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Showing posts with label George Wilson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George Wilson. Show all posts

Friday, January 29, 2016

Vintage DARK SHADOWS comic art up for auction


I've mentioned before how much I love the work of George Wilson, the artists that created many of the covers for Gold Key's DARK SHADOWS comics during the 1960s and '70s. (Seriously, LOOK AT THIS.) A few pieces of his original art are now available at Heritage Auctions, among them his painting for issue #20, first published in June, 1973. If I had to guess what's happening in the image, I'd say that Quentin Collins has invented a game called "Mad Science Tee Ball," and Barnabas is upset that he wasn't asked to play.

There's a metric ton (I've weighed it*) of Wilson's art currently available at Heritage Auctions, included cover art for issues of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, STAR TREK and BORIS KARLOFF: TALES OF MYSTERY. You can find them HERE.


(*No, I didn't.)

Via: Heritage Auctions

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

More amazing DARK SHADOWS art is going up for auction


Another wonderful piece of art by George Wilson is going up for auction next month.

Back in August, Wilson's original cover art for issue #10 of the vintage DARK SHADOWS comic from Gold Key sold at Heritage Auctions for $2,270.50. On November 19, Wilson's original painted art used on the cover of #15 of that series is going on the market.

I love Wilson's work. If you place the winning bid on this piece of art, be advised that I'll be polite and cordial to you in public, but will privately hate you.

You can see the original artwork below, with an inset of the book's cover as it appeared in print.


Via: Heritage Auctions

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Vintage DARK SHADOWS comic art up for auction


Well, this is timely! A few weeks ago I shared some of the original cover art by George Wilson for Gold Key's DARK SHADOWS comic book series (read it HERE). As it happens, bidding has opened over at Heritage Auctions on one of those covers. Issue #10, to be exact, first published in 1971.

Here's the auction summary:
"Barnabas is chained to the wall with his fangs glistening, in this impressive 'zombie' illustration by the great George Wilson, Gold Key's master of the painted cover. The art is in gouache on illustration board, with an approximate image area of 11" x 16". It's in Excellent condition. If you're a fan of the memorable Dark Shadows TV series, or just like zombies (who doesn't these days?), give this one a look."
There are about 15 days left in the auction, which means the bidding will close around Aug. 27.

Take a look for yourself HERE.


Source: Heritage Auctions

Thursday, July 23, 2015

The incredible DARK SHADOWS art of George Wilson




Gold Key was a comicbook publisher that never made much sense to me as a child. Even as a child it was obvious to me that the company was letting its licensed properties do all the heavy lifting. The publisher seemed to believe kids would buy anything as long as it had their favorite characters on the cover and, looking back at how long they made this business strategy work, they might not have been wrong. They managed to keep a STAR TREK comic in print for almost a decade, a feat that even Marvel and DC haven't been able to pull off.

In a sense, Gold Key was simply a company ahead of its time. By the 1990s, the major comics publishers had adopted a similar business model when they began to put a disproportionate amount of labor into the covers of their books, consequently neglecting the stories and art inside. Today, most independent comics publishers operate very much like Gold Key did in its prime, by staking a claim to any licensed property it can (whether it's VOLTRON, GHOSTBUSTERS or even DARK SHADOWS) to help support their original properties.


But damn, there's no denying that Gold Key knew how to package a book. While modern comics publishers sometimes fall back on die-cut covers, glow-in-the-dark ink and other gimmicks, Gold Key regularly smoked their competition with nothing more than a little watercolor and acrylic paint. Their books might have sucked, but they created some of the best (if under-appreciated) comics covers ever produced by the medium.

GEORGE WILSON was the artist who created most of the painted covers for Gold Key's DARK SHADOWS series, as well as for the company's FLASH GORDON, THE PHANTOM and TARZAN books. Not much is known about the guy, though. The EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS site www.erblist.com has this to say about the guy:
George Wilson
"I found only fragmented information on this artist who painted Gold Key’s covers. I have no birth date or place. He was in Normandy in the European theater in WWII. This suggests that he was born in the 1920s. He passed away on December 7, 1999. He was a prolific artist who did painted acrylic covers for paperback companies like Harlequin and Avon. His painted comic cover work was done for Classic Illustrated, Dell and then Gold Key. He did the covers for Turok, The Twilight Zone, The Phantom, Boris Karloff, The Outer Limits, The Jungle Twins, Brothers of the Spear, Star Trek, etc. His work on the 15 Avon Phantom paperbacks is a favorite series in my collection."
Part of Wilson's low profile comes from working for Gold Key, which relied almost heavily on licensed properties. He was also part of a generation of comic creators who saw their profession as a job, and rarely gave much thought to the dubious celebrity it brought with it. While the relative merits of Gold Key's books are debatable, it's hard to dispute that Wilson was an incredible talent whose work improved whatever book that accompanied it.


At the top of the page is Wilson's original comic art for issue #30 DARK SHADOWS, which was recently used as the cover for Vol. 5 of the Hermes Press reprints of this series. The next two images show the cover with the "paste up" lettering, and the final cover as it appeared in print.

If you want to see more of Wilson's work, check out this terrific gallery of his comic art.


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