Jim Latimer
Member Since May 2009 357 Artworks | Watched by 16
Latimer,Jim
As a young child, I fell under the spell of the Sunday comics page. I can still vividly remember those wonderful splashes of color and adventure which played out across the folded newsprint. Li'l Abner, Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, and Terry and the Pirates, Wunder version, were fascinating, and sometime spooky, diversions from my childhood years. Soon I discovered the four color world of comic books. Dell, Gold Key, DC, and the Marvel comics of the late sixties and early seventies. Again, the artwork enthralled me. I began to follow the work of artists such as Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Neal Adams, Berni Wrightson, Jim Steranko, and Michael Kaluta. When the Burroughs boom of the late sixties hit, I went along for the thrilling ride. In doing so, I discovered many new, and wonderful, artists. Frazetta, St. John, Krenkel, Manning, and through reprints, the man who would become my favorite; Hal Foster. You see, my local newspaper never carried Prince Valiant, so Fosters' work impacted me like Athena emerging from the head of Zeus. I've since spent many years collecting reprints of his Tarzan and Prince Valiant in order to follow the amazing work. In those years I've developed a love for other strip artists such as Alex Raymond, Milton Caniff, Noel Sickles, and Al Williamson. My love of characters such as Doc Savage, The Shadow, and anything by Robert E Howard or Edgar Rice Burroughs remains till this day. Current artists I admire are Mark Schultz, Our modern day Foster, the late great Dave Stevens, William Stout, Thomas Yeates, and the timeless Michael Kaluta. The spell of wonder still remains........
