Al Williamson Flash Gordon sketch

This is a commission I arranged with the late great Al Williamson for my brother's birthday in 1991. We'd met Al and his lovely wife Cori, along with their then-young son Victor, at a comic show in Ithaca in the mid 1980s. We'd chatted with Al at his table, and were delighted to end up sitting with him and family at dinner later that night. The restaurant was terrible, but the conversation was fabulous. Al invited us to visit his studio after the show, and we made a number of visits over the years up into the mid-90s, when time and family pressures put a temporary halt to our travels.

Al re-drew it a year later with additional details for a pinup piece for the Marvel 2 parter. Visits to watch Al work were always a treat, and our times there are some of my favorite comic art collecting memories. The part that astounded me the most was that he never hurried; he always worked at exactly the same pace no matter how pressed he was, and would just work longer if he had to in order not to compromise the quality of his work.