Born in Portland, Oregon, Shannon Stirnweis (1931 – 2019) settled in New York City, where he earned a reputation for his illustration work and fine art painting.
He studied at the University of Oregon, the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, and with Pruett Carter, and had a long and varied career as an illustrator and fine artist.
He began producing black and white illustrations for men’s adventure magazines in the 1950s, eventually doing colour covers for many publications. He soon progressed to the slicks, and did work for Argosy, Field and Stream, Outdoor Life, Boy’s Life, Reader’s Digest, Show, Popular Mechanics, Time, American Legion, Guidepost, and many others.
At the same time, he illustrated postage stamps, film posters, paperback covers, as well as over 35 children’s books.
The Illustrated Press published Shannon Stirnweis: 80 Years Behind the Brush, a retrospective of Shannon’s work, and presents pieces from each stage of his extensive career, annotated with revealing commentary from the artist
With thanks to Michael Neno and the WordPictureWord Group
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Art and Illustration, downthetubes News, Other Worlds
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