Gold Key Comics...George Wilson Gallery

One of Gold Key's finest cover artists, George Wilson realist painted covers never failed to grab the attention of young  readers drawing them in for another exciting adventure and their parents twelve cents. Wanting to be an artist from a early age, Wilson was inspired by many creators but preferred studying the classic work of Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon and later the slick line of illustrator and cartoonist Noel Sickles. Equally skilled in pen and ink, George worked in commercial illustration before and after his years with Western Publishing doing numerous Hardy Boys drawings, romance paperbacks, wild west and war material, and whatever else he was called upon to produce for the ad agencies. But most of his fans remember those lush watercolor and acrylic paintings for Gold Key's adventure, sci-fi, jungle, and mystery titles. Another of the publisher's unsung heroes, Wilson's work was rarely signed if at all as he produced these mini masterpieces with his usual creative flair. Depending on a brief synopsis from the writer, the artist would make a few rough pencil sketches before going to his collection of photographs to get the right pose or locale for the setting, and often used model and actor Steve Holland for his hero image. His straightforward classic style can be seen on the many titles shown below whether is was one of the comics company's numerous licenced properties or their own super-hero creations. A jack of all trades, George would even act as a model if he couldn't find the right pose and is the case of the gun-toting villain coming out a window on  this Phantom cover from August 1964.

 

 

National Cartoonist Society Profile: Alex Raymond

One of America's most influential comic strip and illustration artists, Alexander Gillespie Raymond is celebrated for his outstanding work on his Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, Secret Agent X-9 and Rip Kirby for King Features Syndicate. Raymond is hailed by all as "an artist's artist," and his much-imitated, but seldom equaled style provided a legacy that would  inspire artists for generations to come. Here is his brief biography published by the NCS...He worked with Chic and Lyman Young for a while and then in 1934, the late Joe Connolly, president of King Features Syndicate, gave Raymond an idea for a Sunday page in color based on fantastic adventures similar to those of Jules Verne. This was Flash Gordon, the famed adventure feature. "I also did Jungle Jim as a top to the Gordon panel," Alex says, "and for about a year and a half I did Secret Agent X-9, but the strain grew too much and I dropped the later work." Comfortably settled as one of the nation's leading newspaper artists, Alex came to a crisis in his career: whether to remain a topflight cartoonist, or to go in for magazine illustration, for which he had shown a definite flair. He fiddled around with the latter medium, but after several years deliberation, made up his mind. "I decided honestly," he said, "that comic-art work is an art form in itself, it reflects the life and times more accurately and actually is more artistic than magazine illustration -- since it is entirely creative."

Society of Illustrators Profile: Charles Russell

Born in 1864 to an affluent family in Missouri, Charles Marion Russell, had ties to the old West as his great uncles were fur traders who excited the lad with stories of their many adventures. Never a good student, Russell quit school just shy of his 16th birthday and headed for the Montana Territory, soon making friends with cowboys, Indians,  trappers, and traders. During this time he travelled two years with a trapper on hunting expeditions making hundreds of sketches and soon became an expert an animal anatomy. His first job was wrangling at night, as Charles sketched during the day documenting his life as a cowboy and the events of ranch life in the 1890s. Often bartering a sketch to buy a meal or a round of drinks for his friends, Russell saw the Western frontier was quickly changing and decided to take up his paintbrush permanently.  Most adventurous of the Western painters with the use of color, the artist enjoyed the medium of watercolor and the many effects he could achieve. In 1896, Russell married and settled down as his pictures started appearing in the pages of Sports Afield, Field and Stream, and Outing. Soon his illustrations and painting were showcased in more mainstream magazine like McClure's, The Saturday Evening Post, Scribner's and Leslie's Weekly. Now creating for his own pleasure due to his financial success, Russell's paintings and bronzes were sought by collectors and museums alike and are still demanding high prices when offered to the public.