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The Al Williamson reader
Published by Pure Imagination 2008. $25.00 Cover Price. 160 pages. Black and White. 8 1/2 by 11-inch softcover. Art by Al Williamson, Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel, and John Severin. "Comics legend Al Williamson receives attention in this retrospective that reprints 160 pages of fantastic art that spans his career! Taken from stories with Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel, John Severin, and others and spanning genres from science-fiction and mysteries to jungle settings and westerns, almost none of the material has been reprinted before!"
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 27, 2018
The stories aren't too bad. They're not exactly great, but the writers manage to keep the egregious logic flaws to an absolute minimum, so although the stories are a little rote and hard to read many of in succession, few are outright embarrassing.
And honestly, you don't buy a book like this for the writing - collecting a range of Williamson-drawn stories from the late 40s to the early 60s, this book is a showcase of Al's western, horror, sci-fi and war comics work. Most of the stories are from small, nearly-forgotten comics, but Williamson's work is still mind-blowing. Publisher Greg Theakston, in his introduction, says that restoring Al's work was the hardest restoration he's ever done. (I thought that the reproduction could've been better at times, so I can appreciate the difficulty Theakston faced. Al filled each panel with fine detail work and a slew of details which didn't reproduce very well in the old pulpy comics printing of yesteryear.) Still, nobody draws heroic figures or sexy women better than Williamson, and he does so while still conveying a feeling of depth and weight to each of the characters. He also does a brilliant job with horses, planes, and outlandish otherworldly settings.
And honestly, you don't buy a book like this for the writing - collecting a range of Williamson-drawn stories from the late 40s to the early 60s, this book is a showcase of Al's western, horror, sci-fi and war comics work. Most of the stories are from small, nearly-forgotten comics, but Williamson's work is still mind-blowing. Publisher Greg Theakston, in his introduction, says that restoring Al's work was the hardest restoration he's ever done. (I thought that the reproduction could've been better at times, so I can appreciate the difficulty Theakston faced. Al filled each panel with fine detail work and a slew of details which didn't reproduce very well in the old pulpy comics printing of yesteryear.) Still, nobody draws heroic figures or sexy women better than Williamson, and he does so while still conveying a feeling of depth and weight to each of the characters. He also does a brilliant job with horses, planes, and outlandish otherworldly settings.
Displaying 1 of 1 review