Earl Norem is a legend. From men's magazines to baseball to toys to comics, he has illustrated more covers than I have eaten Milky Way bars... and that's saying a lot.
When I was a teenager I discovered Savage Sword of Conan and, of course, Norem eventually showed up on a cover (he did at least 48 SSoC covers!) and, at that time, I was not as blown away by him as with Joe Jusko or Michael Golden. It felt like I was seeing an older painter at work and his style was out of synch with what I expected.
But he won me over. I kept seeing Norem covers and kind of fell in love with his textures and colors and old school aesthetic. I can't say just how much his work has influenced me, to be honest. Maybe not that much. I don't know. But he's been in my head canon since the 80s so there must be some osmosis happening.
Earl Norem died in 2015 at the age of 92. A WWII vet, and a massively accomplished and respected illustrator.
Emergency! He did an illustration of the TV show Emergency!? How cool. That, along with Adam 12, was one of my favorite live action shows when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteI have a vague memory of Emergency, but for years I wasn't sure if it was a real memory until the internet solved that problem. I remember being a kid and playing with those little plastic figures you'd get in a bag for cheap. I had a sack of firefighters and I'd set them up all over the house, climbing tables and things. Show must have been popular at that time because I don't recall having or caring about firefighters before or after. But I was only 7-8 years old so who knows.
DeleteI think I started watching it around that age. It had been on for a couple of years already. You can tell how long it is in its run by how long their hair is. Loved everything firefighter.
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