Alex Raymond
Encyclopedia
Alexander Gillespie "Alex" Raymond (October 2, 1909 – September 6, 1956) was an American cartoonist
, best known for creating Flash Gordon
for King Features in 1934. The strip was subsequently adapted into many other media, from a series of movie serials
(1936–1940) to a 1970s television series and a 1980 film
.
Raymond's father encouraged his love of drawing from an early age, leading him to become an assistant illustrator in the early 1930s on strips such as Tillie the Toiler
and Tim Tyler's Luck
. Towards the end of 1933, Raymond created the epic Flash Gordon science-fiction comic strip to compete with the popular Buck Rogers
comic strip and, before long, Flash was the more popular strip of the two. Raymond also worked on the jungle adventure saga Jungle Jim
and spy adventure Secret Agent X-9
concurrently with Flash, though his increasing workload caused him to leave Secret Agent X-9 to another artist by 1935. He left the strips in 1944 to join the Marines
, saw combat in the Pacific Ocean theater
in 1945 and was demobilized in 1946. Upon his return from serving during World War II
, Raymond created and illustrated the much-heralded Rip Kirby
, a private detective comic strip. In 1956, Raymond was killed in a car crash at the age of 46; he was survived by his wife and five children.
He became known as "the artist's artist" and his much-imitated style can be seen on the many strips he illustrated. Raymond worked from live models furnished by Manhattan's Walter Thornton Agency, as indicated in "Modern Jules Verne," a profile of Raymond published in the Dell Four-Color Flash Gordon #10 (1942), showing how Thornton model Patricia Quinn posed as a character in the strip.
Numerous artists have cited Raymond as an inspiration for their work, including Jack Kirby
and Bob Kane
. George Lucas
cited Raymond as a major influence for Star Wars
. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1996. Maurice Horn stated that Raymond unquestionably possessed "the most versatile talent" of all the comic strip creators. He has also described his style as "precise, clear, and incisive." Carl Barks
described Raymond as a man "who could combine craftsmanship with emotions and all the gimmicks that went into a good adventure strip." Raymond's influence on other cartoonists was considerable during his lifetime and did not diminish after his death.
, the son of Beatrice Wallazz (née Crossley) and Alexander Gillespie Raymond. He was raised Catholic. His father was a civil engineer
and road builder who encouraged his son's love of drawing from an early age, even "covering one wall of his office in the Woolworth Building
" with his young son's work. After the death of his father when he was 12, he felt that perhaps there was not as viable a future in art as he had hoped and attended Iona Prep on an athletic scholarship.
Raymond's first job was as "an order clerk in Wall Street
". In the wake of the 1929 economic crisis, he "enrolled in the Grand Central School of Art
in New York City" and began working as a solicitor for a mortgage broker
. Approaching former neighbor Russ Westover
, Raymond soon quit his job and by 1930 was assisting on Westover's Tillie the Toiler
, through which Raymond was "introduced to [the] King Features Syndicate
", where he became a staff artist and for which he would produce his greatest work.
Raymond was influenced by a variety of strip cartoonists and magazine illustrators, including Matt Clark, Franklin Booth
and John La Gatta. From late 1931 to 1933, Raymond assisted Lyman Young
on Tim Tyler's Luck
, eventually becoming the ghost artist
in "1932 and 1933... [on] both the daily strip and the Sunday page", turning it "into one of the most eye-catching strips of the time". Concurrently, Raymond assisted Chic Young
on Blondie
.
In 1933, King Features assigned him to do the art for an espionage action-adventure strip, Secret Agent X-9
, scripted by novelist Dashiell Hammett
, and Raymond's illustrative approach to that strip made him King Features' leading talent.
in 1933. According to King Features, syndicate president Joe Connolly "gave Raymond an idea ... based on fantastic adventures similar to those of Jules Verne
".
Alongside ghostwriter
Don Moore, a pulp-fiction
veteran, Raymond created the visually sumptuous science-fiction epic comic strip Flash Gordon
. The duo also created the "complementary strip, Jungle Jim
, an adventurous saga set in South-East Asia", a topper
which ran above Flash in some papers Raymond was concurrently illustrating Secret Agent X-9
, which premiered January 22, 1934, two weeks after the two other strips. It was Flash Gordon that would outlast the others, quickly "develop[ing] an audience far surpassing" that of Buck Rogers
. Flash Gordon, wrote Stephen Becker, "was wittier and moved faster," so "Buck's position as America's favorite sci-fi hero", wrote historian Bill Crouch, Jr., "went down in flames to the artistic lash and spectacle of Alex Raymond's virtuoso artwork." Alex Raymond has stated, "I decided honestly that comic art is an art form in itself. It reflects the life and times more accurately and actually is more artistic than magazine illustration—since it is entirely creative. An illustrator works with camera and models; a comic artist begins with a white sheet of paper and dreams up his own business—he is playwright, director, editor and artist at once." A. E. Mendez has also stated that "Raymond’s achievements are chopped into bite-sized pieces by the comic art cognoscenti. Lost in the worthwhile effort to distinguish comics as an art form, the romance, sweep and beauty of Raymond's draftsmanship, his incomparable line work, is dismissed. To many, it's just pretty pictures. Somehow or another, it's OK for people like Caniff
and Eisner
to borrow from film. That’s real storytelling. But for Raymond to study illustrators, well, that's just not comics."
Debuting on January 7, 1934, Raymond's first Flash strip introduced the "world-famous polo
player", improbably roped into a space adventure alongside love-interest Dale Arden
and scientist Dr. Hans Zarkov
. Transported by rocket
to the planet Mongo, "which was about to collide with Earth", the trio "immediately became embroiled in the affairs of Mongo's inhabitants—particularly those of its insidious warlord, Ming
", who would become Flash Gordon's arch-nemesis throughout the franchise's many incarnations.
Early in 1935, Hammett decided to depart as writer of Secret Agent X-9 in order to pursue a career in Hollywood. While it has been presumed that Raymond took on the writing duties of the strip until a replacement could be found, biographer Tom Roberts instead believes that the strip was written by committee during editorial conference, a view R. C. Harvey
believes is supported by the strips themselves. Saint author Leslie Charteris
was hired to take over the writing of the strip in September 1935, but the pair would only collaborate on one storyline. By the end of 1935, "the [work]load was too much for Raymond," who left Secret Agent X-9 to artist Charles Flanders, in order to devote more time to his meticulous Sunday pages.
Raymond's work on X-9 is said to particularly reach for "the feel of the best pulp interior art of the time," a style that would evolve with his own so-called "great flourishes" and "later blossom to full effect in Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim". "Under his pen," writes Maurice Horn, his Sunday pages "became world famous (especially Flash Gordon)." However, historian and critic R.C. Harvey argues that "despite Raymond's great talent as an illustrator, his deployment of the comic-strip medium (on X-9) was not very impressive." Harvey feels that Raymond's work suffers in comparison to Milton Caniff
's contemporaneous work, with Raymond's failings as a visual storyteller less noticeable on a weekly Sunday strip, where the space afforded played to his skills as an illustrator.
Raymond's sensual artwork—for which the artist particularly "studied popular illustrators," including pulp artist Matt Clark, whose work Raymond's male figures particularly evoke—outshone its borders and "attracted far more loyal readers than... [the] rather contrived and unconvincing adventure stories" his work depicted. Raymond swiftly became "among the most highly-regarded—and most imitated—in all of comics" for his work on the weekly strip, with Harvey declaring his work on the strip "a technical virtuosity matched on the comics pages only by Harold Foster in Prince Valiant." Raymond evolved the layout of the strip from a four-tier strip in 1934 to a two-tier strip in 1936, reducing the number of panels but doubling their size. Combining this with a removal of dialogue from speech balloons to captions at the bottom of the panel afforded Raymond the space to create detailed and atmospheric backgrounds. Against these spacious backgrounds, the placement of characters in heroic pose "lent the entire enterprise a mythic air."
Flash Gordon gained a daily strip in 1940, illustrated by Austin Briggs
. Raymond left the Sunday strip in 1944 to join the Marines, whereupon the daily strip was cancelled and Briggs assumed Sunday duties, continuing until 1948. Briggs was succeeded on the Sundays by Emanuel "Mac" Raboy
, while the daily strip was revised in 1951 by Dan Barry. Barry also took over Sunday duties after Raboy's death in 1967.
Run above Flash Gordon, Raymond's Jungle Jim is described by Armando Mendez as "a thing of beauty... always more than just a topper or a shallow response to Hal Foster's exquisite Tarzan". The companion strip evolved over time, morphing from an initial "two tiers and up to six panels [layout], with speech balloons" into "a single row, of four very tall panels with declamatory text and static, vertical composition". Raymond's skill and artistic dexterity, however, kept the storytelling constant and the artwork vibrant. Jungle Jim was "set in contemporary times and the exotic Malay peninsula
of islands, [but] was intended to hark back to the original tales of Kipling
, Haggard
and Burroughs
".
Raymond took the war in Europe seriously enough to incorporate it into his strips, with Flash returning to Earth in the Spring of 1941. Jungle Jim found himself involved in the conflict too, fighting in the U.S. Army. Raymond was becoming "restive about doing his duty", a restlessness increased by the knowledge that four of his five brothers were already enlisted. In February 1944, Raymond left King Features and his work on the Sunday Flash Gordon/Jungle Jim pages to join the US Marines
, commissioned as a captain and serving in the public-relations arm. Raymond is quoted as stating "I just had to get into this fight... I've always been the kind of guy who gets a lump in his throat when a band plays the 'Star Spangled Banner'".
Shortly thereafter, he "was sent to Quantico
for training in the curriculum of the Aviation Ground Officer's School," and was soon producing "posters and patriotic images from a government office in Philadelphia." His most famous image from this time is "Marines at Prayer," which "was destined to become a well-known and well-circulated image of Marines on a battlefield pausing for worship." Raymond also "designed the official 1944 Marine Corps Christmas card
." Desiring "to get closer to the action," he then trained at the Marine Corps Air Station in Santa Barbara
before serving in the Pacific Ocean theater
"on the 1945 cruise of the escort carrier USS Gilbert Islands." Treated by his fellow marines (who had been raised on Flash Gordon) as a celebrity, he was nonetheless seen as "a down-to-earth fellow," and well liked. He saw "a period of intense combat in June 1945," and was "made an honorary member of VMTB-143 in August 1945." Raymond had, in May 1945, designed a squadron patch for the men of VMTB-143, after which the "squadron adopted the new name 'The Rocket Raiders'."
He was demobilized as a Major in 1946. Upon his return, Raymond was unable to return to Flash Gordon. King Features were not prepared to usurp Austin Briggs from the Sunday strip
and pointed out that Raymond had left voluntarily to enlist. Relatives of Raymond recall the artist as resenting this decision, which left him feeling "cast off with so little regard." However, King Features offered Raymond the opportunity to create a new strip.
Running alongside the post-World War II
reintegration of America's military into civilian life, Rip (like Raymond) was "an ex-Marine," who "set himself up as a private detective" a vocation tailor-made to provide daily thrills.
Described by Stephen Becker as "modern and almost too intellectual", the strip eschewed many of the pulp fictional
detective tropes (e.g. alcoholism, two-fisted assistants, and an assortment of interchangeable femmes fatale
). Instead, "[Rip] did more cogitating than fisticuffing, and smoked a leisurely pipe while he did it;" "had a frail, balding assistant ... instead of a two-fisted sidekick;" "had a steady girlfriend... [and] [i]f that wasn't enough, he even wore glasses! Rip "lived and worked in a recognizable, glamorous, modern New York City on cases involving very human frailties and vice", and "grew older as the strip progressed", a continuity advancement little seen in the strips of the time (although pioneered in "Gasoline Alley
" and Mary Worth). Raymond noted the change in subject matter, commenting that "I wanted to do something different and more down to earth."
Stylistically, "Raymond turned to the Cooper Studio-Al Parker
advertising style for inspiration, spurring a new generation of comic artists to follow a fresh direction", that of "glorify[ing] contemporary post-War American life". Although the strip was published entirely in black and white, Raymond worked hard to add tone through artistic technique. "Raymond nevertheless [colored] through his use of varying linework ... [creating] color through contrast". His new style was much imitated throughout the industry and became known as 'the Raymond style'.
Circulation of the strip rose steadily, and it was the artist who was apportioned most of the praise - including being awarded the fourth Reuben Award in 1949. He also served as the National Cartoonists Society
's president from 1950 until 1952, putting into place the committee structure responsible for overseeing the organization, and threw himself into championing the medium as an art form. Raymond profited in recognizability as well as financially, and continued on the strip until his untimely death in September 1956. His collaborator from 1952 was writer Fred Dickenson (who wrote the strip for a further 34 years), and he was succeeded artistically by magazine and Prize Publications' Young Romance
illustrator John Prentice. Commentators have said that Prentice echoed the Rip Kirby artistic style, but lacked "Raymond's excellent design sense," although he continued to draw the strip until his retirement in 1999, the strip itself concluding shortly after.
, under his Nostalgia Press imprint revived some of his earlier work. Regarded by Time magazine in 1974—alongside Prince Valiant
author-illustrator Hal Foster—as "some sort of genius", and described in Jerry Bails
and Hames Ware's Who's Who in American Comic Books as "[p]ossibly the most influential artist on early comic books", Raymond's legacy as an artistic inspiration is immense. Harvey argues that it is because of Raymond and Foster that the illustrative style became the dominant one used for adventure strips. "His work and Foster's created the visual standard by which all such comic strips would henceforth be measured." Biographer Tom Roberts also believes Raymond's work on Rip Kirby "inspired all the soap opera style strips of the fifties and sixties". Roberts argues that strips such as Apartment 3-G
"can trace their origins to the success of Raymond's strip". Although his work was rarely seen outside of the newspaper "funny pages", as Raymond preferred to focus his energies on strip work, he also produced a number of "illustrations for Blue Book
, Look
, Collier's
and Cosmopolitan
". as well as Esquire
.
The "heightened realism" of Raymond's photorealistic style has been "chastised for making his pictures too realistic, too gorgeous for its own sake", although many commentators believe that this very method "plunges the reader into the story". Raymond's work has a "timeless appeal," many aspects of which—including the use of feathering (a shading technique in which a soft series of parallel lines helps to suggest the contour of an object)—have inspired generations of cartoonists, his work becoming "the raw material for the swipe files of future generations". His work on Rip Kirby is especially noted for its use of "sophisticated black spotting", a technique Raymond used from c.1949 "for pacing" reasons. Fellow-cartoonist Stan Drake
recalled that Raymond called his black areas "pools of quiet", serving as they did "as a pause for the viewer, something to slow the eye across the strip's panels".
Alex Raymond's "influence on other cartoonists was considerable during his lifetime and did not diminish after his death". George Lucas
has cited Raymond's Flash Gordon as a major influence on his Star Wars
films (which, cyclically, inspired the 1980 Flash Gordon
film), while Raymond's long shadow has fallen across the comics industry ever since his work saw print. Comics artists who have cited Raymond as a particularly significant influence on their work include Murphy Anderson
, Jim Aparo
, Frank Brunner
, John Buscema
, Gene Colan
, Dick Dillin
, José Luis García-López
, Frank Giacoia
, Bob Haney
, Jack Katz
, Joe Kubert
, Mort Meskin
, Sheldon Moldoff
, Luis Garcia Mozos
, Joe Orlando
, John Romita Jr., Kurt Schaffenberger
, Joe Sinnott
, Dick Sprang
and Alex Toth
, among many others.
In particular, Raymond has been named as a key influence by many of the most influential and important comic book artists of all time. EC Comics
-staple Al Williamson
cites Raymond as a major influence, and is quoted as saying that Raymond was "the reason I became an artist". Indeed, Williamson ultimately assisted on the Flash Gordon strips in the mid-1950s, and Rip Kirby in the mid-1960s (all post-Raymond). Key Golden Age
artists credit Raymond with influencing their work. The artistic creators of Batman
(Bob Kane
) and Superman
(Joe Shuster
) credit him (alongside Milton Caniff
, Billy DeBeck and Roy Crane
) as having had a strong influence on their artistic development. Decades later, the herald of the Silver Age
(and co-creator of most of Marvel Comics
's pantheon of heroes), Jack "King" Kirby
also credits Raymond, alongside fellow strip artist Hal Foster, as a particular influence and inspiration.
Cerebus creator Dave Sim
has published a comic book since 2008 called glamourpuss
which is an examination of Alex Raymond's career (and the techniques of other photorealists like Stan Drake
and Al Williamson
) structured around a hypothetical storyline set during the last day of Raymond's life.
. Driving fellow cartoonist Stan Drake
's 1956 Corvette
at twice the 25 mi/h speed limit
, he hit a tree and was killed. Roberts describes in his biography the circumstances as a result of the weather. Driving in a convertible with the top down, Raymond decided to reach his destination quicker rather than stop to put the top back up when rain started to fall. Drake was thrown clear of the crash, but Raymond, with his seat belt buckled, died instantly. Speculation surrounds the nature of his death, with some, Drake included, believing Raymond was suicidal. Raymond had been involved in four automobile accidents in the month prior to his death, which led Drake to say Raymond "had been trying to kill himself". Author Arlen Schumer ascribes the motive for suicide as being related to Raymond's personal life. Schumer alleges that Raymond had been having affairs, and that although he and his wife were separated, she was refusing to grant him a divorce. R. C. Harvey is dismissive of this motivation: "Committing suicide strikes me as an odd way for a man of Raymond's sophistication to react to his disappointment in romance". Harvey also notes that no mention of any alleged affairs is made in Tom Robert's biography, "probably out of consideration to Raymond's surviving family". Drake has also been quoted as speculating that Raymond "hit the accelerator by mistake." Raymond is buried in St. John's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Darien, Connecticut
.
and Kevin Dillon
. His younger brother, Jim Raymond
, was also a cartoonist, and also an assistant to Chic Young
on Blondie
.
in 1949 for his work on Rip Kirby
, and he later served as President of the Society in 1950 and 1951. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1996.
Maurice Horn calls Raymond "one of the most celebrated comic artists of all time as the creator of four outstanding comic features (a feat unequaled to this day)," noting that he "received many distinctions and awards during his lifetime for his work, both as a cartoonist and as a magazine illustrator."
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
, best known for creating Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip 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 adventure strip. Also inspired by these series were comics such as Dash...
for King Features in 1934. The strip was subsequently adapted into many other media, from a series of movie serials
Serial (film)
Serials, more specifically known as Movie serials, Film serials or Chapter plays, were short subjects originally shown in theaters in conjunction with a feature film. They were related to pulp magazine serialized fiction...
(1936–1940) to a 1970s television series and a 1980 film
Flash Gordon (film)
Flash Gordon is a 1980 British/American science fiction film, based on the comic strip of the same name created by Alex Raymond. The film was directed by Mike Hodges and produced and presented by Dino De Laurentiis. It stars Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Topol, Max von Sydow, Timothy Dalton, Brian...
.
Raymond's father encouraged his love of drawing from an early age, leading him to become an assistant illustrator in the early 1930s on strips such as Tillie the Toiler
Tillie the Toiler
Tillie the Toiler was a newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Russ Westover who initially worked on his concept of a flapper character in a strip he titled Rose of the Office...
and Tim Tyler's Luck
Tim Tyler's Luck
Tim Tyler's Luck was an adventure comic strip created by Lyman Young, elder brother of Blondie creator Chic Young. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip ran from August 13, 1928 until August 1996....
. Towards the end of 1933, Raymond created the epic Flash Gordon science-fiction comic strip to compete with the popular Buck Rogers
Buck Rogers
Anthony Rogers is a fictional character that first appeared in Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. A sequel, The Airlords of Han, was published in the March 1929 issue....
comic strip and, before long, Flash was the more popular strip of the two. Raymond also worked on the jungle adventure saga Jungle Jim
Jungle Jim
Jungle Jim is the fictional hero of a series of jungle adventures in various media. The series began in 1934 as an American newspaper comic strip chronicling the adventures of Asia-based hunter Jim Bradley, who was nicknamed Jungle Jim...
and spy adventure Secret Agent X-9
Secret Agent X-9
Secret Agent X-9 was a comic strip begun by writer Dashiell Hammett and artist Alex Raymond . Syndicated by King Features, it ran from January 22, 1934 until February 10, 1996....
concurrently with Flash, though his increasing workload caused him to leave Secret Agent X-9 to another artist by 1935. He left the strips in 1944 to join the Marines
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
, saw combat in the Pacific Ocean theater
Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
The Pacific Ocean theatre was one of four major naval theatres of war of World War II, which pitted the forces of Japan against those of the United States, the British Commonwealth, the Netherlands and France....
in 1945 and was demobilized in 1946. Upon his return from serving during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Raymond created and illustrated the much-heralded Rip Kirby
Rip Kirby
Rip Kirby was a popular comic strip featuring the adventures of the eponymous lead character, a private detective created by Alex Raymond in 1946...
, a private detective comic strip. In 1956, Raymond was killed in a car crash at the age of 46; he was survived by his wife and five children.
He became known as "the artist's artist" and his much-imitated style can be seen on the many strips he illustrated. Raymond worked from live models furnished by Manhattan's Walter Thornton Agency, as indicated in "Modern Jules Verne," a profile of Raymond published in the Dell Four-Color Flash Gordon #10 (1942), showing how Thornton model Patricia Quinn posed as a character in the strip.
Numerous artists have cited Raymond as an inspiration for their work, including Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
and Bob Kane
Bob Kane
Bob Kane was an American comic book artist and writer, credited as the creator of the DC Comics superhero Batman...
. George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
cited Raymond as a major influence for Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1996. Maurice Horn stated that Raymond unquestionably possessed "the most versatile talent" of all the comic strip creators. He has also described his style as "precise, clear, and incisive." Carl Barks
Carl Barks
Carl Barks was an American Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck , Gladstone Gander , the Beagle Boys , The Junior Woodchucks , Gyro Gearloose , Cornelius Coot , Flintheart Glomgold , John D...
described Raymond as a man "who could combine craftsmanship with emotions and all the gimmicks that went into a good adventure strip." Raymond's influence on other cartoonists was considerable during his lifetime and did not diminish after his death.
Early life and career
Raymond was born in New Rochelle, New YorkNew Rochelle, New York
New Rochelle is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state.The town was settled by refugee Huguenots in 1688 who were fleeing persecution in France...
, the son of Beatrice Wallazz (née Crossley) and Alexander Gillespie Raymond. He was raised Catholic. His father was a civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
and road builder who encouraged his son's love of drawing from an early age, even "covering one wall of his office in the Woolworth Building
Woolworth Building
The Woolworth Building is one of the oldest skyscrapers in New York City. More than a century after the start of its construction, it remains, at 57 stories, one of the fifty tallest buildings in the United States as well as one of the twenty tallest buildings in New York City...
" with his young son's work. After the death of his father when he was 12, he felt that perhaps there was not as viable a future in art as he had hoped and attended Iona Prep on an athletic scholarship.
Raymond's first job was as "an order clerk in Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
". In the wake of the 1929 economic crisis, he "enrolled in the Grand Central School of Art
Grand Central School of Art
The Grand Central School of Art was an American art school in New York City, founded in 1923 by the painters Edmund Greacen, Walter Leighton Clark and John Singer Sargent. The school was established and run by the Grand Central Art Galleries, an artists' cooperative founded by Sargent, Greacen,...
in New York City" and began working as a solicitor for a mortgage broker
Mortgage broker
A mortgage broker acts as an intermediary whose brokers mortgage loans on behalf of individuals or businesses.Traditionally, banks and other lending institutions have sold their own products. However as markets for mortgages have become more competitive, the role of the mortgage broker has become...
. Approaching former neighbor Russ Westover
Russ Westover
Russell Channing Westover was a cartoonist best known for his long-run comic strip Tillie the Toiler....
, Raymond soon quit his job and by 1930 was assisting on Westover's Tillie the Toiler
Tillie the Toiler
Tillie the Toiler was a newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Russ Westover who initially worked on his concept of a flapper character in a strip he titled Rose of the Office...
, through which Raymond was "introduced to [the] King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, a print syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation, distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to nearly 5000 newspapers worldwide...
", where he became a staff artist and for which he would produce his greatest work.
Raymond was influenced by a variety of strip cartoonists and magazine illustrators, including Matt Clark, Franklin Booth
Franklin Booth
Franklin Booth, was an influential American artist notable for his highly detailed pen-and-ink illustrations.-Biography:...
and John La Gatta. From late 1931 to 1933, Raymond assisted Lyman Young
Lyman Young
Lyman W. Young was an American cartoonist who created the strip Tim Tyler's Luck. His younger brother, Chic Young, was the creator of Blondie....
on Tim Tyler's Luck
Tim Tyler's Luck
Tim Tyler's Luck was an adventure comic strip created by Lyman Young, elder brother of Blondie creator Chic Young. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip ran from August 13, 1928 until August 1996....
, eventually becoming the ghost artist
Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
in "1932 and 1933... [on] both the daily strip and the Sunday page", turning it "into one of the most eye-catching strips of the time". Concurrently, Raymond assisted Chic Young
Chic Young
Murat Bernard Young , better known as Chic Young, was an American cartoonist who created the popular, long-running comic strip Blondie. His 1919 William McKinley High School Yearbook cites his nickname as Chicken, source of his familiar pen name and signature...
on Blondie
Blondie (comic strip)
Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930...
.
In 1933, King Features assigned him to do the art for an espionage action-adventure strip, Secret Agent X-9
Secret Agent X-9
Secret Agent X-9 was a comic strip begun by writer Dashiell Hammett and artist Alex Raymond . Syndicated by King Features, it ran from January 22, 1934 until February 10, 1996....
, scripted by novelist Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on...
, and Raymond's illustrative approach to that strip made him King Features' leading talent.
Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim and Secret Agent X-9
Towards the end of 1933, King Features asked him to create a Sunday page that could compete with Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, a popular science-fiction adventure strip that had debuted in 1929 and already spawned the rival Brick BradfordBrick Bradford
Brick Bradford was a science fiction comic strip created by writer William Ritt, a journalist based in Cleveland, and artist Clarence Gray. It was first distributed in 1933 by Central Press Association, a subsidiary of King Features Syndicate....
in 1933. According to King Features, syndicate president Joe Connolly "gave Raymond an idea ... based on fantastic adventures similar to those of Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
".
Alongside ghostwriter
Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
Don Moore, a pulp-fiction
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
veteran, Raymond created the visually sumptuous science-fiction epic comic strip Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip 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 adventure strip. Also inspired by these series were comics such as Dash...
. The duo also created the "complementary strip, Jungle Jim
Jungle Jim
Jungle Jim is the fictional hero of a series of jungle adventures in various media. The series began in 1934 as an American newspaper comic strip chronicling the adventures of Asia-based hunter Jim Bradley, who was nicknamed Jungle Jim...
, an adventurous saga set in South-East Asia", a topper
Topper (comic strip)
A topper in comic strip parlance is a small secondary strip seen along with a larger Sunday strip. In the 1920s and 1930s, leading cartoonists were given full pages in the Sunday comics sections, allowing them to add smaller strips and single-panel cartoons to their page.Toppers usually were drawn...
which ran above Flash in some papers Raymond was concurrently illustrating Secret Agent X-9
Secret Agent X-9
Secret Agent X-9 was a comic strip begun by writer Dashiell Hammett and artist Alex Raymond . Syndicated by King Features, it ran from January 22, 1934 until February 10, 1996....
, which premiered January 22, 1934, two weeks after the two other strips. It was Flash Gordon that would outlast the others, quickly "develop[ing] an audience far surpassing" that of Buck Rogers
Buck Rogers
Anthony Rogers is a fictional character that first appeared in Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. A sequel, The Airlords of Han, was published in the March 1929 issue....
. Flash Gordon, wrote Stephen Becker, "was wittier and moved faster," so "Buck's position as America's favorite sci-fi hero", wrote historian Bill Crouch, Jr., "went down in flames to the artistic lash and spectacle of Alex Raymond's virtuoso artwork." Alex Raymond has stated, "I decided honestly that comic art is an art form in itself. It reflects the life and times more accurately and actually is more artistic than magazine illustration—since it is entirely creative. An illustrator works with camera and models; a comic artist begins with a white sheet of paper and dreams up his own business—he is playwright, director, editor and artist at once." A. E. Mendez has also stated that "Raymond’s achievements are chopped into bite-sized pieces by the comic art cognoscenti. Lost in the worthwhile effort to distinguish comics as an art form, the romance, sweep and beauty of Raymond's draftsmanship, his incomparable line work, is dismissed. To many, it's just pretty pictures. Somehow or another, it's OK for people like Caniff
Milton Caniff
Milton Arthur Paul Caniff was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.-Biography:...
and Eisner
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
to borrow from film. That’s real storytelling. But for Raymond to study illustrators, well, that's just not comics."
Debuting on January 7, 1934, Raymond's first Flash strip introduced the "world-famous polo
Polo
Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...
player", improbably roped into a space adventure alongside love-interest Dale Arden
Dale Arden
Dale Arden is a fictional character, the fellow-adventurer and love interest of Flash Gordon and a prototypic heroine for later female characters, including Princess Leia Organa and Padme Amidala in Star Wars. Flash, Dale and Dr...
and scientist Dr. Hans Zarkov
Hans Zarkov
Dr. Hans Zarkov is a fictional character appearing in the Flash Gordon comic strip. Zarkov is a brilliant scientist who creates a rocket and forces Flash and Dale Arden to come with him to the planet Mongo, and fight against Ming the Merciless...
. Transported by rocket
Rocket
A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...
to the planet Mongo, "which was about to collide with Earth", the trio "immediately became embroiled in the affairs of Mongo's inhabitants—particularly those of its insidious warlord, Ming
Ming the Merciless
Ming the Merciless is a fictional character who first appeared in the Flash Gordon comic strip in 1934. He has since been the main villain of the strip and its related movie serials, TV shows and film adaptation.- First appearance :...
", who would become Flash Gordon's arch-nemesis throughout the franchise's many incarnations.
Early in 1935, Hammett decided to depart as writer of Secret Agent X-9 in order to pursue a career in Hollywood. While it has been presumed that Raymond took on the writing duties of the strip until a replacement could be found, biographer Tom Roberts instead believes that the strip was written by committee during editorial conference, a view R. C. Harvey
R. C. Harvey
Robert C. Harvey , popularly known as R. C. Harvey, is an author, critic and cartoonist. He has written a number of books on the history of the medium, with special focus on the history of the comic strip, and he has also worked as a freelance cartoonist.Harvey describes himself as having created...
believes is supported by the strips themselves. Saint author Leslie Charteris
Leslie Charteris
Leslie Charteris , born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, was a half-Chinese, half English author of primarily mystery fiction, as well as a screenwriter. He was best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint."-Early life:Charteris was born to a Chinese father...
was hired to take over the writing of the strip in September 1935, but the pair would only collaborate on one storyline. By the end of 1935, "the [work]load was too much for Raymond," who left Secret Agent X-9 to artist Charles Flanders, in order to devote more time to his meticulous Sunday pages.
Raymond's work on X-9 is said to particularly reach for "the feel of the best pulp interior art of the time," a style that would evolve with his own so-called "great flourishes" and "later blossom to full effect in Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim". "Under his pen," writes Maurice Horn, his Sunday pages "became world famous (especially Flash Gordon)." However, historian and critic R.C. Harvey argues that "despite Raymond's great talent as an illustrator, his deployment of the comic-strip medium (on X-9) was not very impressive." Harvey feels that Raymond's work suffers in comparison to Milton Caniff
Milton Caniff
Milton Arthur Paul Caniff was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.-Biography:...
's contemporaneous work, with Raymond's failings as a visual storyteller less noticeable on a weekly Sunday strip, where the space afforded played to his skills as an illustrator.
Flash Gordon gained a daily strip in 1940, illustrated by Austin Briggs
Austin Briggs
Austin Briggs was a cartoonist and illustrator. Born in Humboldt, Minnesota he grew up in Detroit, Michigan before moving to New York City as a teenager. After working for a while at an advertising agency, he became an assistant to the cartoonist Alex Raymond on Flash Gordon and succeeded him on...
. Raymond left the Sunday strip in 1944 to join the Marines, whereupon the daily strip was cancelled and Briggs assumed Sunday duties, continuing until 1948. Briggs was succeeded on the Sundays by Emanuel "Mac" Raboy
Mac Raboy
Emmanuel "Mac" Raboy was an American cartoonist whose comic books and strips remain collectibles more than 40 years after his death. He was known for his work on Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel Jr...
, while the daily strip was revised in 1951 by Dan Barry. Barry also took over Sunday duties after Raboy's death in 1967.
Run above Flash Gordon, Raymond's Jungle Jim is described by Armando Mendez as "a thing of beauty... always more than just a topper or a shallow response to Hal Foster's exquisite Tarzan". The companion strip evolved over time, morphing from an initial "two tiers and up to six panels [layout], with speech balloons" into "a single row, of four very tall panels with declamatory text and static, vertical composition". Raymond's skill and artistic dexterity, however, kept the storytelling constant and the artwork vibrant. Jungle Jim was "set in contemporary times and the exotic Malay peninsula
Malay Peninsula
The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...
of islands, [but] was intended to hark back to the original tales of Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
, Haggard
H. Rider Haggard
Sir Henry Rider Haggard, KBE was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. He was also involved in agricultural reform around the British Empire...
and Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
".
Military career
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
, commissioned as a captain and serving in the public-relations arm. Raymond is quoted as stating "I just had to get into this fight... I've always been the kind of guy who gets a lump in his throat when a band plays the 'Star Spangled Banner'".
Shortly thereafter, he "was sent to Quantico
Marine Corps Base Quantico
Marine Corps Base Quantico, sometimes abbreviated MCB Quantico, is a major United States Marine Corps training base located near Triangle, Virginia, covering nearly in southern Prince William County, northern Stafford County, and southeastern Fauquier County...
for training in the curriculum of the Aviation Ground Officer's School," and was soon producing "posters and patriotic images from a government office in Philadelphia." His most famous image from this time is "Marines at Prayer," which "was destined to become a well-known and well-circulated image of Marines on a battlefield pausing for worship." Raymond also "designed the official 1944 Marine Corps Christmas card
Christmas card
A Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to the Christmas and holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during the weeks preceding Christmas Day by many people in Western...
." Desiring "to get closer to the action," he then trained at the Marine Corps Air Station in Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
before serving in the Pacific Ocean theater
Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
The Pacific Ocean theatre was one of four major naval theatres of war of World War II, which pitted the forces of Japan against those of the United States, the British Commonwealth, the Netherlands and France....
"on the 1945 cruise of the escort carrier USS Gilbert Islands." Treated by his fellow marines (who had been raised on Flash Gordon) as a celebrity, he was nonetheless seen as "a down-to-earth fellow," and well liked. He saw "a period of intense combat in June 1945," and was "made an honorary member of VMTB-143 in August 1945." Raymond had, in May 1945, designed a squadron patch for the men of VMTB-143, after which the "squadron adopted the new name 'The Rocket Raiders'."
He was demobilized as a Major in 1946. Upon his return, Raymond was unable to return to Flash Gordon. King Features were not prepared to usurp Austin Briggs from the Sunday strip
Sunday strip
A Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...
and pointed out that Raymond had left voluntarily to enlist. Relatives of Raymond recall the artist as resenting this decision, which left him feeling "cast off with so little regard." However, King Features offered Raymond the opportunity to create a new strip.
Rip Kirby
Raymond's "police daily strip," named after its central character - J. Remington "Rip" Kirby - debuted on March 4, 1946, conceived (and initially scripted) by King Features editor Ward Greene. The plotting of the strips is harder to attribute, the scant evidence available supporting the notion that Raymond was more than simply an illustrator. However, as was relatively commonplace on such strips, published credit went to Raymond, whose name was the major selling feature; the artist even managed to gain a part-ownership deal with King and a better split of the profits than was usual. Rip Kirby was Raymond's reintroduction to newspaper strips after the war, and he was quick to forge a new "up-to-date" style for the strip, while keeping ties to the audience he had built up with Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, and Secret Agent X-9.World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
reintegration of America's military into civilian life, Rip (like Raymond) was "an ex-Marine," who "set himself up as a private detective" a vocation tailor-made to provide daily thrills.
Described by Stephen Becker as "modern and almost too intellectual", the strip eschewed many of the pulp fictional
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
detective tropes (e.g. alcoholism, two-fisted assistants, and an assortment of interchangeable femmes fatale
Femme fatale
A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art...
). Instead, "[Rip] did more cogitating than fisticuffing, and smoked a leisurely pipe while he did it;" "had a frail, balding assistant ... instead of a two-fisted sidekick;" "had a steady girlfriend... [and] [i]f that wasn't enough, he even wore glasses! Rip "lived and worked in a recognizable, glamorous, modern New York City on cases involving very human frailties and vice", and "grew older as the strip progressed", a continuity advancement little seen in the strips of the time (although pioneered in "Gasoline Alley
Gasoline Alley
Gasoline Alley is a comic strip created by Frank King and currently distributed by Tribune Media Services. First published November 24, 1918, it is the second longest running comic strip in the US and has received critical accolades for its influential innovations...
" and Mary Worth). Raymond noted the change in subject matter, commenting that "I wanted to do something different and more down to earth."
Stylistically, "Raymond turned to the Cooper Studio-Al Parker
Al Parker (artist)
Al Parker was an American artist and illustrator, who was known as the "Dean of Illustrators".Parker's display of talent as a teenager led his grandfather, a Mississippi River Pilot, to pay for Al's first year in Washington University's School of Fine Arts in St. Louis, Missouri in 1922. He also...
advertising style for inspiration, spurring a new generation of comic artists to follow a fresh direction", that of "glorify[ing] contemporary post-War American life". Although the strip was published entirely in black and white, Raymond worked hard to add tone through artistic technique. "Raymond nevertheless [colored] through his use of varying linework ... [creating] color through contrast". His new style was much imitated throughout the industry and became known as 'the Raymond style'.
Circulation of the strip rose steadily, and it was the artist who was apportioned most of the praise - including being awarded the fourth Reuben Award in 1949. He also served as the National Cartoonists Society
National Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society 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 troops...
's president from 1950 until 1952, putting into place the committee structure responsible for overseeing the organization, and threw himself into championing the medium as an art form. Raymond profited in recognizability as well as financially, and continued on the strip until his untimely death in September 1956. His collaborator from 1952 was writer Fred Dickenson (who wrote the strip for a further 34 years), and he was succeeded artistically by magazine and Prize Publications' Young Romance
Young Romance
Young Romance is a comic book series created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for the Crestwood Publications imprint Prize Comics in 1947. Generally considered the first romance comic, the series ran for 124 consecutive issues under Prize imprint, and a further 84 published by DC Comics after Crestwood...
illustrator John Prentice. Commentators have said that Prentice echoed the Rip Kirby artistic style, but lacked "Raymond's excellent design sense," although he continued to draw the strip until his retirement in 1999, the strip itself concluding shortly after.
Legacy
In 1967, Woody GelmanWoody Gelman
Woodrow Gelman , better known as Woody Gelman, was a publisher, a cartoonist, a novelist and an artist-writer for animation and comic books. As the publisher of Nostalgia Press, he pioneered the reprinting of vintage comic strips in quality hardcovers and trade paperbacks...
, under his Nostalgia Press imprint revived some of his earlier work. Regarded by Time magazine in 1974—alongside Prince Valiant
Prince Valiant
Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur, or simply Prince Valiant, is a long-run comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretch of that story now totals more than 3700 Sunday strips...
author-illustrator Hal Foster—as "some sort of genius", and described in Jerry Bails
Jerry Bails
Jerry Gwin Bails was an American popular culturist. Known as the "Father of Comic Book Fandom", he was one of the first to approach the comic book field as a subject worthy of academic study, and was a primary force in establishing 1960s comics fandom.- Early life :Jerry G. Bails was born June...
and Hames Ware's Who's Who in American Comic Books as "[p]ossibly the most influential artist on early comic books", Raymond's legacy as an artistic inspiration is immense. Harvey argues that it is because of Raymond and Foster that the illustrative style became the dominant one used for adventure strips. "His work and Foster's created the visual standard by which all such comic strips would henceforth be measured." Biographer Tom Roberts also believes Raymond's work on Rip Kirby "inspired all the soap opera style strips of the fifties and sixties". Roberts argues that strips such as Apartment 3-G
Apartment 3-G
Apartment 3-G is an American newspaper comic strip about a trio of career women who share Apartment 3-G in Manhattan. Created by Nicholas P...
"can trace their origins to the success of Raymond's strip". Although his work was rarely seen outside of the newspaper "funny pages", as Raymond preferred to focus his energies on strip work, he also produced a number of "illustrations for Blue Book
Blue Book (magazine)
Blue Book was a popular 20th-century American magazine with a lengthy 70-year run under various titles from 1905 to 1975.Launched as The Monthly Story Magazine, it was published under that title from May 1905 to August 1906 with a change to The Monthly Story Blue Book Magazine for issues from...
, Look
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
, Collier's
Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....
and Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
". as well as Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
.
The "heightened realism" of Raymond's photorealistic style has been "chastised for making his pictures too realistic, too gorgeous for its own sake", although many commentators believe that this very method "plunges the reader into the story". Raymond's work has a "timeless appeal," many aspects of which—including the use of feathering (a shading technique in which a soft series of parallel lines helps to suggest the contour of an object)—have inspired generations of cartoonists, his work becoming "the raw material for the swipe files of future generations". His work on Rip Kirby is especially noted for its use of "sophisticated black spotting", a technique Raymond used from c.1949 "for pacing" reasons. Fellow-cartoonist Stan Drake
Stan Drake
Stanley Albert Drake was an American cartoonist best known as the founding artist of the comic strip The Heart of Juliet Jones....
recalled that Raymond called his black areas "pools of quiet", serving as they did "as a pause for the viewer, something to slow the eye across the strip's panels".
Specific influences
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
has cited Raymond's Flash Gordon as a major influence on his Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
films (which, cyclically, inspired the 1980 Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon (film)
Flash Gordon is a 1980 British/American science fiction film, based on the comic strip of the same name created by Alex Raymond. The film was directed by Mike Hodges and produced and presented by Dino De Laurentiis. It stars Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Topol, Max von Sydow, Timothy Dalton, Brian...
film), while Raymond's long shadow has fallen across the comics industry ever since his work saw print. Comics artists who have cited Raymond as a particularly significant influence on their work include Murphy Anderson
Murphy Anderson
Murphy Anderson is an American comic book artist, known as one of the premier inkers of his era, who has worked for companies such as DC Comics for over fifty years, starting in the 1930s-'40s Golden Age of Comic Books...
, Jim Aparo
Jim Aparo
James N. "Jim" Aparo was an American comic book artist best known for his 1960s and 1970s DC Comics work, including on the characters Batman, Aquaman and the Spectre....
, Frank Brunner
Frank Brunner
Frank Brunner is an American comic book artist and illustrator best known for his work at Marvel Comics in the 1970s.-Comics:...
, John Buscema
John Buscema
John Buscema, born Giovanni Natale Buscema , was an American comic-book artist and one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics during its 1960s and 1970s ascendancy into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop culture conglomerate...
, Gene Colan
Gene Colan
Eugene Jules "Gene" Colan was an American comic book artist best known for his work for Marvel Comics, where his signature titles include the superhero series, Daredevil, the cult-hit satiric series Howard the Duck, and The Tomb of Dracula, considered one of comics' classic horror series...
, Dick Dillin
Dick Dillin
Richard Allen "Dick" Dillin was an American comic book artist best known for an extraordinarily long 12-year run as the penciler of the DC Comics superhero-team series Justice League of America. He drew 115 issues from 1968 up until his death, bridging the venerable title's Mike Sekowsky and...
, José Luis García-López
José Luis García-López
José Luis García-López is a Spanish comic book artist who works in the United States of America, mostly for DC Comics. He has most recently penciled an arc in Batman Confidential, the Metal Men storyline in the 2009 Wednesday Comics weekly anthology, and, in 2011, one of the stories in The Spirit...
, Frank Giacoia
Frank Giacoia
Frank Giacoia was an American comic book artist known primarily as an inker. He sometimes worked under the name Frank Ray, and to a lesser extent Phil Zupa, and the single moniker Espoia .-Early life and career:Frank Giacoia studied at Manhattan's School of...
, Bob Haney
Bob Haney
Robert G. "Bob" Haney was a US comic book writer, best known for his work for DC Comics. He co-created the Teen Titans as well as characters such as Metamorpho, Eclipso, Cain, and the Super-Sons.- Early life and career :...
, Jack Katz
Jack Katz (artist)
Jack Katz is an American comic book artist and writer, painter and art teacherknown for his graphic novel, The First Kingdom.-Early life and career:...
, Joe Kubert
Joe Kubert
Joe Kubert is an American comic book artist who went on to found The Kubert School. He is best known for his work on the DC Comics characters Sgt. Rock and Hawkman...
, Mort Meskin
Mort Meskin
Morton "Mort" Meskin was a prolific American comic book artist best-known for his work in the 1940s Golden Age of comic books, well into the late-1950s and 1960s Silver Age.-Early life:...
, Sheldon Moldoff
Sheldon Moldoff
Sheldon "Shelly" Moldoff is an American comic book artist best known his early work on the DC Comics characters Hawkman and Hawkgirl, and as one of Bob Kane's primary "ghost artists" on the superhero Batman. He co-created the Batman supervillains Poison Ivy, Mr...
, Luis Garcia Mozos
Luis García Mozos
-Career:More widely known in English as just Luis García, he was born in Puertollano, Spain in 1946. García began his career drawing European romance comics for Fleetway. In the 1960s, he joined the well known Spanish agency Selecciones Illustradas. In 1971 García joined Warren Publishing, where...
, Joe Orlando
Joe Orlando
Joseph Orlando was a prolific illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist during a lengthy career spanning six decades...
, John Romita Jr., Kurt Schaffenberger
Kurt Schaffenberger
Kurt Schaffenberger was an American comic book artist. Schaffenberger was best known for his work on Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family , as well as his work on the title Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane during the 1950s and 1960s.-Early career:Schaffenberger was born on a farm in the...
, Joe Sinnott
Joe Sinnott
Joe Sinnott is an American comic book artist. Working primarily as an inker, Sinnott is best-known for his long stint on Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, from 1965 to 1981 , initially over the pencils of industry legend Jack Kirby...
, Dick Sprang
Dick Sprang
Richard W. "Dick" Sprang was an American comic book artist and penciller, best known for his work on the superhero Batman during the period fans and historians call Golden Age of Comic Books. Sprang was responsible for the 1948 redesign of the Batmobile and the original design of the Riddler, who...
and Alex Toth
Alex Toth
Alexander Toth was an American professional cartoonist active from the 1940s through the 1980s. Toth's work began in the American comic book industry, but is known for his animation designs for Hanna-Barbera throughout the 1960s and 1970s. His work included Super Friends, Space Ghost, The...
, among many others.
In particular, Raymond has been named as a key influence by many of the most influential and important comic book artists of all time. EC Comics
EC Comics
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, notably the Tales from the Crypt series...
-staple Al Williamson
Al Williamson
Alfonso "Al" Williamson was an American cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator specializing in adventure, Western and science-fiction/fantasy...
cites Raymond as a major influence, and is quoted as saying that Raymond was "the reason I became an artist". Indeed, Williamson ultimately assisted on the Flash Gordon strips in the mid-1950s, and Rip Kirby in the mid-1960s (all post-Raymond). Key Golden Age
Golden Age of Comic Books
The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s...
artists credit Raymond with influencing their work. The artistic creators of Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
(Bob Kane
Bob Kane
Bob Kane was an American comic book artist and writer, credited as the creator of the DC Comics superhero Batman...
) and Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
(Joe Shuster
Joe Shuster
Joseph "Joe" Shuster was a Canadian-born American comic book artist. He was best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Superman, with writer Jerry Siegel, first published in Action Comics #1...
) credit him (alongside Milton Caniff
Milton Caniff
Milton Arthur Paul Caniff was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.-Biography:...
, Billy DeBeck and Roy Crane
Roy Crane
Royston Campbell Crane , who signed his work Roy Crane, was an influential American cartoonist who created the comic strip characters Wash Tubbs, Captain Easy and Buz Sawyer. He pioneered the adventure comic strip, establishing the conventions and artistic approach of that genre. Comics historian...
) as having had a strong influence on their artistic development. Decades later, the herald of the Silver Age
Silver Age of Comic Books
The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly those in the superhero genre. Following the Golden Age of Comic Books and an interregnum in the early to mid-1950s, the Silver Age is considered to cover the...
(and co-creator of most of Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
's pantheon of heroes), Jack "King" Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
also credits Raymond, alongside fellow strip artist Hal Foster, as a particular influence and inspiration.
Cerebus creator Dave Sim
Dave Sim
David Victor Sim is an award-winning Canadian comic book writer and artist.A pioneer of self-published comics and creators' rights, Sim is best known as the creator of Cerebus the Aardvark, a comic book published from 1977 to 2004, which chronicles its main character in a 6,000-page self-contained...
has published a comic book since 2008 called glamourpuss
Glamourpuss
glamourpuss is a Canadian independent comic book written and illustrated by Dave Sim. Sim promises that the comic will ship promptly bimonthly, with 24 pages of story and art...
which is an examination of Alex Raymond's career (and the techniques of other photorealists like Stan Drake
Stan Drake
Stanley Albert Drake was an American cartoonist best known as the founding artist of the comic strip The Heart of Juliet Jones....
and Al Williamson
Al Williamson
Alfonso "Al" Williamson was an American cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator specializing in adventure, Western and science-fiction/fantasy...
) structured around a hypothetical storyline set during the last day of Raymond's life.
Death
On September 6, 1956, Raymond was killed in an automobile accident in Westport, ConnecticutWestport, Connecticut
-Neighborhoods:* Saugatuck – around the Westport railroad station near the southwestern corner of the town – a built-up area with some restaurants, stores and offices....
. Driving fellow cartoonist Stan Drake
Stan Drake
Stanley Albert Drake was an American cartoonist best known as the founding artist of the comic strip The Heart of Juliet Jones....
's 1956 Corvette
Corvette
A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...
at twice the 25 mi/h speed limit
Speed limit
Road speed limits are used in most countries to regulate the speed of road vehicles. Speed limits may define maximum , minimum or no speed limit and are normally indicated using a traffic sign...
, he hit a tree and was killed. Roberts describes in his biography the circumstances as a result of the weather. Driving in a convertible with the top down, Raymond decided to reach his destination quicker rather than stop to put the top back up when rain started to fall. Drake was thrown clear of the crash, but Raymond, with his seat belt buckled, died instantly. Speculation surrounds the nature of his death, with some, Drake included, believing Raymond was suicidal. Raymond had been involved in four automobile accidents in the month prior to his death, which led Drake to say Raymond "had been trying to kill himself". Author Arlen Schumer ascribes the motive for suicide as being related to Raymond's personal life. Schumer alleges that Raymond had been having affairs, and that although he and his wife were separated, she was refusing to grant him a divorce. R. C. Harvey is dismissive of this motivation: "Committing suicide strikes me as an odd way for a man of Raymond's sophistication to react to his disappointment in romance". Harvey also notes that no mention of any alleged affairs is made in Tom Robert's biography, "probably out of consideration to Raymond's surviving family". Drake has also been quoted as speculating that Raymond "hit the accelerator by mistake." Raymond is buried in St. John's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Darien, Connecticut
Darien, Connecticut
Darien is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. A relatively small community on Connecticut's "Gold Coast", the population was 20,732 at the 2010 census. Darien was listed at #9 at CNN Money's list of "top-earning towns" in the United States as of 2011...
.
Personal life
Raymond married Helen Frances Williams on December 31, 1931, with whom he had five children. The names of his three daughters—Judith, Lynne and Helen ('Honey')—were immortalized in that of Rip Kirby's girlfriend, Judith Lynne "Honey" Dorian. The Raymonds also had two sons: Alex III and Duncan. He was the great-uncle of actors Matt DillonMatt Dillon
Matthew Raymond "Matt" Dillon is an American actor and film director. He began acting in the late 1970s, gaining fame as a teenage idol during the 1980s.- Early life :...
and Kevin Dillon
Kevin Dillon (actor)
Kevin Brady Dillon is an American actor best known as Johnny "Drama" Chase on the HBO dramedy Entourage. He has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for his performance on the show.- Early life :...
. His younger brother, Jim Raymond
Jim Raymond
Jim Raymond was a comic strip artist and the younger brother of Flash Gordon artist Alex Raymond.-Biography:Born in New Rochelle, New York, Raymond's first cartoons were published in his high school newspaper...
, was also a cartoonist, and also an assistant to Chic Young
Chic Young
Murat Bernard Young , better known as Chic Young, was an American cartoonist who created the popular, long-running comic strip Blondie. His 1919 William McKinley High School Yearbook cites his nickname as Chicken, source of his familiar pen name and signature...
on Blondie
Blondie (comic strip)
Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930...
.
Collected editions
Raymond's work has been collected a number of times. Most recently:- Flash Gordon (hardcover, Checker Book Publishing GroupChecker Book Publishing GroupChecker Book Publishing Group is an independent publisher of comics reprints, from newspaper strips to modern out-of-print titles and collections from defunct publishers.-History:...
):- Volume 1 (collects Raymond's earliest Sunday Strips starting from the first, printed on January 7, 1934; 98 pages, October 2003, ISBN 097416643X)
- Volume 2 (collects strips from 1935 and 1936; 100 pages, December 2004, ISBN 0974166464)
- Volume 3 (collects the pages printed between October 25, 1936 and August 1, 1937; 96 pages, May 2005, ISBN 193316025X)
- Volume 4 (collects strips printed between 1938 and 1940; November 2005, ISBN 1933160268)
- Volume 5 (collects "The Ice Kingdom of Mongo", "Power Men of Mongo", and "The Fall of Ming"; 1940 to 1941; 80 pages, November 2005, ISBN 1933160276)
- Volume 6 (collects the pages printed from August 1941 to May 1943; 100 pages, April 2007, ISBN 1933160284)
- Volume 7 (collects the final strips from mid-1943, until the final Raymond issue from February 1945; 100 pages, December 2006, ISBN 1933160209)
- Rip Kirby (hardcover, IDW):
- Volume 1 (collects strips printed between 1946 and 1948; 2009, ISBN 9781600104848)
- Volume 2 (collects strips printed between 1948 and 1951; March 2010, ISBN 9781600105821)
- Volume 3 (collects strips printed between 1951 and 1954; November 2010, ISBN 9781600107850)
Awards
Alex Raymond received a Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists SocietyNational Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society 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 troops...
in 1949 for his work on Rip Kirby
Rip Kirby
Rip Kirby was a popular comic strip featuring the adventures of the eponymous lead character, a private detective created by Alex Raymond in 1946...
, and he later served as President of the Society in 1950 and 1951. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1996.
Maurice Horn calls Raymond "one of the most celebrated comic artists of all time as the creator of four outstanding comic features (a feat unequaled to this day)," noting that he "received many distinctions and awards during his lifetime for his work, both as a cartoonist and as a magazine illustrator."