Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Al Williamson

Al Williamson — Return Of… Return Of The Jedi

Original Art and The Artists

Return of the Jedi, #2, October 1983

Forty years ago, today — 

On a warm sunny day in NYC, my friends and I restlessly stood on a movie theater line, a line like many others that day, that wrapped around the proverbial city block. But did it matter that much? We had waited three years for this. What’s another three hours? (For the record, the theater, now gone, was the Loew’s 34th Street Showplace, near Second Ave.)

Return of the Jedi was opening that day, and we figured the Star Wars saga would reach its dramatic — and inevitable — conclusion. End of the story. (How naïve — but we were young and foolish.)

Somehow, I had the discipline and willpower to avoid opening Marvel’s ROTJ magazine adaptation which I owned for about two weeks prior to the film’s release date. (I did not have that same willpower three years prior for ESB, but that’s a story for another day.)

An original piece of art from that graphic novel adaptation, by the legendary Al Williamson, is a prized possession. Here’s my original 2019 post about the art:

Lush brushwork. Clear storytelling. Impeccable detail. Accurate anatomy and likenesses.  Al Williamson’s page from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi adaption speaks volumes about realizing potential in adapting other mediums to comics.

George Lucas had the power to choose the artist to draw the Marvel Empire Strikes Back adaption and he had the good sense to choose Al Williamson.

Al’s gorgeous art on classic EC science Fiction stories as well as Flash Gordon had clearly made an impression.

Fortunately for us, Williamson agreed to also illustrate the Star Wars newspaper strip (after Russ Manning’s untimely passing), and he ultimately came back for Return of the Jedi adaption as well.

On all three projects — plus a handful of stories in the regular comics — Al delivered. It’s some of his finest work.

Williamson kept much of his Star Wars related art, and his estate now owns it.  Nearly all the originals that have come on the market are those once owned by his assistants or inkers.

This great page from ROTJ has a more interesting provenance. Superstar inker Mike Royer received it from Al (see inscription) shortly after publication. It remained in his collection for many years.

So, it’s not only a great piece of original art, but it also has a great story behind it as well.

And it’s a cornerstone of my collection.

Yes, we waited in line. (That’s me, Star Wars sartorial in a bootleg “REVENGE” of the Jedi t-shirt.) I have a feeling the line on the other side of town was more interesting.

Paul Ryan & Al Williamson — Eternals, Avengers, Oh My!

Original Art and The Artists

Eternals #12, September, 1986

This “sequel” Eternals series couldn’t have gone quite as planned.  

Peter Gillis launches as writer, but Walter Simonson takes over mid–stream. Sal Buscema starts us off on pencils, (ands in some case, inks) but the art team shifts a few times too with a variety of Bullpen artists from the era, until we finally get here, the double-sized last issue, with pencils by Paul Ryan and inks (mostly) by Al Williamson, with assists fromSam de la Rosa.

All pretty odd stuff for a limited-series.

That aside, this is dynamic page featuring Eternals and Avengers working together to defeat their common foe. And hey, based on the film trailers alone, it’s obvious the Eternals exist in the greater MCU, so a crossover like this down the road is not the craziest idea you’re going to hear today. (It’s still early, so trust me on this.)

Eternals opens in theaters on Friday. (Well, technically tonight in many locations.)

Who’s Who in the Eternals? Convenient scorecard presented above.

Al Williamson — Flight To Glory

Original Art and The Artists

Secret Agent Corrigan (X-9), Daily Strip, October 17, 1969

As noted in a previous post, the amazing Al Williamson spent 13 years illustrating Secret Agent Corrigan as a daily strip. (With writing by Archie Goodwin — also great.) 

Here’s a nice example from the earlier period of Al’s strips with a gorgeous final panel. 

(Of course as I also previously noted, Williamson could have illustrated a guide to Windows XP, and I would have devoured it anyway.)

Al’s Corrigan strips are relative bargains in the original art market today: Nice examples can often be found in the $400-$500 range.

The complete five-volume collection of Williamson’s Corrigan (Also referred to as X-9) is one of my favorite series form the Library of American of Comics (LOAC), and one of my favorite projects at IDW Publishing. 

Yes, that makes me biased. So?

Continuing our month long celebration of the great adventure comic strips:
Week 1: Superheroes
Week 2: Detectives
Week 3: SF
Week 4: Masters Of The Form

Secret Agent Corrigan (X-9) has an outstanding pedigree: Created in 1934 by Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond for King Features, he was quickly featured in two movie serials. (1937 and 1945, pictured here.)

Frank Miller, John Romita Jr., Al Williamson — Fearless

Original Art and The Artists

Daredevil: Man Without Fear #1, October 1993

Frank Miller returns to Daredevil and brings an all-star art team with him in the origin story, “Man Without Fear.”

Ok, easy to call “all-star” an oft-overused cliché, but in this case, no exaggeration. The artistic team of John Romita Jr. and Al Williamson is a stunning compliment to Frank’s storytelling. 

This is Romita’s best work up until this point in his career, and Al certainly still had his inking chops as well.

I’m guessing (and strictlyguessing) that Miller provided a full script or close to it, because the layouts and storytelling are so “Milleresque.” Either that, or Romita Jr. channeled his inner Miller.

Probably a combination of both.

In this page, young Matt Murdoch discovers his true powers for the first time in a sink or swim training session provided by his tutor, the mysterious “Stick.”

The page layout cleverly and beautifully uses the nine-panel grid to show the development of Matt’s reaction time to Stick’s attack.

A great page from one of the all-time great limited series.

William Stout — Thunderous

Original Art and The Artists

Ray Bradbury Comics #1, February 1993

The legendary SF author Ray Bradbury would have turned 100 years old this year. He passed away in 2012.

Ray Bradbury’s A Sound of Thunder is my favorite time travel short story.

It’s also the very first time travel short story I ever read. (I had already read HG Wells’ novel, The Time Machine, at that point. Multiple times in fact.)

Thanks to the progressive spirit of my secondary school system, we read the Bradbury short story collection “R is For Rocket” in eighth or ninth grade.

A Sound of Thunder: Time travel. Adventure. Dinosaurs. In other words, for my tastes, perfect.

Nearly 20 years later, Byron Preiss and Topps struck a deal to publish comic book versions of Preiss’ graphic novel series, Ray Bradbury Illustrated.  Main feature in the first issue? A Sound of Thunder, cover by the incredibly talented Bill Stout, who is generally in a class by himself when it comes to Dinosaurs.

(The comic features a new adaptation by Richard Corben and the reprint of the classic EC story by Al Feldstein and Al Williamson.)

And 25 years after that? Stout decides to part with the cover, and I literally stumble upon at his booth at SDCC. Hanging in the frame that hung in his studio for many years.

Serendipity at work. Lets call this one a part of the “ permanent collection.”

Covers for both the Topps comic book version and the Byron Preiss “graphic novel.”
Richard Corben did an outstanding job on the “modern” version of Sound, while Al Williamson drew both the cover and the adaptation of the beloved EC Comics version.
Ray Bradbury’s intro for the first issue of Topps Bradbury comics, along with the cover of the 70s paperback version of R Is For Rocket, ubiquitous at the time.

Al Williamson — Jedi At The Drawing Board

Original Art and The Artists

Return of the Jedi, #2, October 1983

Lush brushwork. Clear storytelling. Impeccable detail. Accurate anatomy and likenesses.  Al Williamson’s page from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi adaption speaks volumes about realizing potential in adapting other mediums to comics.

George Lucas had the power to choose the artist to draw the Marvel Empire Strikes Back adaption and he had the good sense to choose Al Williamson.

Al’s gorgeous art on classic EC science Fiction stories as well as Flash Gordon had clearly made an impression.

Fortunately for us, Williamson agreed to also illustrate the Star Wars newspaper strip (after Russ Manning’s untimely passing), and he ultimately came back for Return of the Jedi adaption as well.

On all three projects — plus a handful of stories in the regular comics — Al delivered. It’s some of his finest work.

Williamson kept much of his Star Wars related art, and his estate now owns it.  Nearly all the originals that have come on the market are those once owned by his assistants or inkers.

This great page from ROTJ has a more interesting provenance. Superstar inker Mike Royer received it from Al (see inscription) shortly after publication. It remained in his collection for many years.

So it’s not only a great piece of original art, it has a great story behind it as well.

And it’s a cornerstone of my collection.

The complete adaptation was printed all at once in a Marvel special magazine — it appeared in Direct Market stores a few weeks prior to the film’s release. Imagine if that happened in 2019.
Covers for the magazine and the comics by Bill Sienkiewicz.

Al Williamson — This Date in History

Original Art and The Artists

X-9: Secret Agent Corrigan Volume 5, 2013

Truly one of the most talented comic artists ever, the late Al Williamson spent 13 years illustrating Secret Agent Corrigan as a daily strip. (With writing by the late, also great, Archie Goodwin.) Here from 1977, is the 8/29 strip, with Corrigan dealing with one of those startling revelations that happened… well… quite regularly back in the day.

It matters not.  Archie was a terrific writer of course, but Al Williamson could have illustrated a guide to Windows XP, and I would have devoured it anyway.

I miss Al’s work. I also miss newspaper adventure strips, but that’s a lament for another day.

The complete five-volume collection of Williamson’s Corrigan (Also referred to as X-9) is one of my favorite series form the Library of American of Comics, and one of my favorite projects at IDW Publishing. Yes, that makes me biased. So?