Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.10: Alex Schomburg

No.10: Alex Schomburg

A whole raft of publishers suddenly appeared during the hothouse period that was the golden age of comics, and many, such as Timely, Fox, Centaur, MLJ and Quality knew that in order to extract dimes from kids, the covers of their books had to be sufficiently dynamic, lurid, loud and intense enough. This unregulated era had covers and splash pages that were considerably graphic in content, but were also elegant and beautifully rendered, with artistic legends at the helm – Irv Novick, Bob Montana and Bob Fujitani for MLJ, Lou Fine for Fox and Quality and at Timely, the forerunner of Marvel Comics, there was Alex Schomburg. And (excluding DC and Fawcett) Schomburg’s covers provided many of the key images and tropes of the time. Words: Andrew Colman…

Born in 1905 in Puerto Rico, Schomburg moved with his family to New York when he was twelve and started work when he was 18 as a commercial artist and then on movie trailers. From the 1930s onwards he worked in pulps, doing mainly line art before moving into science-fiction in 1939, where he realized he had an aptitude for the fine line and detail needed for such space-orientated illustrations. To Schomburg, each page of art contained the kernel or key moment in a story, a storytelling footprint he would use when he started work at Timely.

His early work on Timely, in such titles as Marvel Mystery Comics, was a somewhat stately and pulpish affair, despite detailing action. After a year or two, his forte at the company became widescreen depictions of battlefields – over the top tableaux of caricatured Nazi or Japanese troops being decimated by either the Human Torch, Captain America or the Sub-Mariner. There were no limitations to Schomburg’s vivid, imaginative, garish war covers, with every inch of the page providing some form of narrative or reference. Indeed, his time working on movie trailers may have been at the heart of his cinematic (if somewhat off-kilter and cartoonish) work throughout the war years. By 1942 / 43 Schomburg was constantly attempting to outdo himself when it came to drawing conflagrations, or his most common trope, which involved the hero rescuing the damsel, Toro or Bucky at the last second from either torture, a boiling vat of acid or an axe-wielding executioner, all the while being hounded by hooded goons, snakes, misshapen Nazis and even, in one particular cover, Hitler with a gigantic green head. And of course there were the classic, propagandistic covers delineating the three heroes as giants laying waste to their foes, meting out hyper-destruction, blowing up bridges, planes, phalanxes of tanks, and so forth.

Schomburg drew 200 covers for Timely, which are widely considered to be his best work, although he did considerably more for Nedor on books such as Exciting Comics, America’s Best Comics, Thrilling Comics, Startling Comics and Wonder Comics, on characters such as Black Terror and Fighting Yank. By the late 1940s Schomburg’s art for the publisher developed into a subtler, airbrushed style that was more apt for the science-fiction-based titles he was working on – by then he was generally signing his work “Xela”. Although the style was radically different to before, the artwork was unmistakably Schomburg, his pencils evoking film posters, especially for the cover of Startling Comics 49. He also worked for Harvey Comics, on books such as the Green Hornet, which tonally were closer to his Timely work, along with providing art for Continental Comics’ Suspense 3, perhaps his most infamous (and celebrated) work, featuring one of the most definitive covers of the golden age.

Schomburg has a few detractors within fandom, referring to his art as busy, cluttered, or over the top, but that is essentially the point, to a degree. Schomburg’s covers practically scream golden age at the reader, his virtuoso ability to compose an action-filled page almost unsurpassed. Overall his covers are considered the pinnacle of such work by aficionados and collectors, especially when you consider how many he managed to produce. Stan Lee, who stated that his work for Timely was as important for the company as Norman Rockwell’s was for the Saturday Evening Post, averred ““Alex Schomburg was the only artist I knew able to combine strong, dramatic layouts, and exciting superhero action with a simplistic, almost cartoony style of execution. One could never be sure if Alex was an illustrator who approached his work like a cartoonist, or a cartoonist who chose to render his artwork like an illustrator.”

If anything, his work added significantly to the mythos of the Timely stable of characters. Either way, the proof of his genius is in his incredible cover illustrations. Check out some of our favourites on this page.

Here’s the rest of our 101 Greatest Comic Artists list so far

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.11: Joe Kubert

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.12: Wally Wood

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.13: Jim Steranko

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.14: Alex Raymond

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.15: Harvey Kurtzman

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.16: Walter Simonson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.17: Russ Heath

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.18: Bill Sienkiewicz

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.19: Jack Cole

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.20: Bernie Krigstein

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.21: Graham Ingels

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.22: Al Williamson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.23: Barry Windsor-Smith

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.24: Alex Ross

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.25: John Byrne

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.26: Mike Mignola

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.27: Basil Wolverton

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.28: Howard Chaykin

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.29: Moebius

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.30: Dave Gibbons

 

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.31: Creig Flessel

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.32: Milt Caniff

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.34: Burne Hogarth

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.35: LB Cole

 

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.37: Bill Everett

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.38: Robert Crumb

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.39: Mac Raboy

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.41: Jim Starlin

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.42: Mike Zeck

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.43: Adam Hughes

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.44: Daniel Clowes

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.45: Gene Colan

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.46: George Perez

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.47: Michael William Kaluta

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.48: Cary Nord

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.49: Frank Quitely

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.50: Mike Ploog

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.51: Johnny Craig

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.52: Darwyn Cooke

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.53: Steve Dillon

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.54: Gil Kane

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.55: Michael Zulli

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.56: John Romita

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.57: Joe Maneely

 

 

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.58: Marshall Rogers

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.59: John Severin

 

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.60: Alex Toth

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.61: Brian Bolland

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.62: David Mazzuchelli

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.63 Reed Crandall

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.64 Harry Anderson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.65 Nick Cardy

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.66 Matt Wagner

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.67 Bryan Hitch

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.68 Shawn Martinbrough

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.69 Al Feldstein

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.70 Nestor Redondo

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.71 Tarpe Mills

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.72 Eduardo Risso

 

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.73 JH Williams III

 

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.74 Irv Novick

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.75 Dan Zolnerowich

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.76 Gilbert Shelton

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.77 Tommy Lee Edwards

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.78: Sean Phillips

 

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.79: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.80: Dan DeCarlo

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.81: Marie Severin

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.82: John Paul Leon

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.83: Jim Lee

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.84: Denys Cowan

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.85: Ross Andru

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.86: Paul Gustavson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.87: George Evans

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.88: Michael Golden

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.89: Matt Baker

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.90: Todd McFarlane

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.91: Fiona Staples

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.92: Carl Barks

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.93: Carmine Infantino

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.94: Alan Davis

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.95: CC Beck

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.96: Syd Shores

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.97: Bob Fujitani

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.98: Tim Sale

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.99: Jim Aparo

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