The great Al Williamson died on this date in 2010. Not to be confused with the equally cool Jack Williamson—wouldn’t it have been awesome if Al had adapted Jack’s “Legion of Space” tales to comics?—Al was the "kid brother" and child prodigy at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School which was run by the legendary Burne Hogarth. Al would fill the same role at EC Comics, where he worked with the likes of Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel and Wally Wood. Here's an excellent bio from the Inkwell Awards website:   

"Al Williamson was one of those rare artists who was just too good for the comic book field, yet worked there anyway.  As an artist Al had few peers, amongst them were the likes of Frank Frazetta, who Williamson worked with at E.C. and Warren and the magical, yet doomed, Wally Wood.  When people ask how good Al Williamson was it’s easy to point at the number of artists who cite him as a major influence, or to point at his stellar body of work but the best thing to point at is one undeniable fact – his inking made Frazetta look brilliant.  Not that Frazetta needed any help there, but Williamson made a difference and the results are there for the world to see.

Drawing his own inspiration from Alex Raymond, and in particular Raymond’s Flash Gordon, Williamson attended the now famous Cartoonists and Illustrators School in the late 1940s.  Run by Burne Hogarth, the graduates of that school consisted of names that would go on to shape the field of comic books for decades to come.  Ross Andru, Don Perlin, Wally Wood, Roy Krenkel, Mike Esposito, Gil Kane and Dick Ayers are just some of the artists who attended the school at roughly the same time.  Alliances were formed at the school, often for life, and Krenkel, Wood and Williamson would work together and interact for life.  Krenkel, in particular, opened the young Williamson’s eyes to artists other than Raymond, bringing to his attention art by the likes of Hal Foster, J.C. Coll, Franklin Booth, Joseph Franke, Dan Smith, Australian painter and illustrator Norman Lindsay, Fortunino Matania, Herbert Morton Stoops and Frank Hoban.  All of these artists would shape Williamson’s style."

Another excellent bio of Williamson can be found here, at the Lambiek website.

Despite being the "kid brother" at EC Comics, Al appears to have been the capo of the "Fleagle Gang", also known as the "Fleagles". The Fleagles--see a write-up here--are generally considered to consisted of Williamson, Frazetta, Roy Krenkel and Angelo Torres, with other hangers-on pitching in now n' then. Think of them as a cross between Neal Adams' "Crusty Bunkers" and the legendary "Studio" of the '70s.

When looking at the art of Williamson, Frazetta and Krenkel from the Fleagle/EC period, one can see the outlines of a common style. Al's work has very clean lines, Frazetta has a heavier hand and Krenkel tends to be "sketchier", but all are in the same ballpark. Each of them followed their own paths after EC Comics shut down most of its titles, but the wellspring of much of the coolest art of the '60s and '70s began with the Fleagles. Al and Frank would publish a Space Heroes portfolio in 1976 which featured some of their unpublished collaborations from the 1950s. 

Al Williamson's love of the sequential art medium began with Alex Raymond's "Flash Gordon" comics. He would come full circle in the 1960s when he signed on as the artist for the long-running Flash Gordon strip which Raymond made such a success decades before. Williamson's art for that run is still revered by artists to this day. One could look upon it as being the "missing link" between Raymond and Frazetta. During the same period, Al did several Barsoomian illos for various ERB fanzines.

Al would make another circle complete when he started work on the syndicated Star Wars strip in 1981. George Lucas had been a fan of Al's work on the Flash Gordon strip and hand-picked Williamson to do the Star Wars strip

Al continued to create excellent work right up until his death at age seventy-nine. Born almost exactly three years after Frank Frazetta, Al would die just a month after his lifelong friend.

I have to admit that I barely noticed Al's death at the time. It came on the heels of Frazetta's death, as well as the shutdown of The Cimmerian blog, and I was attending Howard Days when his death was announced. However, since then, I've come to truly appreciate Williamson's clean, elegant style and his impeccable draftsmanship. It harkens back to an age when photos were barely referenced and computers were something read about in pulp science fiction tales. Oh, and the man could definitely draw beautiful women.

Feel free to click on the carousel gallery of Williamson art below.

By all means, raise a glass to his shade, sword-brothers.