Russ Heath 1 1

[pemart1966]

Sad news in Comics General of Russ Heath having passed away...loved his Star Spangled War Stories dinosaur covers and stories.

Edited August 24, 2018 by pemart1966

[tth2]

One of my favorite comic artists of all time.  RIP. 

One of my favorite covers by him...

 

[adamstrange]

I was very saddened to hear the news.

He was an inveterate kidder and teller of jokes and cheerful every time I had the chance to meet him.

It was a pleasure working with him when I commissioned the cover to Showcase 27.  He asked whether I wanted the color design "fixed" to be accurate as to how the sunlight rippling through the water would actually affect the scene.  He removed the text blurb in the lower right and drew the corral and fish, revealing what had been covered up for more than 45 years.  For the title he gave me the option to use Sea Devils rather than Showcase. 

Heath is well known for the care in his accurate depiction of people and scenes. I picked it the finished recreation on a lunch break and one of my co-workers, a female scuba diver, commented that females in wet suits don't have chests like that.  I think I can forgive him.

[tth2]

Beautiful piece!  I never had the pleasure of meeting Russ, but your comments are consistent with what I've heard from everyone else, which was that he was a great guy.

Here's one of my favorite Sea Devils covers by Russ.

 

[Silver]

I don’t have a little t of his stuff because I really didn’t collect war books but I loved his brief sting on early Brave and the Bold with the Golden Gladiator. I believe he drew him on number 1. It’s sad to think how many of the great artists arenow gone. 

[TheWatcher]

A sad day for the hobby with the passing of Russ Heath. May he rest in peace

 

[tth2]

7 hours ago, TheWatcher said:

A sad day for the hobby with the passing of Russ Heath. May he rest in peace

 

Great cover!

[zosocane]

Rip RH.  This is my favorite cover from GI Combat 96:

[tth2]

That's an awesome cover!

However, for anyone who's ever been around a tank when it's firing its cannon, holding the barrel of the cannon while firing would be an extremely unpleasant experience.

[adamstrange]

Here's a good video tribute to Russ.

 

[HouseofComics.Com]

Nice job by the video author--thanks for posting. Russ was a titan.

[FutureFlash]

On 8/24/2018 at 8:37 PM, tth2 said:

One of my favorite comic artists of all time.  RIP. 

One of my favorite covers by him...

 

First Big 5 War book I purchased to start the run of all the issues. Heath did some awesome covers.

[tth2]

He certainly did!

[Gnasher]

On 8/25/2018 at 8:38 AM, adamstrange said:

I was very saddened to hear the news.

He was an inveterate kidder and teller of jokes and cheerful every time I had the chance to meet him.

It was a pleasure working with him when I commissioned the cover to Showcase 27.  He asked whether I wanted the color design "fixed" to be accurate as to how the sunlight rippling through the water would actually affect the scene.  He removed the text blurb in the lower right and drew the corral and fish, revealing what had been covered up for more than 45 years.  For the title he gave me the option to use Sea Devils rather than Showcase. 

Heath is well known for the care in his accurate depiction of people and scenes. I picked it the finished recreation on a lunch break and one of my co-workers, a female scuba diver, commented that females in wet suits don't have chests like that.  I think I can forgive him.

You have to admit, that's beautiful.

[adamstrange]

The first recreation Heath drew was for the "Big 5 Guide to DC War Comics."  In one of my early conversations with him he asked me if I noticed how he had fixed the cover.  Since I only once before seen the original, I replied, "No. What did you do?"  He commented that he had been drawing Korean era jets in the story prior to that cover and he inadvertently swept the wings back ever so slightly on the WWII plane.

He also, his words, "reduced the pilot by 4%" because he was too big relative to the plane.  He didn't feel that mistake was his fault because at the time that he drew the original the Air Force still kept specifications secret so he didn't know exactly how big it was.

Edited September 1, 2018 by adamstrange

[MusterMark]

5 hours ago, adamstrange said:

The first recreation Heath drew was for the "Big 5 Guide to DC War Comics."  In one of my early conversations with him he asked me if I noticed how he had fixed the cover.  Since I only once before seen the original, I replied, "No. What did you do?"  He commented that he had been drawing Korean era jets in the story prior to that cover and he inadvertently swept the wings back ever so slightly on the WWII plane.

He also, his words, "reduced the pilot by 4%" because he was too big relative to the plane.  He didn't feel that mistake was fault because at the time that he drew the original the Air Force still kept specifications secret so he didn't know exactly how big it was.

Awesome story.

Typical of how motivated Russ was in his detail.

[comick1]

8 hours ago, MusterMark said:

Awesome story.

Typical of how motivated Russ was in his detail.

Russ was a geek WAYYYYYYYY before it was cool to be a geek!

[bigfiver69]

Hey guys,

Just saw this news, and I'm heartbroken. Russ was my favorite DC war artist, from the moment I read 'The Arena' from Our Army at War #273. I think I found that book when I was 8, back in 1977. I've since owned a bunch of copies of that issue, but I still have the coverless, tattered copy I found as a boy and it remains precious to me.

One of the great thrills of my adult life was receiving a call one night at home from Russ. I had sent him a letter while doing some research on a book about DC bronze age war comics. He was genial, sharp and very generous with his time. I met him twice in person during the Big Five dinners at the SDCC over the years, and was a total gent.

Does anyone know offhand what his final piece of published comic art might have been?

Hope all are well,

Shep

 

Edited September 9, 2018 by bigfiver69

[comick1]

9 hours ago, bigfiver69 said:

Hey guys,

Just saw this news, and I'm heartbroken. Russ was my favorite DC war artist, from the moment I read 'The Arena' from Our Army at War #273. I think I found that book when I was 8, back in 1977. I've since owned a bunch of copies of that issue, but I still have the coverless, tattered copy I found as a boy and it remains precious to me.

One of the great thrills of my adult life was receiving a call one night at home from Russ. I had sent him a letter while doing some research on a book about DC bronze age war comics. He was genial, sharp and very generous with his time. I met him twice in person during the Big Five dinners at the SDCC over the years, and was a total gent.

Does anyone know offhand what his final piece of published comic art might have been?

Hope all are well,

Shep

 

I don't know what his final one was for sure, but I'm going to guess that it was the cover to the "Hero's Edition" of the 2016 OPG with Sgt. Rock and Easy emerging from the forest.  Anybody know of anything more recent?

 

[bigfiver69]

Hey Mick,

That sounds about right... I was so pleased to see that Overstreet cover.

Sigh.

Shep