Flash Gordon #1: "Flash Gordon and the Mole Machine" (Al Williamson art)

Download Flash Gordon #1







In the company of Dale Arden, Flash Gordon embarked for the planet Mongo in 1934. That was in the Sunday funnies in a page drawn by Alex Raymond and written anonymously by former pulp-fiction editor Don Moore. This space opera became one of King Features Syndicate's most popular features, and Raymond's illustrative art was to have a strong influence on many of the young artists who began drawing for comic books in the late 1930s and the early 1940s—Tom Hickey, Sheldon Moldoff, Jack Lehti, George Papp, Mac Raboy, Dan Barry, etc.

Flash Gordon entered comic books early in 1936 by way of reprints in King Comics. His battles with the merciless Ming, a sort of galactic Fu Manchu, unfolded in the magazine from the first issue.

In the early 1940s Dell began issuing now and then Flash Gordon reprint titles. Later in the decade came an occasional comic-book offering Flash adventures "especially written and drawn for this magazine." The artist was Paul Norris, who also began drawing the Jungle Jim newspaper page in 1948.

Harvey Publications tried reprinting the Raymond material in 1950 and 1951, giving up after a few issues. King Features experimented with publishing comic books in the late 1960s. These used original material, and the Flash Gordon book made use of such artists as Al Williamson, a devoted Raymond disciple, Gil Kane, and Reed Crandall. When King quit, Charlton took over and finally Gold Key. The final Whitman Flash Gordon comic book was printed in 1982. He reappeared briefly in 1987 as part of a team that included Mandrake and the Phantom in the TV-inspired Defenders of the Earth.

Al Williamson was the leading exponent of the heroic adventure style introduced by Alex Raymond in Flash Gordon. A genuine boy wonder, Williamson started in comic books when he was only seventeen. He moved from Heroic Comics to Toby Press's John Wayne in 1950 and had Frank Frazetta inking some of his pages. He next drew some very imaginative fantasy and science-fiction stories for such titles as Forbidden Worlds and Out of the Night. In 1952 he went to work for EC Comics.

Williamson drew a wide range of EC titles, including Weird Fantasy, Valor, and Piracy. In the middle 1960s he actually got to draw Flash Gordon, when King Features ventured into comic books. In addition, he drew the Secret Agent Corrigan strip for King from 1967 to 1980. The first artist on the strip, when it was titled Secret Agent X-9, was Williamson's idol Alex Raymond.

Over the last ten years or so of his professional career Williamson concentrated on inking, chiefly for Marvel. A recent hardcover, Al Williamson Adventures, collects some of his best earlier comic work.



Untitled Story

Credits

Cover art: Al Williamson
Script: Larry Ivie
Pencils: Al Williamson
Inks: Al Williamson

Reprinted:

• in Flash Gordon (Pinnacle Books, 1982 series) #[1] [41-333-5]
• in Al Williamson's Flash Gordon, A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic (Flesk Publications, 2009 Series)

Flash Gordon and the Mole Machine

Credits

Script: Archie Goodwin
Pencils: Al Williamson
Inks: Al Williamson

Reprinted:

• in Flash Gordon (Pinnacle Books, 1982 series) #[1] [41-333-5]
• in Al Williamson's Flash Gordon, A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic (Flesk Publications, 2009 Series)

Eerie #13: "The Success Story" (Al Williamson art)

Download Eerie #013





Of particular fame (or is it infamy?) in Warren Publishing lore is Creepy #1's "The Success Story," written by Archie Goodwin and expertly drawn by Al Williamson, which legend has it was based on a real-life comic strip artist, Don Sherwood, who, according to George Evans and others, over-relied on "ghost" artists—behind-the-scenes creative contributors who received no credit. The tale, a scathing critique of that all-too-common practice in cartooning of signing one's name to another's work, was allegedly about Sherwood (cast here in the guise of smug comic-strip artist "Baldo Smudge") and his daily strip, "Dan Flagg." Williamson, renowned for using photographic reference, looks to have used the likenesses of Archie Goodwin, and artists Angelo Torres and Alden McWilliams, with Al himself serving as model for Smudge. (It should come as no surprise that all of these creators, also Warren contributors, worked uncredited on "Dan Flagg." Ahh, sweet revenge...!

Note: Eerie #13 reprints this story as it originally appeared in Creepy #1.



Credits

Cover painting: Vic Prezio
Script: Archie Goodwin
Pencils: Al Williamson
Inks: Al Williamson
Letters: Ben Oda

Reprinted:

• from Creepy (Warren, 1964 series) #1 (January 1965)

• in Eerie (Warren, 1966 series) #13 (February 1968)
• in Comix: A History of Comic Books in America (Bonanza, 1971 series) #[nn]
• in Comix: A History of Comic Books in America (Outerbridge & Dienstfrey, 1971 series) #[nn]
• in Eerie (Gold Star Publications, 1972 series) #4 (1973)
• in Creepy (Warren, 1964 series) #137 (May 1982)
• in Creepy The Classic Years (Harris Comics, 1991 series) #[nn]
• in Creepy Archives (Dark Horse, 2008 series) #1

Eerie #5: "The Jungle" (Al Williamson art)

Download Eerie #5





During Eerie's "dark period," many of the artists drew, perhaps without the sophistication of an Al Williamson, but with a lovely eye for the ugly and mundane. Perhaps it's a lack of experience rather than deliberate artistic choice, but it means that many of the later stories read like a surprisingly fun movie shot by a disturbed amateur.



Credits

Cover painting: Frank Frazetta
Script: Archie Goodwin
Pencils: Al Williamson
Inks: Al Williamson
Letters:Ben Oda

Reprinted:

• in Eerie (Warren, 1966 series) #18 (November 1966.

Eerie #3: "The Lighthouse!" (Al Williamson art)

Download Eerie #3






Comic book fans, and specifically EC fanatics, must have lost their minds when the first issues of Creepy and Eerie appeared on the newsstands. Not only were they the first real attempts to do an EC-like horror anthology in ages, their pedigrees were simply beyond dispute. Warren hired the best of the best, the most talented comics artists (many of whom had worked for EC before its unfortunate end) and the most brilliant of writers.

One writer in particular set the tone for the magazine: the late, lamented Archie Goodwin. Archie is still spoken of with the quiet tones one uses when speaking of saints, but beyond being an extraordinary editor, he had this format down cold. In those first issues, we see again and again how he manages to give a literary quality to even the most galloping bit of shaggy-monster goings-on. He knew how to deliver the punch line to a story like few ever learn these days, with shotgun volume, but sniper-rifle accuracy. And above all, he had taste.

His artists rose to the occasion. You could see the incredible line work of Reed Crandall, the inimitable curves and shadows of Gene Colan, and a who's who of the best, most tasteful, and most accomplished artists the industry had to offer. Adams, Toth, Ditko, on and on... these people must have been delighted at the macabre delicacies offered in Creepy and Eerie. Breaking the censoring shackles of the Comics Code Authority must have been a bloody pleasure.

Then everything went to hell, somehow. The money dried up, Archie had to leave as editor, and the company was forced to rely, after issue #11, on lesser-known creative talents and reprints until regaining their funding and reputation in their salad days, a few years later.

I'm told this is called Warren's "dark period."

And I think it's apt, but not in the way most collectors mean. I don't find this period to be without merit. To the contrary, I think this is one of the most entertaining periods in the magazine's history.

Story after story by artists who either left comics or never really managed to get a proper toehold. Writers whose names I do not recognize. Lacking Archie Goodwin's experience and discernment, these people had to use the tools they had to tell their stories... a little grubbier, a little grittier, and a little... shall I say it?

A little eerier.



Credits

Cover painting: Frank Frazetta
Script: Archie Goodwin
Pencils: Al Williamson
Inks: Al Williamson
Letters: Ben Oda

Reprinted:

• in Eerie Greatest Hits (Harris Comics, 1994 series) #[nn]
• in Eerie (K. G. Murray, 1974 series) #5