Original Art Stories: The War Time Russ Heath

If you've read this blog previously, then you'd have read how Alan Weiss introduced me to the sheer majesty of Russ Heath's artwork via the pages of Blazing Combat, the all too short-lived Warren war magazine.  It's almost impossible to detail what the best part of Blazing Combat was, virtually all the stories were written by Archie Goodwin, who was at the top of his game, and drawn by the likes of Heath, Gene Colan, Wally Wood, John Severin, Joe Orlando, Alex Toth, George Evans, Gray Morrow and many more - in fact it was the cream of the artistic crop of the time and each artist turned in some of the best work of their careers.  Oh, and the covers were done by Frazetta, as if you ever needed any more of an excuse to get this stuff.

Amongst the best of the stories is this one by Russ Heath.  I was blown away by it when I finally got my hands on a decent reprint - Heath has created an almost photo-realistic story via his pencils and inks, and the art shows a depth that's simply missing in art these days.  Nothing done by a computer can come close to what Heath has done here, through sheer talent and application.

What amazed me more was when Alan told me that Heath had photos taken of him (Heath, that is, not Alan Weiss) dressed in army gear, which he then drew.  Thus every soldier in the story, including the Nazis, every pose, is Russ Heath, with slight differences.  Absolutely brilliant! This story is arguably the best thing he ever did, and that’s saying plenty.

If you want to talk about artistic Holy Grails, well this is easily mine.  If I had a few thousand dollars spare then I'd make a run at it - the thought of having this on the wall is almost too enticing.  Frankly it's museum quality and many an artist of today could do worse than to study Russ Heath's art and learn from it.  To be honest there's a lot of famous artists alive, who are regarded as modern masters, who've not come close to producing anything of the quality of this, or any other Russ Heath story, but that's the way things go.  I expect that there's artists out there who've been drawing all of their lives who will freely admit that they'll never reach this height, and lofty grounds they are indeed.

Go ahead, enlarge these pages and appreciate the art!

 

2010 Inkwell Awards - Vote NOW!!!

For the third successive year the Inkwell Awards will post their ballot for voting online on the website on August 15 until one month later on September 15. Anyone can vote whether they be a fan or an industry professional. As previously reported, the 2010 Nomination Committee made up of various respected industry professionals, was chosen last fall/winter and they voted on nominees for the ballot this past spring. Previously the ballot had been posted during the spring and then the summer, respectively, but this year, in order to coordinate the voting period to precede the live awards ceremony that takes place in October, they had to adjust their schedule. The ceremony will be sponsored by Wizard Entertainment and take place at Wizardworld: New England (Boston) at the Hynes Convention Center on the weekend of October 15-17.

It will be emceed by IA founder Bob Almond and the organization's Hall of Fame namesake, Joltin' Joe Sinnott, will preside as keynote speaker, and a question and answer session will take place with the award winners. Other IA committee members and ambassadors will be in attendance and spokesperson Ms. Inkwell, as played by model Chrissy Cutler, will also be appearing at the event.

Now that you've read the guff, you need to scoot on over to the site and cast your vote!  It'll be a difficult vote though, especially when you have to decide the Sinnott Award, and find yourself faced with having to select a mere two from the likes of Klaus Janson, Wally Wood, Murphy Anderson, Dick Ayers, John Beatty, Ernie Chan, Frank Giacoia, Bob McLeod, Kevin Nowlan, Tom Palmer and Al Williamson.  And when you see some of the talent that's up for the 2010 gongs, you just have to be impressed. How can anyone not be impressed with names like Christian Alamy, Oclair Albert, Mark Morales, Jon Sibal, Scott Hanna, Victor Olazaba, Andy Owens, Rebecca Buchman, Jonathan Glapion, Jackson Guice, Todd McFarlane, Dan Parsons, Cliff Rathburn, Amanda Conner, Peter Krause, Tim Vigil and J.H. Williams?

Good luck and remember, your vote counts, unlike in some elections.