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2010 SKETCHBOOK (60 pages, black/white/tone, print run 100 copies)

Editions

Sunday, April 07, 2013

50 Girls 50 and other stories by Al Williamson (Fantagraphics 2013)

I have received the new collection of Al Williamson EC stories. It has a lot of short stories that Williamson did for EC with some wonderful inking assistance from Angelo Torres, Roy Krenkel, and Frank Frazetta.

There wil be other reviewers who will do a wonderful job talking about the content of the book and the significance that each story in the content of EC, I just want to make one observation. What struck me about the artwork for all the stories (and that includes the stories that I did not enjoy much), is that unlike the current over stylized comic book approach utilized at Marvel and DC, all the artwork was very "accessible" to everyone who would pick-up the books. Currently, most of the superhero titles being published, are so dependent on the reader being versed in comic book "conventions" (in depiction of environments, anatomy, facial expressions, and storytelling) that only someone like me, who has been reading comic books for 2 decades, can decipher an issue.

The stories here are so easy to read and the artwork is very easy to relate to. Most of the artwork would be considered excellent by today's standards...which is incredible considering that it was created almost 70 years ago.

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