Welcome, one and all, to Multiversity’s Art of the Week! Each week, we scour the internet for artwork sourced from the blogs, tumblrs, twitters, and instagrams of the best comic book and manga artists out there and curate them here for your viewing pleasure.
This week the comic’s world lost Russ Heath, one of the all time great war and western artists. He helped to define characters like Sgt. Rock and the Losers and helped to co-create numerous DC properties, including Jeb Stuart, Haunted Tank and the Sea Devils.
Heath is also well known for indirectly inspiring the Fine Art world. In an infamous examples of “fan art reappropriation,” pop artist Roy Lichtenstein blatantly swiped several panels of Russ Heath’s work without permission or monetary compensation, to create Fine Art pieces which would later sell for millions of dollars.
In addition, Heath is well known for his adult themed comics strips for Playboy Magazine (made in collaboration with Mad Magazine’s Harvey Kurtzman) as well as his early work for EC Comics, Timely Comics and his character designs for the GI Joe roster of characters.
So in honor of Russ Heath we will look back at some of the characters that he either created or helped to define, as well as look at some of his own sketches and lesser seen works. And be sure to check back next week to see more exciting and rarely seen artwork from the world of comic books and manga.
