Al Williamson has reportedly passed away...

[Yoc]

http://www.mrmedia.com/uploaded_images/AlWilliamson.gif

This has been a very hard year on GA fans.
Today I'm hearing rumours that Al Williamson has passed away.  I truly hope they are wrong but his health has been bad for a while.
A heartfelt blog post by Jimmy Palmiotti can be read HERE.

Al was one of the first legends I've ever met and he made this kid feel comfortable with a quick joke while he made a 5min sketch of Flash Gordon for me.

Rest in peace Al.

[JVJ (RIP)]

sigh... (choke!)

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[narfstar]

Loved his Flash Gordon. Whether top artist or bottom tier sad passing this year.

[kusunoki]

This is sad news.

Al Williamson was one of the first artists that really grabbed me when I first started reading EC reprints as a kid. I had been insanely curious about the books from years, mostly from the cover galleries and comics history articles in the Overstreet Price Guide, and I was blown away when I finally got to read his SF stuff. My reading experience having been limited to 70s and 80s Marvel and DC comics at the time, his work opened a whole new area of comics art that I had never imagined before. Over time, I grew to appreciate some of the other EC artists more, and went on to find other greats of the past, but I will never forget the wonder of seeing Williamson's work and the way that it changed the world of comics for me.

[Drusilla lives!]

This is sad news.

Al Williamson was one of the first artists that really grabbed me when I first started reading EC reprints as a kid. I had been insanely curious about the books from years, mostly from the cover galleries and comics history articles in the Overstreet Price Guide, and I was blown away when I finally got to read his SF stuff. My reading experience having been limited to 70s and 80s Marvel and DC comics at the time, his work opened a whole new area of comics art that I had never imagined before. Over time, I grew to appreciate some of the other EC artists more, and went on to find other greats of the past, but I will never forget the wonder of seeing Williamson's work and the way that it changed the world of comics for me.

That's pretty much my experience as well kusunoki, he changed the world of comics for me as well.  Through his (and a handful of other artists) work, I saw what comic book art could be... and I too will always look upon it with wonder.  

The EC bio...

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/6027/williamsonbio.jpg

The page that launched a thousand fanzines...

http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/7939/wf17pg24.jpg

Another true genius of the comic book art form gone... but not (and hopefully never) forgotten.

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/5899/williamsbyms.jpg

Rest in peace Al.

[Yoc]

From Cori Williamson:
-----

Mail from Cori Williamson - Al Williamson is No More - R.I.P

Al Williamson, who for over fifty years drew for both comic books and comic
strips, died June 12, 2010, at age 79. In recent years he suffered from Alzheimer's
disease. He is survived by his wife of thirty-two years, Cori, his daughter Valerie
and his son Victor.

Williamson was born in New York City in 1931, but spent his first thirteen years
primarily in Bogotá, Colombia. In 1941, his mother took him to see the science
fantasy movie serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, an experience which,
combined with his love for comics storytelling, set his career course at an early age.

Williamson, who first and foremost considered himself a cartoonist, excelled at
illustrative science fiction, adventure and western stories, pulling inspiration from
both classic comic strips and motion pictures. He is highly regarded both popularly
and critically for his excellent draftsmanship and dynamic storytelling. Most notably,
Williamson was extraordinarily accomplished at rendering the human figure in motion.
His classically proportioned characters twist and leap with a startlingly vivid illusion
of movement in part evolved from his study of motion picture action choreography.

Williamson began his professional career in 1948 and achieved popular recognition
n the early 1950s as the youngest and one of the most talented contributors to the
legendary EC line of comics. Beyond EC, Williamson drew superior work for many comic
publishers, including American Comics Group, Atlas/Marvel, Charlton, Classics Illustrated,
Dark Horse, Dell, Harvey, King, Prize, Toby and Warren. From 1967 until 1980 he
produced the art for the King Features Syndicate's daily Secret Agent Corrigan newspaper
strip, and from 1981 to 1984 drew the daily and Sunday Star Wars newspaper strip.

Beginning in the 1980s Williamson reintroduced himself to a new generation of
comics readers as an inker for DC and then Marvel Comics, enjoying memorable
stints finishing the work of other artists on Superman, Daredevil and Spidergirl.

The single comics character, however, with whom Williamson is most identified
would be Flash Gordon. The science fiction adventurer, created in 1932 by Alex
Raymond for King Features, engaged the lifelong imagination of Williamson. He
produced a much beloved series of stories for King Comics' Flash Gordon comic
book in the 1960s. He returned to the character in 1980, drawing a comics
adaptation of the contemporary Flash Gordon motion picture. In the 1990s, he
produced a Flash Gordon mini-series for Marvel Comics and later contributing to
the original Sunday strip. In addition to the stories, he produced countless
other Flash Gordon images for uses in advertising, merchandising and the fan
press.

He gradually retired from the professional ranks in the early years of the new
century as one of comics' most admired and influential creators. Over his career
he received numerous professional awards, including multiple Harvey and Eisner
Awards and the National Cartoonists Society's 1967 Award for Best Comic Book
Cartoonist.

Beyond his remarkable accomplishments as an artist—the works mentioned above
represent only a sampling—Williamson deserves recognition as a veteran who often
opened professional doors for many others starting their careers. An impressive
number of comics contributors owe at least part of their success to Williamson's
willingness to recommend and promote new artists and writers to his editorial
contacts.

Williamson was also an avid collector of comics and illustration art, valuing
the beauty of original drawings produced for comic books and strips long before
the physical art created by commercial artists was popularly appreciated. He
will be fondly remembered by those you knew him for his generosity, his
indefatigable sense of humor and his great enthusiasm in sharing his love of
comics, illustration, movies and music.

Al Williamson took inspiration from a legion of cartoonists, illustrators and
motion pictures from the first half of the twentieth century and created works
of timeless appeal—and then he passed that inspiration on to new generations of
comics creators.

The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, a donation in Al's memory be made
to either:

The Joe Kubert School
37 Myrtle Avenue
Dover, NJ 07801
Attn: Al Williamson Scholarship Fund

or

Yesteryears Day Program
2801 Wayne Street
Endwell, NY 13760"

[JVJ (RIP)]

I only met Al a couple of times, but I'll tell you how important he was to me: back in 1968 as I was completing my Silver Age Marvel collection, I was trying to decide "what to collect next?" - a common question for comic fans. Realize that at the time, EC had only been gone for 13 years and Atlas about 7 (now consider what was happening 7 and 13 years ago - i.e. 1997 or 2003). The price of ECs was going up, but I had most of the "good" ones already.

It was just about then that I found my first Al Williamson Atlas story and was simply blown away with the notion that he EVEN worked for somebody after EC. Remember, this is pre Price Guide. Information on these kinds of things was hoarded and shared only with like-minded and close collecting friends.

It was that Williamson story that prompted me to focus my attention on Atlas. To find those gems, I had to buy EVERY issue to find out if he had drawn anything in it. I did, and began to record the information that eventually led to the article The Dark Ages: 1955-1960 in Promethean Enterprises #2 in 1970 and to the first published index devoted to the works of one artist, Al Williamson: His Work in 1971. Despite the several errors, I'm still proud of that effort and Al was very gracious when pointing out those errors in 1972 when I met him at the New York Comic Con.

Watch for the first of three books from Flesk Publications devoted to Al's unpublished sketches. It's very sad that Al won't be here to revel in seeing those marvelous works finally seeing print after five or six decades. I didn't know him all that well, but I'll lay claim to being one of his most ardent fans.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[OtherEric]

Ironically I was just showing a friend my copy of Weird Fantasy 17 last week; it's one of only 3 EC's I kept when I had to sell some books to make rent a few years ago.  (In addition to Williamson's The Aliens it has my all time favorite Wally Wood story; There Will Come Soft Rains.)

I remember first seeing Williamson when he did the Empire Strikes Back adaptation for Marvel; I was all of 9 or so at the time.  He may have been the first comic book artist I was ever aware of as an artist, in part because Marvel did a fairly long piece on him in the back of one of those Empire issues.

[Geo (RIP)]

A great overall person from all accounts written about him. My condolences and prayers goes out to the family.

Alzheimer's is such a harsh disease, my wife had a friend who's husband had it, it was so sad to see him as the disease progressed.

Geo

[JVJ (RIP)]

My mom has Alzheimer's, Geo,
and it's really a tragic disease. My father recently passed away and she has to deal with the realization of that fact over and over again. My sister won't even tell her that my brother-in-law died earlier this year because she doesn't want to have to "explain" it to my mom over and over. My mom will recognize me, but then suddenly she'll ask some total non-sequitur question that indicates she's forgotten who am I again. It's just very sad.

We cope.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[darkmark (RIP)]

I met Al several times, and once interviewed him for a Dallas cable TV show.  We had a really fun time, which means he laughed at my jokes. ;-)  Seriously, though, the guy was great.  I fell in love with his art after seeing it in FLASH GORDON #1 (and then #5) and loved his Warren work as well.  It was ages, seemingly, before I saw his EC stuff.  But I knew that his byline signified art that nobody else could quite match.  Wish he'd done more penciling in his later years, but when I asked Mark Schultz about it, he rubbed his fingers together in the "money" sign. 

As for this being a hard year for GA people...let's face it.  Their generation is uncoupling from ours.  You're going to see more of their obits, and they won't stop coming.  More than a few of my COMICS INTERVIEW subjects died before or soon after their interviews were published.  I had to pull my intro from one of them and turn it into a eulogy.  All my work to that end was purposed to getting their stories down while they were still alive to tell them.  Thankfully, we got Al's.  RIP, Baldo Smudge.

[narfstar]

Sad thing that our SA generation will be passing in the next 20+ years. At one time that would seem a long time away but not anymore.

[JVJ (RIP)]

Sad thing that our SA generation will be passing in the next 20+ years. At one time that would seem a long time away but not anymore.

Yeah, narf,
when you think about it, there are very few Silver Age artists left. Infantino, Kubert, Colan, Severin, Murphy Anderson, and I hope I'm forgetting several others - but not too many, sad to say. This list actually all got their start in the GA. They were joined in the mid-sixties by Steranko and Adams (probably the only two artists to really enter the field from 1955 to 1966) and at the end by Barry Smith, Kaluta, Wrightson, Jim Starlin, etc.

I've always felt that the SA ended when this last group started working. It became a different medium, IMHO, certainly with a different feel to it..

I do agree with you that we will sadly be seeing more of these icons leaving us in the next decade or so. I wish them all good health and longevity. They've certainly, like Mr. Williamson, provided us with an incredible amount of entertainment and joy over the years.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[OtherEric]

Well, it's not exactly a miss, but we still have two Severins with us.  Ditko is still around, and I can think of several other second-tier names.  But yeah, the field is getting smaller.

[Drusilla lives!]

My mom has Alzheimer's, Geo,
and it's really a tragic disease. My father recently passed away and she has to deal with the realization of that fact over and over again. My sister won't even tell her that my brother-in-law died earlier this year because she doesn't want to have to "explain" it to my mom over and over. My mom will recognize me, but then suddenly she'll ask some total non-sequitur question that indicates she's forgotten who am I again. It's just very sad.

We cope.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

Sorry to hear of this JVJ, I sorta know how you feel... I've been caring for my mom (who has a terminal illness) for the last year or so.  

...  Ditko is still around...

I think Ditko left the building a long time ago... but yes, technically he's still around (in body).