Wildlife painter
Al Feldstein, the heart and soul of
EC Comics throughout their biggest successes in the 50's, celebrated his
84th birthday this past October the 24th. I know we speak for
thousands of appreciative fans of Mr. Feldstein's when we here
The Blog at the End of Time wish him
all the best, and
many more!
As Bill Gaines'
right-hand man at EC, the
multi-talented Al wore many hats, including editor, writer, artist, and more, as illustrated in this humorous drawing by Feldstein.
That the
50's EC comics are
so highly regarded to this day is
tribute and
testimony to the excellence and quality of the
incredibly talented pool of creative writers and artists, and the one man who possessed
both of those talents (and more) kept it all running like clockwork. The amount of people whose lives have been touched by his work, those who
have loved and do
still love, and have
been influenced by his contributions to comic book history, would be akin to the amount of
Beatle fans in the world, or the number of
blades of grass in Central Park...you just can't
count that high because there's so many!
We love you, Al!!
Above: Two of Feldstein's excellent masterpieces of comic book cover art.
The irony of Feldstein's comic book art was that he was surrounded by so many
super-stellar talents, that his artistic style, as
wonderful as it was, was by comparison
over-shadowed by the incredible works of fan favorites like
Wood, Ingels, Crandall, Davis, Craig, Kurtzman, and so on...I'll admit that my
own eyes were usually drawn to the Wood covers and the Kurtzman covers over the Feldstein covers. But as the
sands of time have chipped away at the
scales of
youthful naiveté that clouded my
fiery eyes, and I have
grown to appreciate Feldstein's gifts’ more and more in my maturity, as a young child grows up into an adult
craving the vegetables that he
once disdained.
Even more ironic is the fact that
the man continues to paint and has only
grown more talented with the passing years. Whatever limitations one
may have thought were present in his
line art, those thoughts are quickly dispelled by the
mastery displayed on his canvases! Indeed,
paintings done prior to his comics work prove that he already possessed this gift
then! I have included just a few of the many samples of his
amazing paintings on display and for sale on his
website here. Check it out and you will be
blown away! And the best part is, you can
own your very own beautiful
Feldstein original! Wow! What a talented guy! If someone would like to buy one of those marvelous paintings and donate it to
The Blog at the End of Time, it would sure
spruce the place up...
To celebrate his birthday I chose the 'semi-autobiographical' account of the
birth of the horror comics, as related by
Bill Gaines and
Al himself! Originally published in
THE HAUNT OF FEAR #17 (3rd issue), 1950, and written and drawn by Feldstein, here is '
HORROR BENEATH THE STREETS!'
Here are more samples of Al's recent work. Check it out HERE!
"Happy Birthday TOOO YOOUUU...!"
No comments:
Post a Comment