Rest in Peace Russ Heath

i_am_scifi

The industry lost another legend on Thursday night. https://newsarama.com/41535-russ-heath-passes-away.html

Born in 1927, Russ Heath broke into comic books working on Western stories for Timely Comics (now Marvel Entertainment), including Two-Gun Kid.

Moving on to horror and war stories, Heath worked for EC Comics for a time before co-creating the Haunted Tank at DC Comics and drawing the first appearance of the Losers.

Heath’s illustrations were well known outside of comic books as well. Several panels of fighter jets from his work on DC war comic books were appropriated by Roy Lichtenstein for his paintings, including his works "Blam," "Brattata," and "Whaam."

Heath also contributed to Playboy's comic strip Little Annie Fanny – even living at the Playboy Mansion for a brief period.

Russ lived a long and fruitful life from the looks of things, and his creations and work will live on for years to come.

nweathington

I never got to meet Heath. Talked with him on the phone very briefly once, but that was it. As much as I don’t really go in for heavily photo-referenced representational comic book art, there was something about Heath’s work (kind of like Al Williamson’s) that proved to be an exception to the rule.

The brief obit posted above skipped over the early to mid-’50s when Russ Heath was one of the main cover artists for Atlas/Marvel. During that period war comics were king, and he was the king of the genre. It also doesn’t mention what I think is his best work for DC—Sea Devils—nor his best work overall, the stuff he did for the Warren magazines.

mwhitt80

The Sea Devils Showcase from a few years ago is one the fun surprises I picked up on a whim. It is a really cool book.
I'm going to read a few issues tonight.