The great comics artist Russ Heath, famed for his work across multiple genres such as war comics, horror and non-superhero adventure, died at age 91 this week. The Hollywood Reporter has an obituary
here and the Comics Journal has a detailed remembrance
here.
Heath was known for his detailed rendering of military vehicles and hardware and worked on numerous war comics, starting with EC and Timely/Marvel through regular features in DC's G.I. Combat and Our Army at War titles. He was the regular artist on DC's "Haunted Tank" feature and Se Devils title, thanks to his talents at depicting scuba divers and underwater.
An Air Force veteran, Heath also was great at depicting aircraft and aerial battles. Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein plagiarized two of his panels from All American Men of War #89 to create his paintings "Brattata" and "Okay Hot-Shot Okay!"
Though uncredited, Heath also created the artwork for ads for plastic solider sets that ran in comic books for years. And he was a regular assistant to Harvey Kurtzmann and Willie Elder on their "Little Annie Fannie" strip in Playboy magazine.
We'll be paying tribute to Heath with a series of posts this week, spotlighting different aspects of his art. Let's get started with a look at his diverse work across multiple comics genre. Scans via
Heritage Auctions and the
Grand Comics Database.
