{"product_id":"artist-at-last-bill-pearson","title":"ARTIST AT LAST: Bill Pearson","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA Fantagraphics Underground Release. \u003c\/strong\u003eHaving worked in comics from just about every position and angle over the last 50+ years (including as the editor of the legendary \u003cem\u003ewitzend\u003c\/em\u003e), \u003cstrong\u003eBill Pearson’s\u003c\/strong\u003e first solo art book collects a decades-spanning body of work, never seen until now. His illustrations dance playfully between monstrous and silly imaginary creatures in the vein of Vaughn Bodé, and abstract gems evoking Wassily Kandinsky and humorous nudes. \"A culmination of a life devoted to comics, if the title rings with humility, it’s only because Pearson is selling himself short.\"\n\nBorn in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, Pearson was employed in 1957 as a technical illustrator at the Ziff Davis publishing firm and began night classes at the School of Visual Arts, including an anatomy course taught by Burne Hogarth. Work as a technical illustrator for the Underwood Typewriter Company in 1959 was followed by two years as a mechanical draftsman at Motorola in Phoenix, Arizona.\n\nWhile serving in the military at Fort Polk, Louisiana during the early 1960s, he met artist Ed Paschke. Working together in Fort Polk's Training Aids Department, they provided illustrations for publications, signs, targets and manuals to explain weapons and procedures to incoming troops. The two remained lifelong friends, and Paschke later was a contributor to Pearson's \u003cem\u003ewitzend \u003c\/em\u003eafter Bill took it over from founder Wally Wood.\n\nT.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents\n\nWhile he was still an assistant on \u003cem\u003ewitzend\u003c\/em\u003e in the mid-1960s, he became involved in the creation of Wood's\u003cem\u003e T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents\u003c\/em\u003e team for Tower Comics. In addition to scripting a half-dozen \u003cem\u003eNoMan\u003c\/em\u003e tales for T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and an equal number of \u003cem\u003eUndersea Agent\u003c\/em\u003e adventures, he did ghostwriting on Wood's \u003cem\u003eDynamo\u003c\/em\u003e scripts. In 2003-05, these stories were collected into hardback books as part of DC Comics' five-volume\u003cem\u003e T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archive\u003c\/em\u003e series. The many examples of collaborations between Wood and Pearson include the cover of The Wallace Wood Checklist.\n\nCharlton and other publishers\n\nWhile an editor at Charlton Comics during the 1970s and early 1980s, Pearson designed and colored over 200 comic book covers. Equally extensive were the numerous comic book scripts the prolific Pearson wrote for a wide variety of publishers, including Gold Key, Tower Comics, King Comics (\u003cem\u003eFlash Gordon\u003c\/em\u003e), Charlton, Eclipse, Gladstone and Warren Publications. He was the writer of Gold Key's \u003cem\u003ePopeye the Sailor\u003c\/em\u003e comic book throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s.\n\nHis work as an inker included Ocean's \u003cem\u003ePopeye: Borned to the Sea\u003c\/em\u003e (1987) and a Spider-Man spoof. For two decades (1975–95), he lettered for almost every comics publisher, and he was the first art director at Another Rainbow.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fantagraphics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59643448295710,"sku":"ARTIL","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0999\/0684\/7006\/files\/artil-art-at-last-book.jpg?v=1784516324","url":"https:\/\/shop.budsartbooks.com\/products\/artist-at-last-bill-pearson","provider":"Bud's Art Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}