2010-06-16 - IN MEMORIAM: AL WILLIAMSON

Nobody drew rocket ships like Al Williamson.

Don't get me wrong: Al Williamson drew a lot of other things, and it always looked great. Williamson's eye for contrast and composition was unrivaled, as his hundreds of penciled and inked pages created over his five-decade career can attest. But I always thought it was his science-fiction work that brought out the best in Williamson, whether it was his seminal sci-fi work at EC, or his 1960s FLASH GORDON work for King Features, or his STAR WARS adaptations for Marvel. In outer space, Williamson was in his element.

Born March 21, 1931, in New York City, Al Williamson began his career assisting artist Burne Hogarth on some TARZAN Sunday newspaper strips, but first made a name for himself in the 1950s, working for EC Comics on such titles as VALOR, PIRACY, SHOCK ILLUSTRATED and most famously EC's line of science-fiction titles: WEIRD SCIENCE, WEIRD FANTASY and WEIRD SCIENCE-FANTASY. Williamson's science-fiction work was very much in the classic 1950s style: jodphurs and leather boots on the men, high-collared capes on the beautiful alien women, big glass-bubble space helmets and elongated, gleaming rocket ships with noses that came to a fine point. Stories like "I, Rocket" and "50 Girls 50" (both done in collaboration with the great Frank Frazetta) are some of the best examples of Williamson in his EC glory days. For me, Williamson's work defined the 1950s sci-fi sensibility.

Two pages from "50 Girls 50"

After EC Comics closed its doors, Williamson jumped from publisher to publisher, working on books like TWILIGHT ZONE and BORIS KARLOFF'S TALES OF MYSTERY for Gold Key, and CREEPY, EERIE and BLAZING COMBAT for Warren Publishing.

Williams' most critically acclaimed work from this period came in his work on the aforementioned FLASH GORDON comic, which earned him a Best Comic Book award from the National Cartoonist Society, and the newspaper strip SECRET AGENT CORRIGAN, in collaboration with writer Archie Goodwin. (The SECRET AGENT strips will soon be collected by IDW, by the way -- highly recommended.)

Williamson found himself back in demand in the 1980s, thanks to George Lucas' affection for his EC sci-fi and FLASH GORDON work. Williamson illustrated the comics adaptations of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI, as well as the daily STAR WARS newspaper strip, once again with writer Archie Goodwin.

Williamson also handled other movie adaptations during this period, for movies like BLADE RUNNER and the Dino de Laurenitis FLASH GORDON. It's his STAR WARS work he's most known for by readers of this generation, combining the look and feel of the films with his earlier 1950s-style sci-fi derring-do.

In the later years of his career, Williamson worked primarily as an inker, lending his lush backgrounds and deep contrasts and sense of shadow to scores of titles at Marvel Comics, winning nine industry awards for Best Inker between 1988 and 1997. Al Williamson retired in 1999, and passed away June 12, 2010, at the age of 79.

For a much more detailed look at the career of one of the great American comics illustrators, take a look at Tom Spurgeon's remembrance over at The Comics Reporter.

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