Louis Glanzman, former Golden Age comics artist and contemporary illustrator, passed away last week at the age of 91; his death was reported on an on-line forum by his brother and fellow artist, Sam Glanzman. The news was shared by the news site, The Comics Reporter.
Born and raised in Virginia, Louis found work in comic books at the age of 16; his most memorable work was probably a series of stories and covers for the Amazing Man Comics at Centaur. “I got my art training in comics. I did go to the School of Industrial Arts in New York but most of the time I played hooky at the burlesque shows on 42nd Street.” It was at Centaur that Louis helped secure occasional freelance work for his younger brother, Sam.
Louis served in the Army Air Corps during WWII as a mechanic on trainer aircraft stateside and became an illustrator for the military’s Aero Time magazine. After his discharge he began looking for work, but said, “I ran into the same kind of trouble I had when I first started in comics. I went to publishers and they told me to ‘go back to school.’ I kept trying and my first big break was with True Magazine.” Glanzman eventually began illustrating children’s books, including the Pippi Longstocking series and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, as well as painting covers for a wide variety of paperbacks. His freelance career grew along with his skills and through the decades he created art for Readers Digest, Colliers, The New Yorker, National Geographic, Time, and National Lampoon. Though he became best known for his historical subjects (including a series of widely admired paintings marking the American Bicentennial) Louis could produce fantasy art that was second to none (as can be seen on the cover of the Sameul Delany paperback below).
I first encountered Louis Glanzman’s as a kid art in the book Greece and Rome: Builders of Our World: his painting of the Greeks emerging from the belly of the Trojan Horse knocked me out of my socks at age 13. More than fifty years later, it’s still a personal favorite.
In recent years he had turned his attention to religious art for various publishers and landscapes. Louis is survived by his wife Fran and brother Sam.
That last Trojan Horse painting is fantastic! Do you know what medium he was working in?
Mistyped in my original answer.
I think oils, but never having seen the original I can't say with certainty. He seems to have been comfortable with pretty much every medium: there are pieces in gouache, acrylic, oil, and color pencil in his folio.
And here I was about to start a painting that honestly is kind of similar to that Trojan Horse piece (though definitely not the same). I'd never seen this one before.
My dad new lou for 70 years. My dad was the art director for parade magazine. He is now 96 I can ask him what medium he used. I also have 3 original pieces he gave my dad in the 50's and 60's. Marilyn Monroe is one, boxers and Japanese women.
My dad new lou for 70 years. My dad was the art director for parade magazine. He is now 96 I can ask him what medium he used. I also have 3 original pieces he gave my dad in the 50's and 60's. Marilyn Monroe is one, boxers and Japanese women.
Louis’s story is really painful during the war and the illustration describes the entire scene very well. Thank you for the blog.
Tood–I know that Louis’s brother, Sam, was a combat veteran in the Navy during WWII (which he recounted in a series of autobiographical stories for DC Comics), but am unfamiliar with Louis’s painful experiences: it was my understanding that he was stationed state-side during the war. Can you share his story? And which illustration are you referring to?