The PopCult Bookshelf

The Art of George Wilson
by Anthony Taylor (Author), Daniel Herman (Editor), George Wilson (Artist)
Hermes Press
ISBN: 978-1-61345-288-2
$75.00

The Art of George Wilson is an absolutely gorgeous hardcover coffee-table book that collects and celebrates one of the most widely-distributed artists of the 20th century, who sadly did the vast majority of his work anonymously.

Anthony Taylor (disclosure time: Anthony is a friend and I bought my copy of this book from him after hanging out at the Kentuckiana GI Joe Toy Expo in July), has managed to uncover the life story of a very private man who would probably be extremely pleased, and equally perplexed to be getting so much recognition.  Along with Taylor’s great bio, the book includes the only known interview with Wilson.

Taylor even relates a secret from his past that Wilson couldn’t talk about during most of his lifetime. During WWII Wilson was part of the “Ghost Army” crew, a member of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, whose exploits might be familiar to regular readers of this blog. Their work was classified up until two years before Wilson passed away.

This book is an invaluable and long overdue recognition of a man who was part of the lives of millions of kids who never knew his name. It’s a missing piece of comic book history.

Let me quote the book’s PR blurb:

What made many of the great adventure comics of the 1960s so attractive were their fantastic painted covers by artist George Wilson. Unlike other comic book covers of the era, Wilson’s covers harkened back to the era of pulp magazines and were spectacularly eye-catching. He turned in efforts for literally hundreds of comics titles including: Classics Illustrated, The Twilight Zone, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Dr.Solar, Magnus Robot Fighter, Turok, Son of Stone and Star Trek, to name but a few.

This new art book focuses on over 300 examples of his cover art and features numerous examples of Wilson’s artwork scanned from the originals together with many of the book covers he created including his extensive run on Avon’s The Phantom (as well as his work on the Gold Key version).

The reason Wilson is so deserving of the accolades is that his work is just so damned impressive. There is a long standing snobbery in the world of fine art that looks down on commercial artists. Despite the Pop Art movement of the 1960s, even today we find resistance to the idea of commercial illustrators and comic book artists being considered alongside the artists who play the gallery game.

Unless, of course, those artists had their work traced by Roy Lichtenstein.

This book should help change that skewed perception. Wilson’s work, produced quickly on a tight deadline, could hang in any gallery and outshine many of the “fine artists” who are critically acclaimed, but fail to create any meaningful emotional connection.

Seeing so much of Wilson’s work in one place, most of it free of the text and trade dress that obscured it on comic book covers, reveals that Wilson was a technically brilliant painter, working mainly in gauche, who had a mastery of light and shadow in a league with Edward Hopper, mixed with a sense of drama and fantasy that rivals the best of the surrealists.

The Art of George Wilson is relevatory for art lovers, and is a nostalgic treat for those of us who grew up seeing those spectacular comic book covers that captured our imagination…and made us wonder who painted them. Also of note is a great introduction by contemporary artist, Joe Jusko that really illustrates the influence that Wilson had on a generation of artists, most of whom never knew his name.

The Art of George Wilson can be ordered directly from Hermes Press. You may be able to order it through your favorite bookseller by using the ISBN code, but the distribution of this book has been hampered somewhat by the bankruptcy of Diamond Distribution.