I met Russ Heath at a small local convention several years ago. Or I should actually say, I saw him, since he appeared at the time to be quite weary of the experience and I am generally reticent to broker conversation when the other party appears reluctant. He did sign a comic book for me and that was a treat. Heath is an artist I became aware of when I came across early issues of his work on G.I. Combat, specifically the Haunted Tank stories. Other artists worked on that venerable series over the years, but I don't think anyone brought more realism or dynamism to the pages of a war comic. Heath also drew some amazing issues of The Sea Devils, an underwater variation of the classic Challengers of the Unknown theme. Heath was an artist you'd find in odd places, working on a story here and there at Atlas-Seaboard, doing some memorable stories for various Warren magazines and later still showing up here and there at National Lampoon and beyond.
But for all fans of my vintage the contribution to comics made by Russ Heath was on the back covers of countless comics, where he illustrated the awesome Roman soldiers ad. I've spent more time looking at that spectacular image than reading most modern comics, and it's better to boot.
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