Al Williamson R.I.P.

I was very saddened to learn of the death of one of my all time favorite artists yesterday. I was first introduced to Al Williamson's work in 1980 when I picked up Marvel's The Empire Strikes Back adaptation. I loved his classic style which I thought suited the Star Wars characters perfectly. I later learned of his love for Alex Raymond and saw what an influence he was in his art. I recently picked up his Flash Gordon book that reprinted all his comic book work on that iconic character. Besides the beautiful black and white reprints there were some great color reproductions of other Flash related material he did through the years. Here are two of my favorites.





Here's an Amazon link for this amazing book which no true Williamson fan should be without.

I got a chance to meet him once at the 2000 San Diego convention. He was very nice and gracious and I got him to sign my EC coffee table book. He did great work for that company in the early part of his career and it was neat to get his signature alongside the other EC legends.



He'll definitely be missed. For more info about this great artist check out Mark Evanier's tribute here.

Superman The Movie Coloring Book 1979

I recently found one of my favorite coloring books from my childhood. I got this cool giant size Superman movie coloring book from my dad not long after I saw the movie. I colored most of it and I wasn't too bad if I do say so myself.





I even autographed one of my better efforts on May 10, 1979.



I think I'll break out my childhood crayons and finish this thing fairly soon.