Illustrators and a Word on Shel

Marooned Pirate
Howard Pyle

Written 22 December, 2010

Illustrators

I don't know why I got into the recent dissertations on illustrators. I know it was triggered by my learning of the death of John Callahan, but the rest? I suppose it's because for most of us, visual artists affect us. I just wanted to share.

I always thought of myself primarily as a written word person. When, at age six or seven, I read comic books, I paid more attention to the words than to the pictures. Or so I thought. I belatedly came to realize just how important the visuals were.

There are so many artists who have affected me. All the painters-- from Da Vinci and Michelangelo and Botticelli, to Monet and Manet and Degas and Gaugin, to Goya and Picasso and Dali, to the Wyeths and Charles Russell and J.M.W. Turner. So many names to drop, so little time!

And then the illustrators! Aubrey Beardsley and Maxfield Parrish and Howard Pyle; Frank Frazetta and Nick Adams and Carl Barks; Harvey Kurtzman and John Buscema and Bernie Wrightson; R. Crumb and Gilbert Shelton and Bill Griffith. And of course, Charles Addams, Gahan Wilson, and Charles Rodrigues.

And perhaps my all-time favorite, Shel Silverstein. I'll resist writing a post about this good-humored jack-of-all-arts (at least for now), but I will point you here for a read Shel would have loved.