This great comic book artist was one of my friend Steve‘s heroes and an inspiration to become even better (I thought he was pretty good to begin with). Before my GDW tenure, I was pretty ignorant about the guy until Steve pointed out he was the guy who drew the Star Wars newspaper strip in its final years (I think the initial run in 1979 was Russ Manning). Al’s influence and style was very apparent in West End’s heavy hitter Allen Nunis (some even say Al may have done it but let Allen’s signature go on it), the dominant original art dude for the game before WOTC had the license. I would also say you can see it in Mark Schulz’s Cadillacs & Dinosaurs books. Lastly, it’s pretty apparent in Steve’s Athena Voltaire creation.
If you read the green link above, Steve tells his story about meeting one of his idols better. Meanwhile, I do remember very clearly the vacation (more like a de facto workshop) he took in 1992 to meet Al. He was so excited, enough to drive all the way from Central IL to I think Eastern PA in one swoop for this. Steve definitely returned a changed man, inspired and brave enough to take on the Sisyphean tasks involving Mythus.
Other details can be found here.