I’ve been a fan of Al’s work since the 70s, when I discovered what wonderful art he’d been creating on his Al Corrigan Agent X9 newspaper strip. Some folk may have seen his daily strip of Star Wars too.
It seems that my son, Luke, who I’d taken there as an experiential treat for a nine-year-old, had made friends with everyone in the convention hall, including Al. Easy to do! Luke was a cute little blonde boy with a charming disposition and bundles of energy! Smartest move I ever made! Everywhere we went people fell in love with him. A great ice breaker!! I recommend it. And if you haven’t made one of your own – borrow one! 😉
It appears that he and Al had been chasing down the same ‘alien figure’ from the trade stands and made friends in the process. A wonderful way to meet my hero! Later Al and I sat together at a special ‘commissions’ table, where we worked on pieces to be auctioned for charity. Again, he was inking in someone else’s work. I expressed my surprise to him, and complimented him on his newspaper strips. They seemed to be a thing of the past. And he was content to ink in Daredevil and assorted characters. I reckon he was starting to relax after a lifetime of creating. It is a lot less strain to finish off someone else’s ideas than start from scratch and face that ominous blank sheet of paper every day!
But I hope deep down, that somewhere Al is working on something that will show us the magic that is the creative genius of Al Williamson. A true comics legend!
Ian Gibson writes regularly for Den of Geek. His last column can be found here.
