Art Day/ Vintage Sam Glanzman

[Brenmark]

 

 

Those of you who know me from Wondercon or from SDCC know I have a fondness for military art as much as I have for fantasy and illustrative art. I love to get complete stories and pages, about WWII if I can find them, from some of the top artists in this genre. I guess coming from a Navy family where my father was a pilot for those huge planes of WWII, especially the P5M Mariner, inspired me to seek out those who can draw with great accuracy great planes or tanks or battlefield armament. I don’t think anyone did it better than those artists who drew the Big Five War Comics for DC in the 50s and 60s. As much as I liked The Flash, I also liked Sgt. Rock and The Haunted Tank.

Last week I added another great military artist and storyteller to my collection: Sam Glanzman. Sam will be 85 come October, and his body of work spans decades. Several years ago I was at the Big Five War Comic Dinner at San Diego where he was presented a bound volume of his stories of the U.S.S.Stevens, a ship that Sam served on during WWII. It was a wonderful moment for all of us as we honored this artist and his work, and no one could have been happier than Sam as he flipped through the pages stopping here and there to look at particular pages he had drawn many years ago.

Here is a four pager from Dell’s Air War Stories (thanks to George Hagenauer) that I hope you enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[adamstrange]

Outstanding work by Sam, who's class act all the way around!!!!

[Tatterdamillion]

Sweet.

[Mutant Manatee]

I just love Sam Glanzman's artwork, and those pages are shining examples! He draws with an organic style that has always appealed to me.

 

I met him at San Diego in 2000 and bought a Haunted Tank page from him. I also attended the Big Five War Comics panel and Sam was one of the panelists, along with Bob Haney, Gray Morrow, Angelo Torres, Ric Estrada, Russ Heath, and George Pratt. Sam Glanzman got very emotional when discussing his time aboard the USS Stevens. It was a very moving moment and gave me a new appreciation for him, his experiences, and his artwork.

 

I highly recommend the Marvel Graphic Novels "A Sailor's Story" and "A Sailor's Story Book Two" to anyone who hasn't read them. They are autobiographical graphic novels about Sam Glanzman's time aboard the USS Stevens. Great stuff!