Earl Norem

"norem" redirects here. For the material, see NOREM.

Earl Norem
Born	April 17, 1924 (1924-04-17) (age 87)
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Artist
Pseudonym(s)	Norem

Norem's cover for Marvel Preview #9 (Winter 1976).

Earl Norem (b. April 17,^[1] 1924),^[2] often credited simply as Norem, is an American artist primarily known for his painted covers for Marvel Comics books and magazines. Over his five-decade career, Norem also brought his colorful, expressive, and dynamic style to covers for novels, gaming books, movie posters, baseball programs, and trading cards.

Biography

Norem saw military action in World War II with the 10th Mountain Division. He trained in Colorado and Texas, and fought the Germans in the Northern Apennine Mountains of Italy. Norem was a squad leader (S/SGT) and was wounded going into the Po Valley.^[2] He then embarked on an illustration career.

Marvel

Norem's cover (based on breakdowns by Jack Kirby),^{[citation needed]} for The Silver Surfer (Fireside, 1978).

Norem worked on such Marvel projects (and Curtis Magazines, Marvel's black-and-white magazine imprint) as Savage Sword of Conan, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Magazine, Marvel Preview, Tales of the Zombie, Monsters Unleashed, Essential Marvel Horror, Planet of the Apes, Rampaging Hulk, Hulk!, The Silver Surfer, and storybooks featuring The Amazing Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four.

Norem is credited^{[by whom?]} with painting one of the most iconic promotional images of the Hulk: a darkly lit close-up of the Hulk's face, gritting his teeth with his knuckles raised (done for The Hulk! #17).

Transformers

Norem's Transformers work consisted of four Marvel Big Looker storybooks (published 1984–1986), some of which were later adapted into "read along" storybooks:

• Battle for Cybertron
• The Great Car Rally
• Car Show Blow Up
• The Story of Wheelie, The Wild Boy of Quintesson

Covers and trading cards

In addition to his work for Marvel, Norem has painted illustrations and covers for the Worlds of Power Wizards & Warriors book series, Mars Attacks comics and trading cards, and Charlton Comics' The Six Million Dollar Man.

Magazine illustration

Norem has produced illustrations for magazines such as Reader's Digest, Field and Stream, Ski, Real West, and Discover.

Other work

Norem has also painted movie posters for Conforte Graphics; package designs and artwork for Mego Toys, Mattel, and Hasbro; murals for the Military Museum of Southern New England; and even two New York Yankees program covers.

Personal life

Norem favors painting in acrylics. Suffering from arthritis, he is retired as of 2005, only painting for his own amusement and for his grandchildren. He said in a 2005 interview, "All the contacts that I had in the commercial art field are either retired or dead, and the younger art buyers don't want anything to do with an 81-year-old artist."^[2]

Notes

1. ^ Miller, John Jackson (June 10, 2005). "Comics Industry Birthdays". Comic Buyer's Guide. Archived from the original on October 29, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5trAbNQWw. Retrieved December 12, 2010. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} Yzquierdo, Ryan. "Earl Norem and the Big Looker Storybooks," Seibertron.com (December 2, 2005). Retrieved August 21, 2008.

References

• Fan site with extensive gallery of his images
• Yzquierdo, Ryan. "Earl Norem and the Big Looker Storybooks." Interview on Seibertron.com (December 2, 2005).

External links

• Earl Norem artwork can be viewed at American Art Archives web site

Persondata
Name	Norem, Earl
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	April 17, 1924
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death