Bill Pearson

William Pearson (born July 27, 1938), known professionally as Bill Pearson, is an American novelist, publisher, editor, artist, comic book scripter and letterer, notable as the editor-publisher of his own graphic story publication, witzend.

Biography

Early years Born in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, Pearson was employed in 1957 as a technical illustrator at the Ziff Davis publishing firm and began night classes at the School of Visual Arts, including an anatomy course taught by Burne Hogarth. Work as a technical illustrator for the Underwood Typewriter Company in 1959 was followed by two years as a mechanical draftsman at Motorola in Phoenix, Arizona.

While serving in the military at Fort Polk in Louisiana during the early 1960s, he met artist Ed Paschke. Working together in Fort Polk's Training Aids Department, they provided illustrations for publications, signs, targets and manuals to explain weapons and procedures to incoming troops. The two remained lifelong friends, and Paschke later was a contributor to Pearson's witzend. The many examples of collaborations between Wood and Pearson include the cover of The Wallace Wood Checklist (2003).

Charlton and other publishers While an editor at Charlton Comics during the 1970s and early 1980s, Pearson designed and colored over 200 comic book covers. Equally extensive were the numerous comic book scripts the prolific Pearson wrote for a wide variety of publishers, including Gold Key, Tower Comics, King Comics (Flash Gordon), Charlton, Eclipse, Gladstone and Warren Publications. He was the writer of Gold Key's Popeye the Sailor comic book throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s.

His work as an inker included Ocean's Popeye: Borned to the Sea (1987) and a Spider-Man spoof. For two decades (1975–95), he lettered for almost every comics publisher, and he was the first art director at Another Rainbow.

Eros Pearson has edited several books of Wood's comics for Eros Comix, an imprint of Fantagraphics Books. These include Cannon (1991), Sally Forth (1993–95) and Naughty Knotty Wood (1998). In 2002, he published his own drawings, inked by Wood, in three portfolios—Fancy Animals, Human Beans and Naked Aliens. Each Pearson/Wood portfolio has 12 plates in an illustrated envelope, and each was published in a limited edition of 500 copies.

Novels

Drifter's Detour His mystery novel, Drifter's Detour (2007), displays an unusual visual concept. The story is highlighted by more than 40 illustrations by 20 artists, including Dan Adkins, Jim Amash, Richard Bassford, Nick Cuti, Steve Fiorilla, Michael T. Gilbert, Dennis Janke, Gary Kato, Russ Miller, Mitch O'Connell, James Romberger, Guy Staats, Joe Staton, Steve Stiles, Jim Steranko, Ronn Sutton, Jim Wheelock and Pearson himself. In the book's concluding acknowledgments page, Pearson explained:

Dancing Partners Dancing Partners, a comedy/chase novel with many classic movie stars as characters, was published by xLibris, an online print-on-demand publishing company in 2010.

Last Of The Wolfdragons In 2015, Last Of The Wolfdragons, a science fiction novel, was also published by xLibris, with a cover illustration by the author.