Bill Pearson (comics)

William Pearson (born July 27, 1938), known professionally as Bill Pearson, is an American novelist, publisher, editor, artist, comic book scripter and letterer, notable as the editor-publisher of his own graphic story publication, ''witzend''.Arndt, Richard. Early Independents: ''witzend''
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Biography

Early years

Born in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, Pearson was employed in 1957 as a technical illustrator at the Ziff Davis publishing firm and began night classes at the School of Visual Arts, including an anatomy course taught by Burne Hogarth. Work as a technical illustrator for the Underwood Typewriter Company in 1959 was followed by two years as a mechanical draftsman at Motorola in Phoenix, Arizona.

While serving in the military at Fort Polk in Louisiana during the early 1960s, he met artist Ed Paschke. Working together in Fort Polk's Training Aids Department, they provided illustrations for publications, signs, targets and manuals to explain weapons and procedures to incoming troops. The two remained lifelong friends, and Paschke later was a contributor to Pearson's ''witzend''.

During the mid to late 1960s, Pearson was an artist and production manager with the Manhattan art agency Admaster Prints, which had many national clients, including Citibank, the New York Life Insurance Company and Winchester Rifles. Income from Admaster and various freelance jobs made it possible for Pearson to underwrite his ''witzend'' (which had no national distributor and carried no advertising).

Comic books

''witzend''

As a close associate of Wally Wood, Pearson made many contributions to projects at the Wally Wood Studio. When Wood launched his alternative comics magazine, ''witzend'' in 1966, Pearson was an associate editor, and after the fourth issue, Wood turned ''witzend'' over to Pearson with an agreement that at least four more issues would appear.

Pearson, using the publisher name Wonderful Publishing Company, edited and published ''witzend'' for many years, continuing it into the 1980s. One entire issue focused on W.C. Fields, and a special theme issue, ''Good Girls'', filled page after page with good girl art.

''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents''

While he was still an assistant on ''witzend'' in the mid-1960s, he became involved in the creation of Wood's ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'' team for Tower Comics. In addition to scripting a half-dozen ''NoMan'' tales for ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'' and an equal number of ''Undersea Agent'' adventures, he did ghostwriting on Wood's ''Dynamo'' scripts. In 2003-05, these stories were collected into hardback books as part of DC Comics' five-volume ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archive'' series. The many examples of collaborations between Wood and Pearson include the cover of ''The Wallace Wood Checklist'' (2003).

Charlton and other publishers

While an editor at Charlton Comics during the 1970s and early 1980s, Pearson designed and colored over 200 comic book covers. Equally extensive were the numerous comic book scripts the prolific Pearson wrote for a wide variety of publishers, including Gold Key, Tower Comics, King Comics (''Flash Gordon''), Charlton, Eclipse, Gladstone and Warren Publications. He was the writer of Gold Key's ''Popeye the Sailor'' spoof. For two decades (1975–95), he lettered for almost every comics publisher, and he was the first art director at Another Rainbow.

Eros

Pearson has edited several books of Wood's comics for Eros Comix, an imprint of Fantagraphics Books. These include ''Cannon'' (1991), ''Sally Forth'' (1993–95) and ''Naughty Knotty Wood'' (1998). In 2002, he published his own drawings, inked by Wood, in three portfolios—''Fancy Animals'', ''Human Beans'' and ''Naked Aliens''. Each Pearson/Wood portfolio has 12 plates in an illustrated envelope, and each was published in a limited edition of 500 copies.

Novels

''Drifter's Detour''

His mystery novel, ''Drifter's Detour'' (2007), displays an unusual visual concept. The story is highlighted by more than 40 illustrations by 20 artists, including Dan Adkins, Jim Amash, Richard Bassford, Nick Cuti, Steve Fiorilla, Michael T. Gilbert, Dennis Janke, Gary Kato, Russ Miller, Mitch O'Connell, James Romberger, Guy Staats, Joe Staton, Steve Stiles, Jim Steranko, Ronn Sutton, Jim Wheelock and Pearson himself. In the book's concluding acknowledgments page, Pearson explained:

''Dancing Partners''

Dancing Partners, a comedy/chase novel with many classic movie stars as characters, was published by xLibris, an online print-on-demand publishing company in 2010.

''Last Of The Wolfdragons''

In 2015, Last Of The Wolfdragons, a science fiction novel, was also published by xLibris, with a cover illustration by the author.

See also

*List of novelists from the United States

References

Sources

Comic Book Database: Bill Pearson

External links

Bill Pearson official site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, Bill
1938 births
21st-century American novelists
Alternative cartoonists
American book publishers (people)
American calligraphers
American comics artists
American comics writers
American magazine editors
American male novelists
Comic book publishers (people)
Living people
Writers from South Dakota
People from Belle Fourche, South Dakota
Journalists from South Dakota
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American male non-fiction writers
Popeye