Stan Lee said it best about Alex Schomburg, "Alex Schomburg was to comic
books what Norman Rockwell was to The Saturday Evening Post...When it came
to illustrating covers, there simply was no one else in Alex's league."
During the war years, Schomburg turned out the most ornate, flamboyant
and outrageous covers of the time. Jammed with detail, these covers were
wild and amazing. Schomburg was Timely's definitive artist. Ron Goulart
(Comic Book Culture: An Illustrated History) has called Schomburg the
undisputed champ of cover artists and the Hieronymous Bosch of comics.
Schomburg's work during the Golden age of Comics ranged from Captain
America, the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner to covers for "Wonder
Comics," "America's Best Comics," "Exciting Comics," and "The Fighting
Yank" to name but a few.
Schomburg was also a prolific science fiction artist. His most famous
works were arguably the endpapers for the Winston Juvenile series in the
1950s. This collection of science fiction icons defined the field for
nearly all those who started reading science fiction as teenagers in the
50s, 60s, and early 70s.
Alex Schomburg won every major award for science fiction art, as well as
comic book art, from a Lifetime Achievement Award (accepted for him by
Susan Schomburg) at the 1989 Hugo Awards to the Inkpot, to the first Doc
Smith Lensman Award in 1978 and the Frank R. Paul Award in 1984. He was
inducted posthumously into the Eisner Award Hall of Fame at the 1999
Comic-Con International.
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