Paul Power is an Australian-born artist who, like many aspiring comic artists 'Down Under' who came of age during the 1970s, found greater opportunities to pursue a full-time career as a commercial illustrator in the United States. Paul's name may not be immediately recognisable to present-day Australian comics' fans, but his comic art credentials are impeccable. He succeeded Hart Amos as illustrator on the Sunday newspaper version of Air Hawk and the Flying Doctors comic strip, and was mentored by the famed American comic artist, Alex Toth, whom Paul met whilst working on the animated TV series, Superfriends (Toth was the production supervisor for Hanna-Barbera Productions' Australian studios in the 1970s).Paul later illustrated the science-fiction comic strip, Professor Om, which was written by Australian comics' fan John Snowden, and appeared in the Sydney newspaper, Sunday (formerly the Sunday Mirror), in late 1977/early 1978, and was subsequently reprinted in the New Zealand comic magazine, Strips. Since the early 1980s, Paul Power has been kept busy as a prolific storyboard artist and production illustrator on a string of Hollywood movies and TV series, as attested by his entry on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). However, Paul has recently returned to his comic book 'roots', with two special projects.
The Adventures of Jon Fury is a newly restored version of Alex Toth's little-seen 1950s US armed forces newspaper strip, 'Jon Fury in Japan', excerpts of which were last seen in Toth's self-published collection, The Art of Alex Toth (1977). Published (and partially inked) by Paul Power, with digital colouring by Matt Webb, The Adventures of Jon Fury presents two complete installments of this unique comic strip, supplemented by an extensively illustrated (and, as it turned out, final) interview with Alex Toth. A special treat are the black & white photos of Alex Toth meeting with the cream of Australian comic artists, including John Dixon, Phil Belbin and Stan Pitt, during his stay in Sydney in 1973.
Paul's next upcoming project can only be described as a true labour of love. East Meets West was first developed by Paul in 1972, and is described as a 'sci-fi western' in the tradition of filmmaker John Ford and adventure cartoonist Milton Caniff. Once again starring Professor Om, this graphic epic now runs in excess of 400 pages! Truly decades in the making, East Meets West will be released on 21 May 2011 and will be sold through Amazon.com and available to comic shops via Diamond Comic Distributors.
3 comments:
Toth once wrote to me about his stay in Sydney during the '70s. He was a massive fan of the Aussie artists - I sent him a copy of Bonzer and he raved about seeing the art once more. He might have been grumpy at times, but he certainly appreciated good art.
Hi Lyndal - Thanks for sharing your toth anecdote with us. I can recommend Paul Power's interview with Alex Toth in the forthcoming 'Jon Fury' comic. It's full of great photos & artwork, and pithy quotes aplenty - you get a real sense of the man's voice. As you say, Toth may have been grumpy, but he recognised top-shelf (Aussie) comic art when he saw it. toth truly was "the artist's artist"! - Kevin
I was lucky enough to meet Paul Power at SDCC this year by accident. Being a massive Jack Kirby fan, I spotted Mike Royer and I went over for a photo. I was speaking to Mr Royer when he asked where I was from. As soon as I said Australia, Paul Power appeared (he and Mr Royer are good friends), and being an Australian comic history newbie, I really didn't click as to who I was talking to until after I got back and started reading the research notes. He was a fantastic, down to Earth bloke, and his issues of 'East Meets West' and 'Jon Fury in Japan' were beautiful. There's even a Professor Om pin up by Paul with Mike Royer inks, and a number of prominent artists lending their skills for the book, including Steve Oliff, Dean White, John Dixon and John Romita Jr. to name a few (the list is quite extensive). He also spoke of Mr Toth's trip down under (and probably a bit to risque to repeat here ;P) and his Hollywood antics onset with 'The Rock'. He even got to act in a scene or two of 'Welcome to the Jungle'. Great post Mr. Patrick.
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