Today in Comics History, August 30: Happy birthday, Al Hewetson!

Born on this day in Glasgow, Scotland in 1946: creator Al Hewetson, comics scripter, assistant to Stan Lee and photographer at Marvel, editor of Skywald's horror magazines, professional photographer and photojournalist, man of a thousand pen names, and general all-around jack-of-all-trades!


from Scream #1 (Skywald, August 1973)



Al's supposed to be in this Marvel splash page almong with many other Bullpen Buddies, but I'm not certain which one is him. Could he be the guy immediately to the right of Subbie's left hand, with the camera?




from Sub-Mariner (1968 series) #19 (Marvel, November 1969), script by Roy Thomas, pencils and colors by Marie Severin, inks by Johnny Craig, letters by Artie Simek; (bottom) letters columb from #24
There's no mistaking his dark-goateed self, however, later in the pages of Scream #1, where he's brutally murdered by a pair of overzealous bigots against comics, thinly disguised caricatures of Fredric Wertham and Comics Code Authority president Len Darvin! Don't worry, they get killed off on the next page by a bunch of monsters. Hey kids, comics!



from "The Comics Macabre" in Scream #1 (Skywald, August 1973), script by Al Hewetson, pencils and inks by Maelo Cintron
Al also becomes the host (and, under one of his many pseudonyms, the writer!) of a H.P. Lovecraft style-tale set in Scotland:



from "The Shuggoth Chronicles, Volume 5: The Vault" in Nightmare #19 (Skywald, June 1974), script by Al Hewetson as Howie Anderson, pencils and inks by José María Cardona
Don't worry, he survives this one. Barely.


Plus, the reader gets to blow everything up real good!


Al (if not his name) reappears in the very next issue of...Psycho, because Nightmare #20 was a reprint issue.



from "The Human Gargoyles, Part 7: The Freaks" in Psycho #20 (Skywald, August 1974), script by Al Hewetson as Howie Anderson, pencils and inks by Antonio Borrel
Happy birthday, Al Hewetson, you handsome self-photographin' devil, you!


from Fantastic Four Annual (1963 series) #7 (Marvel, November 1969), photograph by Al Hewetson (?)