RAYMOND, Alex

(1909-1956)

   US COMIC-strip artist. After graduating from the Grand Central School of Art in New York City, he worked on the strip Tillie the Toiler. He soon moved up in the comics world, working for Chic Young on Blondie and with Lyman Young on Tim Tyler's Luck before being given his own strip, Secret Agent X-9; it was during this time that he began to develop his distinctive style. In 1934 he was given the chance to do a new strip, FLASH GORDON, and US cartooning has not been the same since; he was the first demonstrably modern comics illustrator. Although his style at first was characterized by convoluted masses and strong, sweeping lines, by 1936 it had become more precise and controlled. He refined the technique of "feathering" (a series of fine brush-or pen-strokes used in cartooning to create contours) to a degree as yet unexcelled in comic strips. The style was romantic, the protagonists' features impossibly heroic, the settings exotic and fantastic. In 1944, AR joined the US Marines, leaving the strip to Austin Briggs (1909-1973); when he returnedin 1946 he created a new strip, not sf, the very popular Rip Kirby. AR died in a tragic accident in 1956, at the peak of his career.

   JG

   See also: ILLUSTRATION.