Alden Spurr McWilliams generally credited as Al McWilliams and A. McWilliams (February 2, 1916 – March 19, 1993),Alden S. Mcwilliams
at the

Social Security Death Index The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) was a database of death records created from the United States Social Security Administration's Death Master File until 2014. Since 2014, public access to the updated Death Master File has been via the Limit ...

. Retrieved on 2014-04-12
Archived
from the original on April 12, 2014. was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

comics artist who co-created the first African-American lead character of a

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

. He won the

National Cartoonists Society The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...

's 1978 award for Comic Book: Story.

Early life and career

McWillams was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, the son of chauffeur John and piano teacher Florence L. McWilliams. His sister Faith was born in 1921. By 1929, the family, of Irish ancestry, had moved to

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich ( ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 63,518. It is the largest town on Gold Coast (Connecticut), Connectic ...

, where John McWilliams became a radio-company chemist's laboratory assistant. Al McWilliams graduated from Greenwich High School in 1934, and that September began attending the

New York School of Fine and Applied Arts The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

, which later became the

Parsons School of Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

. Circa 1935, he worked as an art assistant on

Lyman Young Lyman W. Young (October 20, 1893 – February 12, 1984) was an American cartoonist who created the strip ''Tim Tyler's Luck''. His younger brother, Chic Young, was the creator of ''Blondie (comic strip), Blondie''. Like his brother, Lyman Young w ...

's newspaper

Tim Tyler's Luck ''Tim Tyler's Luck'' is an adventure comic strip created by Lyman Young, elder brother of ''Blondie (comic strip), Blondie'' creator Chic Young. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip ran from August 13, 1928, until August 24, 1996. ...

''. In 1938, he began illustrating for such

pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 until around 1955. The term "pulp" derives from the Pulp (paper), wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed, due to their ...

s as ''Clues Detective Stories'' and ''Flying Aces'', where for three years he wrote and drew biographies of famed flyers in a single-page comic strip, ''They Had What It Takes''. He entered

comic books A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

as the fledgling medium began, with his earliest confirmed credit the four-page feature "Capt. Frank Hawks — Air Ace" in

Dell Comics Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium.Evanier, Mark"Wh ...

' ''Crackajack Funnies'' #7 (

cover-date The cover date of a periodical publication is the date displayed on the cover, which is not necessarily the true date of publication (the on-sale date or release date); later cover dates are common in magazine and comic book publishing. More unusu ...

d Dec. 1938).Al McWilliams
at the

Grand Comics Database The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information use ...

. Other early credits, all for Dell, include the feature "Crime Busters" a.k.a. "The Crime Busters with Al Brady", in ''

The Funnies ''The Funnies'' is the name of two American publications from Dell Publishing (Dell Comics), the first of these a seminal 1920s precursor of comic books, and the second a standard 1930s comic book. ''The Funnies'' (1929–1930) In 1929, Georg ...

''; "Speed Bolton: Air Ace" and "Stratosphere Jim” a.k.a. "Stratosphere Jim and his Flying Fortress" in ''Crackajack Funnies''; and the radio-show spinoff "

Gang Busters ''Gang Busters'' is an American dramatic radio program heralded as "the only national program that brings you authentic police case histories." It premiered on January 15, 1936 and was broadcast for more 21 years through November 27, 1957. H ...

" in ''Popular Comics'' and ''

Four Color ''Four Color'', also known as ''Four Color Comics'' and ''Dell Four Color'', is an American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962. The title is a reference to the four basic colors used when printing comic ...

''. He enlisted in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

on October 1, 1942, fighting in such

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

battles as

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

, for which he was awarded the

Bronze Star The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Wh ...

and France's

Croix de Guerre The (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awarded during World ...

. Either having stockpiled stories prior or finding time during his service, he both wrote and drew the

Quality Comics Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, ...

war-comics War comics is a genre of comic books that gained popularity in English-speaking countries following World War II. History American war comics Shortly after the birth of the modern comic book in the mid- to late 1930s, comics publishers began inc ...

features "Spitfire" in ''Crack Comics'' and "Atlantic Patrol", "Pacific Patrol", and "Secret War News" in ''

Military Comics A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a di ...

'', as well as simply drawing other features. He was discharged in 1945, and upon returning to the US in 1946 began drawing the detective feature "Steve Wood" in Quality's '' National Comics''. Through the remainder of the decade, he also drew comics for companies including D.S. Publishing,

Novelty Press Novelty Press (a.k.a. Premium Service Co., Inc.; a.k.a. Novelty Publications; a.k.a. Premier Group) was an American Golden Age comic-book publisher that operated from 1940 to 1949. It was the comic book imprint of Curtis Publishing Company, pu ...

Hillman Periodicals Hillman Periodicals, Inc., was an American magazine and comic book publishing company founded in 1938 by Alex L. Hillman, a former New York City book publisher. It is best known for its true confession and true crime magazines; for the long-runn ...

, and Star Publications, with at least one

romance comics Romance comics are a genre of comic book, comic books that were most popular during the Golden Age of Comics. The market for comics, which had been growing rapidly throughout the 1940s, began to plummet after the end of World War II when military ...

story for

Archie Comics Archie Comic Publications, Inc. (often referred to simply as Archie Comics) is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the village of Pelham, New York. The company's many titles feature the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Jug ...

, and did interior art and covers, variously, for such pulps as the

Westerns The Western is a genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier (commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West") between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated wit ...

''All Western Magazine'', ''Exciting Western'', ''Rodeo Romances'', ''Texas Rangers'' and ''

Zane Grey Pearl Zane Grey (January 31, 1872 – October 23, 1939) was an American author and dentist. He is known for his popular adventure novels and stories associated with the Western genre in literature and the arts; he idealized the American frontier ...

's Western Magazine'', the

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

''Planet Stories'', the sports-oriented '' Fight Stories'', and the aviation-adventure ''Wings''.

Later career

From 1950 to 1952, McWilliams primarily drew

and

crime comics Crime comics is a genre of American comic book, American comic books and format of crime fiction. The genre was originally popular in the late 1940s and early 1950s and is marked by a moralistic editorial tone and graphic depictions of violence a ...

for

Lev Gleason Publications Lev Gleason Incorporated, formerly known as Lev Gleason Publishing, is a Canadian comic book company founded by Leverett Stone Gleason (1898–1971). They were the publisher of a number of popular comic books during the 1940s and early 1950s, incl ...

. Then in 1952, he and writer Oskar Lebeck created the

" Twin Earths", which ran through 1963. From 1961 to 1968, he drew the sea-adventure strip ''Davy Jones'', a spinoff of Sam Leff's ''Curley Kayoe''. McWilliams and writer John Saunders' '' Dateline: Danger!'', which ran from 1968 to 1974, introduced the first

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

lead character of a comic strip, Danny Raven, co-star of this adventure series about two intelligence agents working undercover as reporters. Other comic-strip work includes the ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'' and ''

Buck Rogers Buck Rogers is a science fiction adventure hero and feature comic strip created by Philip Francis Nowlan first appearing in daily American newspapers on January 7, 1929, and subsequently appearing in Sunday newspapers, international newspapers, b ...

'' strips. He worked as an assistant on John Prentice's ''

Rip Kirby ''Rip Kirby'' is an American comic strip created by Alex Raymond and Ward Greene featuring the adventures of private detective Rip Kirby. The strip ran from 1946 to 1999 and was in the hands of artist John Prentice for more than 40 years. Pu ...

'' in 1964 and 1965; on Don Sherwood's U.S. Marine strip '' Dan Flagg'' from 1965 to 1967; and on

Leonard Starr Leonard Starr (October 28, 1925 – June 30, 2015) was an American cartoonist, comic book artist, and advertising artist, best known for creating the newspaper comic strip ''Mary Perkins, On Stage, On Stage'' and reviving ''Little Orphan Annie'' ...

's '' On Stage'' in 1969 and 1970, and

Al Williamson Alfonso Williamson (March 21, 1931 – June 12, 2010) was an American cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator specializing in adventure, Western, science fiction and fantasy. Born in New York City, he spent much of his early childhood in ...

's ''

Secret Agent Corrigan ''Secret Agent X-9'' is a comic strip created by writer Dashiell Hammett ('' The Maltese Falcon'') and artist Alex Raymond (''Flash Gordon''). Syndicated by King Features, it ran from January 22, 1934, until February 10, 1996. Premise and pub ...

'' in 1975. McWilliams also illustrated for advertising. He drew no confirmed comic-book stories from 1952 through 1965, when he illustrated two tales in

Warren Publishing Warren Publishing was an American magazine company founded by James Warren (publisher), James Warren, who published his first magazines in 1957 and continued in the business for decades. Magazines published by Warren include ''After Hours (magazin ...

's black-and-white

horror comics Horror comics are comic books, graphic novels, black-and-white comics magazines, and manga focusing on horror fiction. In the US market, horror comic books reached a peak in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, when concern over content and the ...

magazine ''

Creepy Creepiness is the state of being creepy, or causing an unpleasant feeling of fear or unease to someone and/or something. Certain traits or hobbies may make people seem creepy to others; interest in horror or the macabre might come across as 'c ...

''. He went on to draw stories in the supernatural/mystery anthology comics ''

Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), known professionally as Boris Karloff () and occasionally billed as Karloff the Uncanny, was a British actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstei ...

Tales of Mystery'' and ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology series, anthology television series created by Rod Serling in which characters find themselves dealing with often disturbing or unusual events, an experience described ...

'', two TV-series spinoffs published by

Western Publishing Western Publishing, also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company, was an American company founded in 1907 in Racine, Wisconsin, best known for publishing the Little Golden Books. Its Golden Books Family Entertainment division also ...

Gold Key Comics Gold Key Comics was an imprint of American company Western Publishing, created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated from 1962 to 1984. History Gold Key Comics was created in 1962, when its ...

, along with a smattering of other stories for that imprint — including some issues of the

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses ''superpowers'' or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their ...

series ''

Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom Solar is an American fictional comic book superhero created by writer Paul S. Newman, editor Matt Murphy, and artist Bob Fujitani. The character first appeared in ''Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom'' #1 in 1962 by Gold Key Comics and has since appeare ...

'' — as well as for Warren and

Tower Comics Tower Comics was an American comic book publishing company that operated from 1965 to 1969, best known for Wally Wood's '' T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'', a strange combination of secret agents and superheroes; and Samm Schwartz's ''Tippy Teen'', an Arch ...

. McWilliams magnificently illustrated the first

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

version of

Dracula ''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...

, based very closely on

Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of t ...

's book, for

Russ Jones Russ Jones (born July 16, 1942 in Ontario) is a Canadians, Canadian novelist, illustrator, and magazine editor, active in the publishing and entertainment industries over a half-century, best known as the creator of the magazine ''Creepy (magazin ...

Productions. It was published initially as an

Ace Books Ace Books is a publisher of science fiction (SF) and fantasy books founded in New York City in 1952 by A. A. Wyn, Aaron A. Wyn. It began as a genre publisher of mystery fiction, mysteries and western (genre), westerns, and soon branched out int ...

paperback in 1966, and most recently has had a deluxe larger-size reprinting as a

Vanguard Productions Vanguard Films, Inc. was an American film production company, established by producer David O. Selznick in 1943, after the dissolution of Selznick International Pictures. The company's president was Daniel T. O'Shea; Dore Schary was the head of pr ...

hardcover in 2021. Concentrating on ''Dateline: Danger!'', he drew no comic books from 1968 to 1974. That year he did three supernatural stories for ''Red Circle Sorcery'' and ''Mad House'', from

Red Circle Comics Dark Circle Comics is an imprint of Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Under its previous name, Red Circle Comics, it published non-humor characters, particularly superheroes in the 1970s and 1980s. It was a digital imprint from 2012 to 2014, and ...

imprint, along with a handful of stories for

Atlas/Seaboard Comics Atlas/Seaboard Comics is a line of comic books published by the American company Seaboard Periodicals in the 1970s. Though the line was published under the brand Atlas Comics, comic book historians and collectors refer to it as Atlas/Seaboard Com ...

. He inked roughly a half-dozen

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

stories in 1975 and illustrated the first issue of DC Comics's ''Justice Inc.'' before returning to Gold Key, where he drew and lettered stories through 1982. His work there included issues of ''

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' ...

'' and the TV-spinoff comic '' Buck Rogers in the 25th Century''. His last known comics work is

penciling A penciller (or penciler) is an artist who works on the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with a focus on the initial pencil illustrations. In the American comic book industry, the penciller is the first step ...

and inking two short stories published in the May 1984 issues of two comics in Archie's Archie Adventure Series imprint, ''Blue Ribbon Comics'' #8 and ''Steel Sterling'' #6.

Personal life

McWilliams married Ruth Jensen in 1946, and the couple moved to

Darien, Connecticut Darien ( ) is a coastal town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. With a population of 21,499 and a land area of just under , it is the smallest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Connecticut), Gold Coast. Situated on the Long Island ...

, where they raised sons Chris Jensen McWilliams and Alden Richards McWilliams. The couple, who also had a home in

Eastham, Massachusetts Eastham () is a New England town, town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, Barnstable County being coextensive with Cape Cod. The population was 5,752 at the 2020 census. For geographic and demog ...

, was married 46 years at the time of McWilliams' death from respiratory failure at a hospital in

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, outside of New York City. It is the sixth-most populous city in New England. Stamford is also the largest city in the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, Weste ...

Awards

In 1979 McWilliams won the

's 1978 award for Comic Book: Story.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McWilliams, Al 1916 births 1993 deaths American comics artists American comic strip cartoonists Golden Age comics creators People from Eastham, Massachusetts Silver Age comics creators Artists from New York City 20th-century American artists 20th-century American male artists