Product Description: Al Williamson stands in rarified air, among the titans of the development of comics as an art form. Drawing from the tradition of the heyday of book, advertising, and comic-strip illustration, Williamson brought a command of craft and dynamics rarely seen, before or since, to a field that had largely valued speed over skill. As part of an amazing stable of young artists at E.C. in the 1950's, Williamson helped change the industry forever, but much of his work of the era has remained hidden. Al Williamson: Hidden Worlds at last uncovers these gems, stories from his days at Atlas, E.C., Charlton, Harvey, Dell, and more -- most of which have never been reprinted until now, plus a wide array of material that has never-before-been published, including fascinating sketches and works from his career's infancy and photos from the artist's personal scrapbooks. Covered in fascination depth by Mark Schultz, Thomas Yeates, and Steve Ringgenberg and gathered from extensive, lively interviews with Williamson. Al Williamson: Hidden Worlds is an essential volume for any fan of this giant of graphic fiction.
Comic artist/illustrator Al Williamson is a giant in the comic book industry as well as a master illustrator. This book offers some fine examples of his earlier work.
Good info, but too heavy on the westerns This 222-page + index collection is an interesting but frustrating collection of Al Williamson's 1950s artwork. In addition to representative samples of illustrations and cartoon panels, the book discusses the artist's life from birth, his artistic heroes and collaborators, and the environment in which comic-book artists worked in the 1950s. Note that everything is in black and white.
29 complete stories are included. Mostly 4-5 pages in length, 11 are westerns (some written by Stan Lee) and 8 are science fiction collaborations with Roy Krenkel (9 if you count the reincarnation romance "The Lost Lives of Laura Hastings.") Another romance, a war adventure ("Helpless"), a `horror' story ("Lower Than Hell"), 4 adventures of "Jann of the Jungle," and two historical tales from the EC comic VALOR ("The Champion" and "The Cloak of Command") are also presented in their entirety.
Everyone to their own taste - but I would have preferred having the entire Williamson/Kirby collaboration "The Face on Mars" and Archie Goodwin's first story ("Hermit," with Williamson inking over Reed Crandall's pencils) instead of all the western and "Jann" adventures combined! Furthermore the EC stories, including the sci-fi thriller "Food For Thought" (from INCREDIBLE SCIENCE FICTION #32, 1955), are reprinted elsewhere - samples would have sufficed, and certainly the text-referenced splash panel from "Homesick" should have been included - not everyone can go look it up!
Note that the "Williamson" illustration for vol 1 #5 of VENUS is quite plainly at least inked by Krenkel, although not attributed to him.
Al Williamson-Hidden Lands- An Excellent Package All I can say is --WOW-- This is easily the best package of Al Williamson reprint material since the original "Art Of Al Williamson"(some twenty years ago).It includes unreprinted stories from Atlas and ACG,unplublished artwork(Jann Of the Jungle #18 to name one),as well as sketches,panels and pages. This collection reprints alot of the Atlas Westerns and some of the Atlas sci-fi as well as a romance(?)story. The best part is that there is very little overlap with any of the previous Al Williamson collection(Art of,Sketchbook,or Adventures). The only way it could be better is if it were a hardcover.
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