Touching Base with Syd Shores

To start with, in 1946 I met Syd Shores, the head of the art dept. up at Marvel. One of the sweetest men I've ever met. Unassuming. He did what he knew best and did it to a fair-thee-well. He was one heck of an artist! He did all the famous SuperHeroes that we're still doing today. In fact, I'm finishing up a current Captain America which Syd could do with his eyes closed. He'd come in in the morning, ready for work, with a cup of coffee, slowly walking to his desk. When you have that many men in a room in the art dept., there's got to be alot of conversation besides mostly. Mostly talking and sometimes drawing. :) But, Syd generally was quiet. He'd join in once in a while. I think he was in the Normandy invasion. Not sure. But he did see action in WWII. I didn't know very much about his private life. He wasn't that talkative about anything like that.

But whenever I had an art problem (and that was at a time when I was flying by the seat of my pants, I was all of twenty-one and had hair!), I would go to Syd and ask him to help me with it. And in less than a minute, he would solve it and show me where I went wrong. I remember I had a problem drawing a woman putting on make-up in front of a mirror. It was a crime story. And no matter how hard I tried it on my own, I couldn't get it to look natural. So I brought the problem over to Syd and he solved it. He showed me alot of things about art that I've never forgotten.

The day he passed away was a big shock to me. It took a long time for me to get over it...and I still haven't.I knew he had children, and I met his wife once and very briefly. But that's all I knew. I made it my mission in every interview I've ever given, book I've ever written to mention the influence Syd Shores had on my ability to draw well and the love and respect I had for the man. He was a giant in the industry.

So many years have passed since he died. Decades really. But last night, came a very special surprise via an email. I heard from his daughter Nancy and I nearly fell off the couch. She was recently down in Florida and had visited Al Bellman and in coversation, Al mentioned my admiration for her father. She knew who I was and right away she wanted to speak to me. Al gave her my contact information. Within minutes of her email arriving, I called Nancy at her home here in New York. Coincidentally, I have a Nanci too. :) We had a wonderful conversation about everything and of course about her father. She was aware of the interviews I've given about her father. She told me Marvel had a long search to find her, but when they did, they were able to return her dad's original art. She told me she'll never sell it.

Too bad there wasn't an internet then, where he could have heard from so many fans. I'm sure though, he somehow knows how his legacy lives on. He was the BEST!

Gene