| Al Williamson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Alfonso Williamson (1931-03-21)March 21, 1931 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | June 12, 2010(2010-06-12) (aged 79) Upstate New York, U.S. |
| Area | Penciller,Inker |
| Awards | Eisner Award Best Inker (1991, 1997) Eisner Award Hall of Fame (2000) Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame (2010) |
Alfonso Williamson[1] (March 21, 1931[2] – June 12, 2010)[3][4] was an Americancartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator specializing inadventure,Western, science fiction andfantasy.
Born in New York City, he spent much of his early childhood inBogotá, Colombia before moving back to the United States at the age of 12. In his youth, Williamson developed an interest incomic strips, particularlyAlex Raymond'sFlash Gordon. He took art classes atBurne Hogarth'sCartoonists and Illustrators School, there befriending future cartoonistsWally Wood andRoy Krenkel, who introduced him to the work of illustrators who had influenced adventure strips. Before long, he was working professionally in the comics industry. His most notable works include hisscience-fiction/heroic-fantasy art forEC Comics in the 1950s, on titles includingWeird Science andWeird Fantasy.
In the 1960s, he gained recognition for continuing Raymond's illustrative tradition with his work on theFlash Gordon comic-book series, and was a seminal contributor to theWarren Publishing's black-and-whitehorror comics magazinesCreepy andEerie. Williamson spent most of the 1970s working on his own credited strip, another Raymond creation,Secret Agent X-9. The following decade, he became known for his work adaptingStar Wars films to comic books and newspaper strips. From the mid-1980s to 2003, he was primarily active as aninker, mainly onMarvel Comicssuperhero titles starring such characters asDaredevil,Spider-Man, andSpider-Girl.
Williamson is known for his collaborations with a group of artists includingFrank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel,Angelo Torres, andGeorge Woodbridge, which was affectionately known as the "Fleagle Gang". Williamson has been cited as a stylistic influence on a number of younger artists, and encouraged many, helping such newcomers asBernie Wrightson andMichael Kaluta enter the profession. He has won several industry awards, and six career-retrospective books about him have been published since 1998. Living in Pennsylvania with his wife Corina, Williamson retired in his seventies.
Williamson was inducted into theWill Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2000.
Al Williamson was born inManhattan, New York City, New York,[1] one of two children of Sally and Alfonso Williamson, who was ofScottish descent and aColombian citizen. The family relocated toBogotá, Colombia, when Al was two years old.[5] "My father was Colombian and my mother was American," Williamson said in 1997. "They met in the States, got married and went down there. I grew up down there so I learned both English and Spanish at the same time. It was comic books that taught me to read both languages."[6] At age nine, Williamson took an interest in comic strips via theMexican magazinePaquin, which featured American strips as well asUnderwater Empire byArgentinecartoonistCarlos Clemen. Later, Williamson was attracted toAlex Raymond'sFlash Gordon strip after his mother took him to see theFlash Gordon Conquers the Universe movie serial.[7] While living in Bogotá he met future cartoonist Adolfo Buylla, who befriended him and gave him artistic advice.[8] At age 12, in 1943, Williamson moved with his mother toSan Francisco, California; they later moved to New York.[5][9]
In the mid-1940s Williamson continued to pursue his interest in cartooning and began to take art classes withTarzan cartoonistBurne Hogarth, and later at Hogarth'sCartoonists and Illustrators School. There he met future cartoonistsWally Wood andRoy Krenkel. According to Williamson, "Roy broadened my collecting horizons, he became my guide to all the great illustrators — the artists who directly influenced adventure cartoonists like [Alex] Raymond and[Hal] Foster. He showed meJ.C. Coll,Franklin Booth, Joseph Franke,Dan Smith,Norman Lindsay,Fortunino Matania, and the greatBlue Book illustrators likeHerbert Morton Stoops and Frank Hoban."[10] As he continued to learn about the cartooning field, he would visit the comic-book publisherFiction House, meeting such artists asGeorge Evans,Bob Lubbers,John Celardo, andMort Meskin.[11]
Williamson's first professional work may have been helping Hogarth pencil someTarzan Sunday pages in 1948,[12] although Williamson, who had initially believed so, reconsidered in a 1983 interview and recalled that hisTarzan work had come after his first two pieces of comic-book art: providing spot illustrations for the story "The World's Ugliest Horse"[13] inEastern Color's seminal seriesFamous Funnies #166 (May 1948),[14] and a two-pageBoy Scouts story, his first comics narrative, inNew Heroic Comics #51 (Nov. 1948).[13][15][16] (Williamson is also identified as co-penciler, withFrank Frazetta, of a three-page crime story, "The Last Three Dimes", inStandard Comics'Wonder Comics #20 [Oct. 1948].)[16] Williamson explained that while Hogarth had offered himTarzan work, Williamson "just couldn't do it. ... I couldn't get it into my little brain that he wanted me to do it exactly the way that he did it," and instead successfully recommended Celardo, artist of theTarzan-like feature "Ka'a'nga" inFiction House'sJungle Comics.[13] As Williamson recalled:
...Hogarth got in touch with [Celardo], and the next thing you knew, he was penciling the Sunday page for him. He did it for quite some time and something must have happened ... but at that point I was going to the Hogarth school again in the evenings ... and he asked me again if I would like to give it a try, so I said OK. He gave me a page and he had already laid it out, so I just tightened it up. Then he gave me another page that I tightened up and he inked it. Then I said I'd like to try laying it out myself and asked if I could do that, and he said, 'Go ahead, Al,' and handed me the script. So I laid that page out on a sketchpad. He said fine and just made a couple of suggestions as to what I should do; then I just did it on the big Sunday page, and when I was through, he inked it and the other one I had done the same way, and that was it.[17]
During this period Williamson met his main stylistic influence, Raymond: "I had just turned 18. I had been in the business about six months or so. He gave me about two hours."[18]
From 1949 to 1951, Williamson worked onscience-fiction andWestern stories for publishers such asAmerican Comics Group (AGC),Avon Publications,Fawcett Comics,Standard Comics, and, possibly,Toby Press.[16] He began collaborating withFrank Frazetta, who often inked his work; and withRoy Krenkel, who often did backgrounds.[19] Examples of his work from that period include "Chief Victorio's Last Stand", in Avon'sChief Victorio's Apache Massacre (no number, no month, 1951); "Death in Deep Space", inMagazine Enterprises'Jet #4 (no month, 1951); and "Skull of the Sorcerer", in ACG'sForbidden Worlds #3 (Dec. 1951), inked byWally Wood.[16][20]
In 1952, upon the suggestion of artists Wally Wood andJoe Orlando,[21] Williamson began working forEC Comics, an influential comic book company with a reputation for quality artists.[22] While at EC, Williamson frequently collaborated with fellow artists Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel andAngelo Torres, a group which, along withNick Meglin andGeorge Woodbridge, became affectionately known as the "Fleagle Gang", named after a notorious criminal gang.[23] Williamson primarily worked on EC's science-fiction comicsWeird Science,Weird Fantasy, andWeird Science-Fantasy, illustrating both original stories, primarily by writerAl Feldstein, and adaptations of stories by authors such asRay Bradbury[24] andHarlan Ellison,[25] but his work occasionally appeared in EC'shorror andcrime comics as well.
Williamson worked at EC through 1956 until the cancellation of most of the company's line. Williamson's EC art has been lauded for its illustrative flamboyance, evident in such stories as "I, Rocket", inWeird Fantasy #20 (Aug. 1953), co-penciled and co-inked with Frank Frazetta; and "50 Girls 50", inWeird Science #20 (Aug. 1953), co-inked by Williamson and Frazetta.[16][26] His final published EC story was the 10-page "A Question of Time", inShock Illustrated #2 (Feb. 1956) with partial inking by Torres, who put his initials on the last page.[16] In the fall of 1956, writerLarry Ivie introduced Williamson to future comics writers-editorArchie Goodwin, with whom he would become friends and, later, a frequent collaborator. Williamson eventually helped Goodwin enter the comics field, having him script aHarvey Comics story, "The Hermit", penciled byReed Crandall and inked by Williamson.[27]
From 1955 to 1957, Williamson produced over 400 pages of three-to-five-page stories forAtlas Comics, the 1950s forerunner ofMarvel Comics, working in various genres but primarilyWesterns. He continued to collaborate with Torres and Krenkel, as well as withGray Morrow, George Woodbridge and Ralph Mayo.[28] With Mayo, one of the first editors to give Williamson work, atStandard Comics, Williamson collaborated on thejungle girl seriesJann of the Jungle #16–17 (April and June 1957). Following Mayo's death, Williamson drew stories solo for the planned #18, but the series was abruptly canceled before that issue could be published.[29] His "prolific though somewhat uneven two-year stint at Atlas",[30] where he first drewwar comics, yielded superlative art in such stories as "The City That Time Forgot", inMarvel Tales #144 (March 1956); "Menace from the Stars", inMystery Tales #44 (Aug. 1956); "The Unknown Ones", inAstonishing #57 (Jan. 1957); "Dreadnaught", inNavy Tales #2 (March 1957); and "Helpless", inBattle #55 (Nov. 1957).[16][30][31] While "something appeared to be missing from a lot of his Atlas work: enthusiasm," Williamson's Atlas Westerns, at least, "form a strongly consistent body of work, characterized by minimal to nonexistent action, a preponderance of closeups and reaction shots, and well-defined figures set against sparse backgrounds."[30]
From 1958 to 1959 Williamson worked forHarvey Comics collaborating with former EC artists Reed Crandall, Torres and Krenkel and inking the pencils ofJack Kirby (forRace to the Moon #2–3 andBlast-Off #1). On inking Kirby, Williamson relates: "I remember going up to Harvey and getting work there. They said, 'We haven't got any work for you, but we have some stories here that Jack penciled. Do you want to ink them?' I'd never really inked anybody else before, but I said, 'Sure,' because I looked at the stuff, and thought, I can followthis, it's all there. I inked it and they liked it, and they gave me three or four stories to do."[32]
Additionally, Williamson drew stories forClassics Illustrated (in collaboration with Crandall and Woodbridge);Canaveral Press's line ofEdgar Rice Burroughs books (inked by Crandall);[33] Westerns forDell Comics (includingGunsmoke #8–12) andCharlton Comics, including two complete issues of the Cheyenne Kid (#10–11) with Angelo Torres, and science-fiction stories for ACG, including "The Vortex", inForbidden Worlds #69 (1958).[28] He also worked with former EC artistJohn Severin on the "American Eagle" feature inPrize Comics Western #109 and #113 (1955).
Williamson's work during this decade was his most prolific in terms of comic book work and has garnered considerable praise for its high quality.[34] He has been noted for his perfectionism and love for the medium.[35] Despite its high reputation, S.C. Ringgenberg felt that Williamson's artwork from this period could at times be uneven and uninspired.[36] Williamson was single during this period and, according toThe Art of Al Williamson, had abohemian and undisciplined lifestyle.[37]
In 1960, with little work to be found in the comic book field due to a downturn in the industry, he went to work as an assistant toJohn Prentice on the Alex Raymond-created comic stripRip Kirby for a three-year period.[28] According to Williamson: "The reason that I was called in to help him out was that John had decided to go to Mexico and Mac [Al McWilliams], John's prior assistant, didn't want to go... The deal was: would I be willing to go to Mexico?... and I said 'Si!'..."[38] It proved to be a solid learning period for Williamson, as he credits Prentice with teaching him many fundamental illustration methods.[39] According to Prentice: "...he was terrific. He's the best guy I ever had by far."[40] During that time, Williamson assistedJohn Cullen Murphy on theBig Ben Bolt boxing strip andDon Sherwood on the stripDan Flagg.[41] He produced some sample pages for a proposedSunday strip version ofModesty Blaise.[42]
He returned to comics in 1965 doing one story each inGold Key Comics'Ripley's Believe It or Not! #1 (June 1965),The Twilight Zone #12 (Aug. 1965), andBoris Karloff Tales of Mystery #11 (Sept. 1965), and helped launchWarren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics magazinesCreepy andEerie with several stories in early issues, while contributing to Warren'swar comics magazineBlazing Combat. He was instrumental in recruiting other formerEC Comics artists as Frazetta, Krenkel, Torres, Crandall, and Evans, as well as artistGray Morrow and writer-editorArchie Goodwin.[43]
In 1966, he drew the first issue (Sept. 1966) of a newFlash Gordon comic book series, published byKing Features. Williamson's work received positive reader response, and returned to draw issues #4–5 (March and May 1967), as well as the cover of #3 (Jan. 1967). Williamson received aNational Cartoonist Society Best Comic Book art award for his work on that title.[44] In 1967, on the strength of a backup feature he had done in theFlash Gordon book, he took over another Alex Raymond creation, the long-runningSecret Agent X-9 comic strip, collaborating with writer Goodwin.[45] At the start of their tenure, the title was changed toSecret Agent Corrigan.[46]
Williamson helped assemble the first major book on Alex Raymond'sFlash Gordon, published byNostalgia Press in 1967, and wrote the introduction.[47] In 1966,Wally Wood's alternative-press comic bookwitzend #1 published Williamson's "Savage World", a 1956 story originally drawn for aBuster Crabbe comic book that had been cancelled. With significant contributions by Frazetta, Krenkel, and Torres, the story is a prime sample of the "Fleagle Gang" style and has since been reprinted byMarvel Comics (in the black-and-white comics magazineUnknown Worlds of Science Fiction #1, January 1975),Pacific Comics andKitchen Sink Press.[48] Wood would later write the script for a three-page story drawn by Williamson, "The Tube", in another alternative-press comic, publisherFlo Steinberg'sBig Apple Comix (1975).
By the end of the decade, Williamson was beginning to encourage younger artists whom he would meet atcomic book conventions, helpingBernie Wrightson to enter the comics profession.[49]
Williamson worked onSecret Agent Corrigan through the 1970s until he left the strip in 1980. The first Corrigan anthology was published in France in 1975,Le FBI joue et gagne, reprinting Williamson's first episode on the feature.[50] He returned toWarren Publishing in 1976 and again in 1979 to draw three additional stories inCreepy (#83, 86, 112). These were published in France in the collectionAl Williamson: A la fin de l'envoi in 1981.[51]
He drew a few more stories forGold Key Comics, inGrimm's Ghost Stories #5 and 8 (Aug. 1972, March 1973), andThe Twilight Zone #51 (Aug. 1973), as well two mystery stories forDC Comics, inThe Witching Hour #14 (May 1971), with inkerCarlos Garzon, andHouse of Mystery #185 (April 1970), withMichael Kaluta, another artist whom he helped enter the professional field, assisting him.[52] Comics historianLes Daniels noted that "Williamson's atmospheric technique, which relied on subtle textures as much as hard lines, was not typical of traditional DC art" and that editor Joe Orlando "got complaints from the production department" over using Williamson's art.[53] He drew various Flash Gordon illustrations.[54] In the burgeoning fan movement, Williamson became an early subject of comics historians with the publication of Jim Vadeboncoeur'sAl Williamson: His Work in 1971[55] and the "Al Williamson Collector" byJames Van Hise and Larry Bigman, featured in the fanzineRocket's Blast Comicollector in the early 1970s.[56] Samples of his sketches appear in variousfanzines of the period.[57]Marvel Comics began regularly reprinting Williamson's 1950Atlas Comics Western stories, starting withTheRingo Kid #1 (Jan. 1970) andKid Colt Outlaw #147 (June 1970), further introducing Williamson's early work to a latter-day generation.
After leaving theSecret Agent Corrigan daily strip, he illustrated theMarvel Comicsadaptation ofThe Empire Strikes Back with Carlos Garzon,[58] as well as the 50th issue of the monthlyStar Wars comic. Williamson wasLucasfilm's first choice as illustrator for theStar Wars newspapercomic strip, a project Williamson had been offered years earlier but had declined to take on at the time. He was offered theEmpire Strikes Back adaptation upon Lucasfilm's specific request, asGeorge Lucas had an appreciation of Williamson's EC Comics and Flash Gordon work.[59] Writer Archie Goodwin cited "the comfort of knowing that I would be working with Al Williamson, an old friend that I've worked with over the years. He was absolutely the bestStar Wars artist you could ever want to have. That makes it easier because you feel that whatever you do as a writer, you have an artist that will make it look great. He's also an artist that Lucasfilm kind of begged and pleaded for and always wanted to have doStar Wars material. There was that comfort factor in it as well."[60]
A comic book adaptation of theDino De Laurentiis' film,Flash Gordon, written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Al Williamson, was released by Western Publishing in both hardcover and softcover formats to coincide with the film's release. A photograph of actorSam J. Jones, who played Flash Gordon, was pasted into the original cover art. It was serialized in three issues of Whitman'sFlash Gordon comic book, #31–33, March–May 1981.Alden McWilliams inked the backgrounds for the last 25 pages. According to Williamson, "It was the hardest job I ever had to do in my life."[61] He then began drawing theStar Wars comic strip in February 1981[62] followingAlfredo Alcala's tenure, with Goodwin writing. He drew the daily and Sunday feature until March 11, 1984, when the strip was canceled.[63] Williamson's daily strips on this series were completely reprinted in Russ Cochran's three-volume slipcase edition in 1991.[64]
Returning to comic books full-time for the first time since 1959, Williamson began work forPacific Comics, collaborating with writerBruce Jones for theAlien Worlds title (#1, 4, 8), and "Cliff Hanger", a six-issue adventure-strip backup feature in theSomerset Holmesminiseries. For Marvel, he illustrated theBlade Runner andReturn of the Jedi movie adaptations.[65] The two Archie Goodwin stories he illustrated forEpic Illustrated ("Relic" in issue #27, 1984; and "Out of Phase", in #34, 1986) have been considered to be some of his finest work,[66] and Williamson himself named "Relic" as one of his best works.[33] The letterer on all these projects was Ed King.[67] Williamson drew a short story forTimespirits #4 (April 1985) and the full issue ofStar Wars #98 (Aug. 1985).[16] ForDC Comics, he penciled and inked an eight-page story byElliot S. Maggin forSuperman #400 (Oct. 1984)[68] and he inkedRick Veitch on the classic, oft reprintedAlan MooreSuperman/Swamp Thing story "The Jungle Line" inDC Comics Presents #85 (Sept. 1985).[16]
Following the expiration of his contract on theStar Wars newspaper strip, Williamson found that the weight of doing both pencil and inks suddenly became stressful to him, drastically reducing his output.[33] As a response to this, in the mid-1980s Williamson made a successful transition to becoming strictly aninker, beginning at DC Comics inkingCurt Swan onSuperman #408–410 and #412–416. The longtime Man of Steel artist would later describe Williamson as "his favorite inker".[69] Williamson then moved to Marvel where he inked such pencillers such asJohn Buscema,Gene Colan,Rick Leonardi,Mike Mignola,Pat Oliffe,John Romita Jr.,Lee Weeks, and many others.John Romita Sr., Marvel'sart director during that time, considered Williamson to be "one of the best pencillers in the world but he really can't make a living at penciling because he wants to do these beautifully pencilled pages with ample time to do them. That's why Al is inking now ... and adding a greater dimension to the penciller he's working with."[70] He won nine industry awards for Best Inker between 1988 and 1997.
Williamson provided the covers and additional artwork forDark Horse Comics' 20-issueClassic Star Wars (Aug. 1992 – June 1994), which reprinted hisStar Wars daily strips. He later inked theStar Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace andA New Hope film adaptations for the company. Through 2003, he was active as inker on severalMarvel Comics titles, includingDaredevil (#248–300),Spider-Man 2099 (#1–25), andSpider-Girl (#1–61), and such non-superhero projects as the four-issue Marvel /Epic ComicsminiseriesAtomic Age (Nov. 1990 – Feb. 1991), penciled byMike Okamoto, one of the works for which Williamson won a 1991Eisner Award for Best Inker.Daredevil pencilerJohn Romita Jr. recalled that, "Working with Al Williamson was much like working with my father [comics artistJohn Romita Sr.] in that I felt that I was protected from mistakes. ... If my art wasn't correct, then Al would repair it. Oddly enough, Al said he never had to fix anything, claiming he just 'traced' over my pencils."[71] In a 1988 interview Williamson indeed stated that "I'm just tracing [Romita's] pencils" and claimed that the only changes he made were occasionally leaving out an unnecessary background if he was in a rush.[33]
In 1995, Marvel released a two-partFlash Gordon miniseries written byMark Schultz and drawn by Williamson, which was his last major work doing both pencils and inks. Also with Schultz, he illustrated the short story "One Last Job" forDark Horse Presents #120 (April 1997). In 1999, he drew theFlash Gordon character a final time when regular cartoonist Jim Keefe asked for his help on aFlash Gordon Sunday page.[72]
Since 1998, there have been six career retrospective books published (see "Further Reading" section). Williamson cooperated with their production, with the exception of the books from Pure Imagination. He was interviewed for the 2003Frank Frazetta documentaryPainting with Fire, along with fellow surviving "Fleagle Gang" membersAngelo Torres andNick Meglin.[73] In 2009, a Williamson-illustratedSub-Mariner story written by Schultz and dedicated to Sub-Mariner creatorBill Everett was published.[74] The story itself was originally drawn ten years previously.[75] Williamson illustrated a "Xenozoic Tales" story written by Schultz that remains unpublished.[76]
Living in Pennsylvania with his wife Corina,[77] Williamson retired in his seventies[78] and died on June 12, 2010, inUpstate New York.[1] Some premature reports, based on unsubstantiatedTwitter claims, erroneously gave June 13, 2010.[79][80]
Williamson has been a stylistic influence on a number of younger artists such asTom Yeates,[81]Mark Schultz,[82]Frank Cho,[83]Steve Epting,[84]Tony Harris,[85] Jim Keefe,[86]Dan Parsons,[87]Dave Gibbons,[88] andPaul Renaud.[89]
The artwork reached a new high, with Williamson penciling and Carlos Garzon inking likenesses of the characters that had an accuracy never before seen in the series.
Curt stated that, for the record, Williamson was his favorite inker. He wrote of his 'flair'. Indeed Williamson's varied line did lend itself to excellent reproduction in the telling of a good story.
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