Local Trivia: Elaine, by Earl

After posting the local trivia about my estate-sale painting of “Elaine,” I decided some investigatory work was in order. I’ve had Elaine for probably a year now, and I’d never bothered to look up the artist who signed the portrait: “E. Norem.”

I would never have guessed how awesome this information turns out to be.

E. Norem almost certainly stands for Earl Norem, a Connecticut resident and illustrator of comic books from the Golden Age, children’s classics (think Transformers, He-man), and pulp magazines that seem to predate Playboy’s actual photos of nude women.

His style is recognizable and impressive, particularly, in my opinion, in his depiction of people. He drew Optimus Prime without a face mask – with a mouth – and you can see here that he had a command of all the He-man characters one could ever want to see.

Mr. Norem doesn’t paint for the masses anymore; he restricts himself (and arthritis restricts him) to painting for the amusement of his grandkids and himself, now.

The fact that I own a portrait of someone I don’t know that I got free from an estate sale is awesome; the fact that it was painted by little-known, little-celebrated, uber-talented local comic-book artist Earl Norem is indescribably MORE awesome.

I’m considering writing to Mr. Norem to let him know I’ve got his painting, though I’m afraid he might be saddened to think his painting has been given away by its original owner (who may be dead, thus adding to the sadness).

On the other hand, I think most people would agree that Elaine’s gone to a good, loving home.