Alex Schomburg

Alex Schomburg is perhaps one of the most recognizable artists of the Golden Age. He could put so much work into a cover that your eyes had to dance around the picture to take it all in. You couldn't focus on any one spot. You had to look around. And in that way, he was very unique.



I like to think that Alex Schomburg was way ahead of his time in terms of comics. While other creators were still stuck in a 1940s type of cleaned up drawing of superheros, Schomburg was forever depicting war and gruesome acts with plenty of all out action. His art was very often exaggerated, but it never seemed to bother me. He was always getting his point across and was always in your face. I like to think that Schomburg was already Marvel before Marvel was Marvel. Certainly one of the originators of dynamic covers. I would still rather see his work on a cover today than many so called greats of this day. Alex just brought more to look at. The colors on his works seem to leap off his books better than anyone else of the same era.



Although I admittedly don't know his entire story, I do know his comics realm seemed to remain mostly within the Golden Age, although he lived and drew all the way until his death in 1998. I do know he was just as noted for his covers on Sci-Fi and Science books and Magazines as he was for his comics. In fact, I seen it mentioned he was more proud of his work in media other than comics than he was of his comics themselves. He was a commercial artist who ran briefly in the comics world. Stan Lee is quoted as calling Schomburg "The Norman Rockwell of comics".

I would imagine most of the younger generation of comics readers know nothing about Schomburg nor do they care. Which is a shame and a further dilution of what makes comics great. I for one don't make it a habit of praising Golden Age artists because for the most part, I find a lot of it drab and not yet modern enough to really go off into the fantasy world comics was always capable of. I have to make a strong exception for Schomburg however. If he was doing these kind of covers in the 60's, he could have easily have been another Kirby or Ditko. Although there are many who know, appreciate and find and raise up the value of Schomburg creatures, there are still many more who just remain clueless. Perhaps its best he just showed up the Golden Age and gave comics a glimpse of what it would eventually would be able to do. I often feel if I am able to make the move to collectibles of the Golden Age era and Im financially well off, I'm sure Schomburg would be #1 on my want lists from the Golden Age.