The Art of George Wilson

by Anthony Taylor, George Wilson (Artist), Daniel Herman (Editor)

What made many of the great adventure comics of the 1960s so attractive were their fantastic painted covers by artist George Wilson. Unlike other comic book covers of the era, Wilson's covers harkened back to the era of pulp magazines and were spectacularly eye-catching. He turned in efforts for literally hundreds of comics titles Classics Illustrated, The Twilight Zone, Ripley's Believe It or Not, Dr. Solar, Magnus Robot Fighter, Turok, Son of Stone and Star Trek, to name but a few. This new art book focuses on over 300 examples of his cover art and features numerous examples of Wilson's artwork scanned from the originals together with many of the book covers he created including his extensive run on Avon's The Phantom (as well as his work on the Gold Key version).

192 pages, Hardcover

First published May 13, 2025

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Reviews

[Gary Sassaman]

This beautiful book showcases the career of an absolutely unsung comics and paperback book cover artist, George Wilson. If you’re like me and grew up a comics-loving kid in the 1960s, Wilson was the mystery artist behind hundreds of beautifully painted Dell and Gold Key covers, put together by Western Publishing. Wilson painted numerous covers each month for the publisher, including books such as The Phantom, Tarzan, Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, Doctor Solar, Magnus Robot Fighter, Turok, Lone Ranger, Space Family Robinson, and many more. Those painted covers allowed both Dell and Gold Key to stand out on the newsstand, looking far different than the colored line art of their competitors, DC and Marvel. When Western split from Dell in the early ‘60s and took most of the big licenses with them to create Gold Key, the front cover paintings, often by Wilson, also appeared minus the trade dress and text on the back cover as a pin-up. Not much has been written about Wilson, but this book fixes that, with an introduction by artist Joe Jusko and biographical info by author Anthony Taylor, and a rare interview conducted with the artist just a month before he died. This book contains numerous paintings, both as printed comic book covers and as scanned original art. It’s a fascinating look at an almost-unknown artist.

[Greg L Goldstein]

It's great to finally have a monograph/collection of art from the ultra-talented George Wilson, who painted an astonishing amount of covers ---many for the comics publisher Gold Key ---during the course of his career.
Many originals, and many publsihed examples highlight this hardcover. But... given his output, would have loved to seen a bigger book. (A bit pricey for what you get at $75, keep an eye out for discounts.)