, pulling out all the Sunday sections, which they sliced into their respective 'hot' strip stacks.

The first hour of the show a fellow comes up and begins flipping thru the pages all neatly stacked up.

He tells us he had mounted his collection into scrap books, had cut apart the panels using rubber cement and now (then) some 25-30 years later, the rubber cement had come thru staining the panels, so he was going around replacing the pages as best he could.

He was astounded to see a near complete run from when Prince Valiant went national in nice white paper full pages, and several of each page to choose from. He was in Foster heaven.

Around this time a tall older fellow came up to our table, introduced himself as Roy Krenkel, saying he had a pile of EC preliminary sketch drawings in ink done up for every Al Williamson EC story.

Seems Roy had done the layouts for all the panels of Al's early EC stories. He wanted fifty cents to a buck a panel.

We regaled Roy with how much we loved Al's EC stories, loved all his work we had seen to date, in fact, and proceeded to purchase well over a hundred of these panels.

I still have a few stuck away in a box some where. Saw them again a couple years ago, now trying to find that box again now that i got my warehouse moved in April into a 4000 square foot flat one floor space

Krenkel just seemed to go on and on how he taught Al Williamson how to draw and do comics. The fellow to his left just kept flipping thru the Foster Valiant fulls, a slight smile came to his face, as he pulled out one of each from the couple foot tall stack.

Around this time a lady walked up, marveling at the pile of 30s and 40s Walt Disney stuff w ehad piled up, scored out in the midwest from innumerable antique shops, flea markets, etc including stuff like unopened rolls of 1930s Disney wall trim, all kinds of ceramic planters from such movies as Fantasia, etc.

She said her family had recently moved to Pennsylvania, she wanted to do her kitchen in Disneyana. She also was conversing like old friends with Roy and the fellow picking out the best PV page from each week.

She picked out some three grand worth of our vintage Disney material.

Right before she was finished, the PV fellow excuses himself, saying he would be right back, which he does with an art portfolio in tow.

He then asked if we would be interested in trading for some Al Williamson art?

Steve and I, still clueless teenagers in New York City at our second Seulingcon, proceeded to gush how much we loved Williamson's work.

When he opened up his portfolio case, it suddenly dawned on us who our PV guy was, as we proceeded to trade for some 60 Secret Agent Corrigan dailies, as well as some 1950s comic book pages.

The lady? The next day we did a horse trade with Frank Frazetta for 90 Johnny Comet dailies he valued at three for a hundred dollars. At the end of the show, Frank gave all the rest of his Comet originals to Russ Cochran who immediately made them a hundred each.

That was a fun show, I miss them both, there aren't too many left from the days that used to be

Robert Beerbohm
http://stores.ebay.com/BLBcomics

[Oeming]

Al was a great guy. I was lucky enough to know him a little. An amazing artist. I learned to not use a ruler for straight lines to make my work look more organic on stuff like Powers and Mice Templar. A great artist indeed. His work will live on.
M!

[batlash]

What a great loss, and so soon after losing Frank Frazetta...

When I read an adventure story, in my mind the hero always looks like an Al Williamson drawing.

I'm eagerly awaiting the first volume of IDW's collected "Secret Agent Corrigan" later this summer and hope it will be followed by many more reprints of great Williamson artwork that doesn't get anywhere near the exposure it deserves. Al will be missed, but he left a lot of great work to be discovered and rediscovered.

[J. Robb]

I was a big fan of his Star Wars work as a kid. He seemed like a real pro- great detail and epic adventure packed into daily newspaper strips. I use to wish he could do every issue of the monthly as well.

[grphxkindaguy]

I also loved Williamson's work, especially on Daredevil and Star Wars. He will be greatly missed.

[ceejay]

My dad was George Evans. We grew up with comic artists visiting the house, staying for dinner.

Al was the coolest of the cool. When he and Roy Krenkle visited, pretty soon the house was full of all the neighborhood kids. All the girls were dreamy-eyed over Al, all the little brothers wanted to be just like him.

He was the guy in the tight jeans, motorcycle boots, leather jacket, sun-glasses, and he used polaroid photos of himself as reference for his drawing of the hero -- whether Flash Gordon or Corrigan.

His first wife, Arlene, was my role model. She was his letterer and the sweetest lady on earth. I was blessed to grow up and letter Secret Agent Corrigan when Arlene was very ill. And I lettered Corrigan in her style after George took over the strip.

Rest in peace, Al. I hope you and George are lifting a glass together somewhere ... with Evie and Arlene baking cookies in the background ...

Heartfelt condolences to Al's lovely wife, Cory, and to their family ...

[Lt. Clutch]

First Frank and now Al. This is quite a shock. Al Williamson is one of my favorite artists ever, from his classic EC Comics work to his collaborations with Archie Goodwin, the Star Wars comic strip, and his inking for Marvel on books such as Daredevil.

I remember a photo of Al and his family beaming with happiness in the Art of Al Williamson book. That's how I shall always remember him. I never had the chance to meet Al, and the world is a sadder place without him.

My condolences to his family and all those who loved him.

[FrankLovece]

When Mike Okamoto and I sold our four-issue series ATOMIC AGE to Marvel's Epic Comics in 1990, that was thrill enough. To be told that the legendary Al Williamson was going to ink it -- well, pinch us, we're dreaming. I still have a few pages of Mike and Al's work that Mike generously gave me. To see Al's careful lines and exquisitely detailed shadings "live" remains a thrill.

Al won an Eisner for his work on ATOMIC AGE and DAREDEVIL that year; Mike won Comic-Con's Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award for it. (I got some good reviews and went on to write for Marvel for five years.) Al spoke on the phone with Mike once toward the end of those 200 pages they did together -- 196 interiors and four covers -- and said he'd ink Mike anytime. Given that Al had his choice of inking whomever he wanted, and was never known as a bull-shitter, that compliment was something Mike continues to cherish.

I'm a little concerned we're jumping the gun -- an unnamed Twitter post being cited as a "source" seems irresponsible, and only minutely mitigated by CBR saying the news is not officially confirmed. (I'm not sure what "officially confirmed" means -- "confirmed" means just that, confirmed ... an undisputed, verifiable fact.)

Maybe it's wishful thinking that the news could wrong, as death announcements sometimes are ... we lost George Tuska recently, and so many more of the greats are in their 80s. At least many of them have lived to see late-life accolades, biographical books and mainstream appreciation and respect that didn't come their way in the days of 10- and 12-cent newsprint disposable culture. Let's assume the sad news is true: Al got the respect and admiration he deserved while he lived, and not a lot of people can say that.

[Cam63]

My dad was George Evans. We grew up with comic artists visiting the house, staying for dinner.

Al was the coolest of the cool. When he and Roy Krenkle visited, pretty soon the house was full of all the neighborhood kids. All the girls were dreamy-eyed over Al, all the little brothers wanted to be just like him.

He was the guy in the tight jeans, motorcycle boots, leather jacket, sun-glasses, and he used polaroid photos of himself as reference for his drawing of the hero -- whether Flash Gordon or Corrigan.

His first wife, Arlene, was my role model. She was his letterer and the sweetest lady on earth. I was blessed to grow up and letter Secret Agent Corrigan when Arlene was very ill. And I lettered Corrigan in her style after George took over the strip.

Rest in peace, Al. I hope you and George are lifting a glass together somewhere ... with Evie and Arlene baking cookies in the background ...

Heartfelt condolences to Al's lovely wife, Cory, and to their family ...

Cheers, Ceejay.