Just read yesterday that Al Williamson passed away Sunday. Didn't find a tread about it so I thought I'd start it. If I missed it mods, please delete.

Unfortunately I never met the man, but did get to see him at a couple of SD ComiCons in the '90s. I always found his work to be inspirational, and for me, his Gold Key Flash Gordon will always be the epitome of great comic art and what Flash should be.

My first exposure to his work was the Empire Strikes Back adaptation. At the time, Carmine Infantino had been utilized on the monthly SW book for most of it's run. Despite being one of the greatest silver age artists, and being a prime component of one of the greatest sci-fi strips ever (Adam Strange), he always struck me as a remarkably poor fit for the SW book. Too stylized, too idiosyncratic- I always picked this up out of the spinner rack, leafed through it, and put it back while making a sour face. Just too hard to reconcile an artists singular vision with how I knew these people and props looked.
Along comes Williamson and suddenly the SW universe lived and breathed on the page in a way it never had before. The photo realistic ships, and much better likenesses (well, for the most part and especially in comparison to Infantino), and strong illustrative staging were awe inspiring. I pulled it out and poured over that book all summer long.

looking back over the body of his work over the last couple of days one word seems to come to mind across all of it- elegant.

Apparently, he was also a hell of guy in person.

I'm most familiar with his work from the Classic Star Wars reprints Dark Horse did in the mid-90's. I loved the detail and look that he gave everything in that run, so for me, he's the definitive vintage Star Wars artist. I have the whole classic Star Wars run now in the form of the "A Long Time Ago" TPB's, but have not yet read them. I may have to do that.

RIP

I have some of the Corrigan strips in a Dragon Lady Press one shot, but still haven't gotten around to reading it (after 20 years). Didn't prevent me from ordering the new collection from Amazon though.
It will be good to have some of his work in a high quality HC.

A real shame that the passing of a classical craftsman like him merits little note here. If Liefeld kicked, people would probably be coming out of the woodwork to post.

I'm sure Al would rather have a few respectful posts than several pages of hate and invective.

I read the Wikipedia article about him. I haven't seen anything he did after he left EC Comics. I've got the 1967 Nostalgia Press volume of Flash Gordon for which he wrote the introduction. But that's it.