RIP Al Williamson

Jamey Whistler · Jun 14, 2010

Another seminal artist passes on.

Renowned artist Al Williamson passed away on Sunday at age 79.

Born on March 21, 1931, in New York City, Williamson took art classes in the mid-'40s with legendary Tarzan artist Burne Hogarth and, later, at Hogarth's Cartoonists and Illustrators School in New York City. He assisted Hogarth on some Tarzan Sunday pages and, at age 17, made his professional debut working on series like Eastern Color's Famous Funnies and Standard Comics' Wonder Comics.

In 1952, Williamson began working for EC Comics, where he was the youngest member, and "kid brother," of the "EC Family." He primarily contributed to the company's science fiction titles like Weird Science and Weird Fantasy, often collaborating with Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel and Angelo Torres. In the mid- to late '50s, he produced hundreds of pages of short stories -- Westerns, mostly -- for Atlas Comics. By the next decade, Williamson was assisting John Prentice on the Rip Kirby comic strip before helping Warren Publishing to launch its Creepy and Eerie horror magazines and contributing to Blazing Combat.

With writer Archie Goodwin, he also took over the Alex Raymond-created Secret Agent X-9 comic strip, which was renamed Secret Agent Corrigan. He remained on the strip from 1967 to 1980.

In the early to mid-1980s, Williamson illustrated high-profile movie adaptations like The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and Blade Runner for Marvel and Flash Gordon for Western Publishing, as well as the Star Wars newspaper strip. During the latter part of the decade, he became almost exclusively an inker, working with artists like Curt Swan, John Romita Jr., Rick Leonardi and Mike Mignola.

Williamson remained active throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, inking adaptations of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and A New Hope for Dark Horse, collaborating with Mark Schultz on a Flash Gordon miniseries for Marvel and, more recently, inking Spider-Girl and Spider-Man 2099 for Marvel.
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AlphaMan · Jun 14, 2010

Oh my Gosh!! Al Williamson was one of my favorites as a kid.

his inks over John Romita Jr.'s pencils was one of my favorites!!

Paladin · Jun 14, 2010

Damn! I was just reading about him the other day. I was especially fond of the 'Flash Gordon' and 'Empire Strikes Back' movie adaptations he worked on...he had a unique style that captured a certain realism that I really, really liked.

Lanzman · Jun 14, 2010

What Paladin said. Williamson was a marvelous illustrator . . . good clean linework, excellent panel layout, great storytelling.

Volpone · Jun 14, 2010

I remember the "Flash Gordon" adaptation. One of the better ones of that era.

Amaris · Jun 14, 2010

I was about to post that I had never seen any of his work until I came across the mention of the Star Wars comic books, and so I googled it up on Wookiepedia, and sure enough, I remembered some of my favorite Star Wars comics from my youth, right there in that beautiful style he had. He was a terrific artist, and it's sad to see him pass on.

Rest in peace, Al.

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RIP Al Williamson

Jamey Whistler Éminence grise

AlphaMan The Last Dragon

Paladin Overjoyed Man of Liberty

Lanzman Vast, Cool and Unsympathetic Formerly Important

Volpone Zombie Hunter

Amaris Guest

Log in or Sign up

RIP Al Williamson

Jamey Whistler Éminence grise

AlphaMan The Last Dragon

Paladin Overjoyed Man of Liberty

Lanzman Vast, Cool and Unsympathetic Formerly Important

Volpone Zombie Hunter

Amaris Guest

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