When Al began drawing SECRET AGENT CORRIGAN he was taking over from Bob Lubbers (aka: Bob Lewis).
From Al's first strip on January 30, 1967 until February 23rd of that same year he left the strip unsigned.
Al consciously attempted to make the look of Corrigan patterned after Lubbers', out of respect for a fellow professional.
Al then moved from the Lubbers' look to patterning X-9 (Corrigan) after Alex Raymond's original look for the character.
Al then spent some time easing into his own style.
Al originally drew Secret Agent X-9 in King Comics' FLASH GORDON #4.
In FLASH GORDON #4, X-9 was the back-up strip in the title.
Al's critically acclaimed emulation of Raymond in FLASH, plus his work on X-9 seemed obviously designed to land him the job as X-9's regular artist in the X-9 strip.
This daily, although still in the early unsigned period, shows Al's first attempt at a Raymond-like male profile in the middle panel -- interestingly not as X-9, but as a throw-away character never to appear again in the strip.
Likewise the "secretary" leaping into this character's arms is not your typical Williamson pose.
Her skirt and jacket are all-Williamson, but the profile of the secretary's face is very reminiscent of Neal Adams who would ghost a week of dailies in August of that year, or of Stan Drake, or of illustrator Al Parker.
Al would continue his Lubbers' transition style until March 8th, when he went full-bore into the Raymond look for X-9.
I purchased this lovely daily from Al and Cori Williamson in February 2010.
The original has an image area of 15 3/8" x 4 3/8" on a slightly larger board.
