Society Of Illustrators Honours Alex Raymond

Alex Raymond (Glamourpuss #11, 2010)
Art by Dave Sim

Since 1958, the Society of Illustrators in NYC has elected to its Hall of Fame artists recognized for their distinguished achievement in the art of illustration. Artists are elected by former presidents of the Society and are chosen based on their body of work and the impact it has made on the field of illustration. This year the Society will induct Alex Raymond (along with Al Jaffee, Syd Mead, Mary Blair, Ed Sorel, Walter Everett, and William Cameron Menzies) into their Hall of Fame on 20th June 2014.

Alex Raymond (1901-1956)

Alex Raymond was an American cartoonist, best known for creating Flash Gordon in 1934, is known as “the artist’s artist” and his personal style has become much admired. His ability to combine craftsmanship with emotions and all the gimmicks of a good adventure strip earned his work immediate acclaim. Aside from his incredibly influential Flash Gordon comic, Raymond also worked on the jungle adventure saga Jungle Jim and Rip Kirby, a private detective comic strip. Numerous artists, including Jack Kirby and Bob Kane, have cited Raymond as a major influence. George Lucas also noted that Raymond was a major inspiration for Star Wars. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1996, and his influence on other cartoonists remains as considerable today as was during his lifetime. 

(via 13th Dimension)

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Originally serialised within the pages of the self-published Glamourpuss #1-26 (April 2008 to July 2012), The Strange Death Of Alex Raymond is an as yet uncompleted work-in-progress in which Dave Sim investigates the history of photorealism in comics and specifically focuses on the work of comic-strip artist Alex Raymond and the circumstances of his death on 6 September 1956 at the wheel of fellow artist Stan Drake's Corvette at the age of 46.