Books
Top billing Nearly 50 years of a diverse creative career are celebrated within this handsome retrospective of the influential American artist
Witty captions accompany every drawing, advertisement, poster and dinosaur
The 1933 black-and-white version of King Kong was the first film artist William Stout ever watched at the age of three. Within its frames were all the ingredients that would be found later on in his work: monsters, dinosaurs and women in distress.
This doesn’t mean that William’s career has been neat and predictable. With the help of over 500 colourful and black-and-white reproductions, this book shows the diversity of his creative talents and his willingness to experiment. William himself is also on-hand to guide readers through his story, “I always let the problem dictate the style and solution.”
Having William involved with this book makes for a more intimate and entertaining retrospective. Cartoonist and painter Robert WIlliams provides some dramatic context for the artist in his foreword, but it’s not long until we glimpse the illustrator’s childhood doodles. These sketches, including a triceratops, the invisible man, and of course King Kong, are a fascinating way to follow the trail of horror and dinosaurs that define William’s output.
The rest of the book is split into chapters that cover key facets of William’s professional life. We skip from influences to movie posters via comics and bootleg covers, ending up with a look at his current and unfinished work. Given the sprawling nature of his clients, it makes sense for the chapters to be split by the type of work and not necessarily the time in which they were created. Other sections are referenced when necessary, so readers can jump back and forth as the mood takes them.
Each reproduction in this coffeetable book is thoughtfully laid out, with appropriate images given full-page room to breathe. Not only that, but witty and personable captions accompany every drawing, poster, advertisement and dinosaur.
Introductions to each chapter give further insight into William and his career, creating a portrait of a man whose career is driven by artistic desires with a moral compass pointing firmly towards serious social interests. His own admission that he’s nothing special, just a hard worker, raises the bar for other artists, though. If William isn’t a genius, who is?