Hey, there sports fans, Al here with the latest:
All right so last week (two weeks ago or so now since the ice storm) I started with my list of artists that inspire me so with the addition to Wally Wood I am adding Al Williamson.
Williamson had been around for decades as a comic book illustrator. The greatest amount of his work was during the 50s through the 1980s in a little bit into the 1990s, with I think his last project being a work of Mark Schultz writing and him doing the penciling and inking for a Flash Gordon short two-part story. King Features leased out that I.P. to Marvel Comics it was a good mini-series for two issues on prestige paper and great glossy covers that featured Williamson's work I loved it it was great I had wished that there had been more.
When I first started this list of artist that inspire me I had to start looking at actually the volume of books that I actually had collected of these particular artists and that would be the first real clear indication of if this person really inspired me or not based upon how much of his work I had collected over the years and Williamson is such a person.
The first real work of Williamson that really really impressed me I believe was "The Empire Strikes Back" comic book that came out it’s at and its adaptation by Williamson for marvel at the time it was done very very well, it had a different look than I had seen before because it had semi-realistic depictions of all the characters from the movie and it gave some really really good solid black and white line work that I hadn’t seen in moods sitting there and seen by anyone at all.
But it wasn’t until I picked up the Pacific Comics comic book called “Somerset Holmes” that I saw its backup title “Cliff Hanger”. It started with a look that was very reminiscent of an old serial movie done in the 1930s and 40s. At least that was the way the depiction started off with each particular chapter. I was looking more for the Cliff Hanger storyline than the story of Somerset Holmes By Bruce Jones and Brent Anderson. Though that was a kinda a cool story too.
This story was perfect as it set an example of what those movies were like waiting for the next chapter.
So I started looking for his work and man what a treasure trove did I find. Next on the list was the comic adaptation of “Blade Runner” with a cool Steranko cover. What’s not to love?
I started looking at comic shops around town looking for his work and my prayers were answered with a couple of different stories also printed up in Epic Illustrated. (I wonder if there was a pattern beginning to from here?)
Two great black and white sci-fi short stories. But I started looking at more of his work and sure enough, I started finding more as scoured an old comic book shop in my home town and came across more EC Comics. Then I realized that Williamson had also worked on the same books that Wally Wood had. JACKPOT!
By the time 2000 rolled around, I had been doing a self-published work entitled "Johnny Vega" so much of this was based upon Williamson's work on Flash Gordon and anything else I could find. But as I got older I started collecting more of his work in collections. I realized that I could start going back and forth between Wood and Williamson for Johnny.
Wood was fantastic for his background and Williamson for his character's depiction.
It wasn't until that I got some of the collections that I realized how Williamson did his work by using photography for his reference. I realized that this was gonna have to be the way to work I might not be successful but at least I tried.
I think that the biggest thing that impresses me about Williamson is his use of chiaroscuro. That dynamic effect of black and white had me looking for it or artwork similar to it. Wood had it and there are others on the list that have it as well. Even today, there is another Williamson book coming out next month (tomorrow) which I am gonna grab as soon as it comes out.
If you are a comic book illustrator do yourself a favor and take a look at his work.
And I am out of here as I have some artwork and story to get down.