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
John Freeman
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Explorer (previously known as Star Trek Magazine) and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War and “Dan Dare”. He’s the writer of "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
New Forest Painters 2023 exhibition to feature fine art of comic creator Alan Langford 
Coming Soon: Moebius’ Little Pantheon: Arzak 
Vice Press boldly launches new Star Trek poster range 
New “Alf Tupper, the Tough of the Track” prints released, Moomins cards and prints in the works