The Pictorial Arts

Moonlight

2012-02-02T15:32:00.000-08:00

Oh, to step into a Barbier print for an evening of decadence . . .

Georges Barbier — Moonlight — 1920s

Freeflowing

2012-02-02T10:01:00.000-08:00

Back to concept art for films, especially animated films—I get much aesthetic satisfaction from viewing the freeflowing early work, such as this rendering from Disney's animated version of Tarzan. Whether you like the film or not, the concept art is lovely as always.

John Puglisi — Tarzan's Tree House

Nineteen an' Sixty-Four!

2012-02-02T08:53:00.000-08:00

48 years after the fact, Happy Groundhog Day of 1964!

Walt Kelly — Howland Owl — 1964

A Different World

2012-02-01T23:00:00.000-08:00

The death of the original Supergirl was the death of innocence in the DC Universe, in the same span as the death of the original multiverse. 'Cleaning up the continuity', they called it. Ha, it's all come back in one form or another, except for the innocence.

It's a different world, some might say.

All the more reason to give hope and heart.

Jim Mooney — iconic artist of the original Kara-El

DC Superheroes

2012-02-01T19:17:00.000-08:00

Who knew back in the '70s that those very days were a high water mark for DC and the comics industry in general? We thought it would only get better. Not to denigrate some really good art and writing since then, but DC really hit a great stride across the creative spectrum with the likes of Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Carmine Infantino, Joe Kubert, Curt Swan, Murphy Anderson, Jack Kirby, Berni Wrightson, Mike Kaluta and a bunch of other Turks, young and old — and that's just on the art side. Writers were hitting their stride with compelling and entertaining stories that sometimes were serialized, but many times were told in less than 2 dozen pages.

I collected comics then as a young man that I still find entertaining today. But the comics of today just plain leave me cold and I do not collect any. I have not 'outgrown' comics, comics have 'outgrown' me. There must be many others who feel the same way.

Kid Robson has made a really good point over on his blog, that I wish the industry would take to heart:

"Simply give the potential readership what it's crying out for - good, old-fashioned, entertaining stories that diverts attention from the harsh realities of life and takes the reader on a rip-roaring, magic-carpet ride into worlds of fantasy and enchantment."

When quality comics are created for the young at heart, everyone wins. When they are created as dark and gritty, full of hyper angst, the audience drops off to the point of harming the industry. I say look to the past and aim for the future.

Neal Adams & Dick Giordano — DC Superheroes — 1977

Digital Dream

2012-02-01T08:28:00.000-08:00

Here's a cool digital design of 15 years ago (a previous century!).

Fractal Design Corporation — 1997

Stand-Alone Beauty

2012-01-31T14:59:00.000-08:00

Time to isolate another panel from the comics to celebrate its stand-alone beauty. This panel from the newspaper comics of 1912 looks more like an elegant kid's book illustration.

Johnny Gruelle — Mr. TweeDeedle — panel — 1912

Surprise

2012-01-31T13:38:00.000-08:00

A fun little study of surprise — very spontaneous for such a technique.

Charles Morancé — study — 1904

A Comedy 2-Nite

2012-01-30T22:32:00.000-08:00

Ah, a non-Mucha art nouveau dame . . . and a comedy 2-nite!

Comedy Theatre — poster — 1906

Elven Princess

2012-01-30T10:24:00.000-08:00

Who knew that Cybill Shepherd is an Elven princess.

Cybill Shepherd — late 1960s

Trade Secrets

2012-01-29T08:38:00.000-08:00

I love the art of the late Rowland B. Wilson, equally skilled in cartooning, watercolors and conceptual art for animated films. I have yearned for a comprehensive compendium of his work, to no avail. HowEVer there is a book on the horizon that I am pre-ordering, that I would think all life-long students of art will want to as well. It's called, ahem, Rowland B. Wildson's Trade Secrets: Notes for Cartooning and Animation, and you can pre-order here. It sounds really inspirational.

Wilson's Playboy cartoons were always lovely to gaze at, with their spontaneous lush watercolor treatments. Anybody remember his dynamic ads for life insurance where the person who was unknowingly seconds away from death would cheerfully say, "My insurance company? Why New England Life, of course", or words to that effect?

Below, one of Wilson's many lovely film concept paintings.

Rowland B. Wilson — The Little Mermaid — concept painting

Not a Good Role Model

2012-01-28T21:18:00.000-08:00

Francis Cugat, illustrator for The Great Gatsby,

Scribner's 1925 edition

Let's not forget I was in the Great Gatsby novel and movie, where Tom Buchanan was not a good role model. Bruce Dern played me in the 1974 movie with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow — and Joel Edgerton will play me in the upcoming movie with Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan.

I was almost played by Ben Affleck but he had to pass due to a scheduling conflict. Oh, I know about scheduling conflicts.

Joel Edgerton—coming up as Tom Buchanan

Bruce Dern — 1974 — as Tom Buchanan

I'm Not Going to Kill You, But When I'm Through You'll Wish I Had

2012-01-28T15:45:00.000-08:00

This is a particularly narcissistic post, and I really don't mind if you turn around right now and head back out the door. But there is an autobiographical bias to this image blog anyway, so here goes.

As you may know, my name is Thom Buchanan. I used to spell it the usual way of 'Tom' when I was growing up. But one day when I was in the Army and had picked up my starched laundry at the base laundromat, I was shocked to see how much my fatigues had shrunk. I'm not a huge guy, but tall enough at 6'3 to know that these fatigues were not going to fit me. Well, yeah, even with my name sewn right on the pockets, I knew they weren't mine. Not only did this other soldier share my last name, he had the gall to have my first name as well. I met him once later and he was a scrappy little feller whose ancestors picked the name Buchanan back when President Buchanan was laying ground for the Civil War.

Well, I started running into all sorts of problems, getting my name confused with this guy on duty rosters, and payrolls, and the M.P.s even called on me once thinking I was this guy. So I started spelling my name with an aitch in it so I could go about my own screwed up business.

Anyway, people still refer to me without the aitch, even when they see how I spell it. There are any number of Tom Buchanans in the world, and now I've seen where there's another T-h-o-m Buchanan on the internet. Bless their hearts, but it feels like I've got doppelgängers out there living more interesting lives than mine.

Well, there's one more Tom Buchanan definitely living an exciting existence, even if he is fictional and has writers guiding his life:

There's a whole series of these books, authored by different writers using the same pseudonym of 'Jonas Ward'. Even though I'm not a fan of Westerns, it's awful fun to read adventure stories about a doppelgänger, who is "taller than most men by a head, with a look of wildness in his battered, tough face", who has many times "gone to meet death without pause and with great good nature". He's a pretty good role model, lean and mean and lookin' out for the underdog.

Not that you want to, but if you google Jonas Ward, there are some websites that list all the novels and synopses and stuff like that. The stories read pretty well and are well received by on-line critics. I plan on posting, every once in a while, another cover from the set that I have (I don't have them all), just for the fun of it.

I haven't yet seen the movie that was based on that first book above, but I've read that it's actually a pretty good flick. It was directed by Budd Boetticher, a well-respected director that I met some years ago. When I was introduced to him by name, he gave me an odd stare and then a besmirched smile, and now I know why, cuz he knew Tom Buchanan well. A side note about that meeting: I had drawn a portrait of Boetticher that he told me he liked a lot and would like to own it, but especially he said he liked the portrait I had done of Viveca Lindfors (showing her in her advanced years, long after starring with Ronald Reagan in some film or other). He said that she came across so well in my drawing that he was going to cast her in his next film. I don't know that ever came about, but he offered me a job as an art director at his film company in California. That didn't come about either, but now that I know he directed Randolph Scott as my doppelgänger, well I am just tickled.

In the poster above, Randolph Scott actually looks a lot like my dad when he was that age. Life is funny.

Jungle Moon

2012-01-27T20:31:00.000-08:00

Last post's jungle image was nice, but when it comes to primitive jungle moonlight, nobody does it better than Frazetta did, even when it's just a rough preliminary.

Frank Frazetta — rough

Slick

2012-01-26T22:40:00.000-08:00

I've seen several variations of this Dave Stevens image— I like this one from an Italian slick magazine with an article about comic art.

Dave Stevens — Sheena — 1985

The Gee Bee

2012-01-26T10:16:00.000-08:00

Dave Stevens' adventurous The Rocketeer was a way cool graphic novel that took place in the way cool '30s, with way cool aviation themes, including the (last time, I promise) way cool Gee Bee Series aircraft. The Gee Bee (stands for Granville Brothers, its designer & manufacturer) was a dangerous racing plane that only the most skilled pilots could handle — perfect for an adventure series. The 1991 film of The Rocketeer opens with a test flight (and crash) of a Gee Bee (Model Z) plane.

Below are several of Stevens' panels showcasing the Gee Bee, along with a couple of photos of the real thing.

Dave Stevens is certainly missed in the world of graphic storytelling.

Above, this rendering of the Gee Bee looks a lot like Russ Heath's art style. Knowing they were buds, I wonder if there was collaboration. Perhaps not.

Above, the Gee Bee Sportster was a less lethal version of the Gee Bee planes, but was also less maneuverable and less popular among the speedsters. A version of this plane also showed up in The Rocketeer.

The Other Ten Cent Adventure

2012-01-25T17:38:00.000-08:00

We can't leave the last post be, without posting the bookend cover from a year before. Dave Johnson is a fave cover artist, using classic and dynamic design.

Dave Johnson — Batman-The Ten Cent Adventure — 2002

Ten Cent Adventure

2012-01-25T09:12:00.000-08:00

Speaking of Superman, and the golden age, this is one of my favorite of his covers, especially of recent years. You never saw anything quite this dynamic in the golden age, yet it is fully evocative of those years. I think because the design is reminiscent of those great Fleischer animated shorts of the '40s and the stark logotype evokes a NY World's Fair Deco style. If more modern comics were like this, I'd be buying more modern comics.

Scott McDaniel/Andy Owens

Superman-The Ten Cent Adventure — 2003

So Much Fun!

2012-01-24T16:37:00.000-08:00

The Golden Age of Comics is so much fun to look at, and this item is icing on the cake. The 1942 novelization of Superman by George Lowther helped to solidify the legend, including a description of Krypton in detail, re-naming Kal's parents as Jor-el and Lara (previously Jor-L and Lora) and so forth.

The illustrations are golden, by Joe Shuster—the original Superman artist, showing depth and vitality. The paintings are vibrant and the sketches are beautiful gesture drawings, full of spontaneous action. This book is just so much fun to look at!

Joe Shuster — illustrator throughout

Jor-el placed his infant son into the model of the Space Ship.

The steel bullet went hurtling into space

The anvil in his hand was like a feather.

Superman brought the old man to the surface.

Leering down at Kent were skeleton faces of a skeleton crew.

Superman caught the white-hot shell in his bare hands.

Superman felt the steel-like muscles of his shoulder

sink into the metal.

Superman forced his shoulders between the twin propellers.

Speed and power were behind the fist that landed

on the skeleton's jaw.

Then Superman saw the convoy.

Really Nice

2012-01-24T08:45:00.000-08:00

Here's a case of really nice advertising — with really nice photography, really nice models, and really nice fashion.

Imperial Dragon

2012-01-23T13:59:00.000-08:00

This is a newspaper photo of me painting an imperial dragon for a museum exhibition of the "Imperial Tombs of China", with 250 artifacts on loan from 22 Chinese institutions, back (oh gosh) 16 years ago. Yes, I'm really painting here, 12 feet off the ground, not just posing (you can tell by the paper towel in my hand, with which to catch runs and drips) — the paint bucket is just out of sight in this photo. I painted all sorts of large-scale graphics for this exhibit, which I'd like to gather into a specialized portfolio someday.

Happy Year of Dragon

2012-01-23T12:19:00.000-08:00

I know this cave dragon is far afield from a Chinese Water Dragon, but dragons are dragons where e'er they may be.

This image is pulled from The Tale of the Rhine-Gold with Siegfried (I don't know where Roy is) doing his dirty work. For good luck, I suggest NOT killing any dragons this year.

Donn P. Crane — Siegfried Slaying Fafner

" . . . roused fearful Fafner from sleep and out of his cavern he came, a frightful, fire-breathing dragon, bellowing and roaring. The sight roused no fear in Siegfried; it only made him laugh. "Ha, ha!" he cried. "My lure hath charmed forth something lovely!" A terrible struggle ensued, with the dragon's yawning jaws and spouting breath of flame, threatening terrific destruction; but still Siegfried knew no fear; he calmly waited the moment when he could plunge his sword clean through the dragon's heart. Then Fafner's enormous coils relaxed in the stillness of death. Siegfried drew forth his sword and licked from his finger a drop of the venomous dragon's blood. Suddenly he noted that thus he had been made able to understand the speech of birds."

One in a Thousand

2012-01-22T18:30:00.000-08:00

There must be a thousand renditions of poor sweet dead Ophelia created over the years with probably 99% created in Victorian times. This is one of them.

Paul Albert Steck — Ophelia — ca 1895

Paul Albert Steck — Ophelia — preliminary drawing

Yep — We Found It

2012-01-22T01:31:00.000-08:00

If you're a fan of Walt Kelly and/or Pogo, you need to keep in touch with the Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Whirled of Kelly blog, where his classic cartooning art still lives! Special early art is appearing now!

Walt Kelly — Pogo Sunday strip panel detail — June 18, 1950

Cerebral Quality

2012-01-21T21:38:00.000-08:00

I like the cerebral quality of this cover (no punching), the very cool chair and the huge monitor—before its time.

Garcia Lopez/Dick Giordano — Superman #391 — January 1984

As I Was Saying

2012-01-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

A magnificent study of a magnificent creature . . .

Charles LaSalle — figure study — 1940s

Swan Lion

2012-01-21T00:36:00.000-08:00

A magnificent study of a magnificent creature . . .

J. M. Swan — Study of a Lion — ca 1900

Monumental

2012-01-20T16:54:00.000-08:00

This is sort of related to the previous post, by a tour de force blending of monumental horse with monumental man, for a Playboy article in the 1980s, I think.

Illustrated by Mel Odom — The Stallion

Courage and Vision

2012-01-20T09:40:00.000-08:00

I would dearly love to have these sculpted figures as bookends, but I would need a massive crane to get them in my library. Ah well.

These two are entitled 'Courage' and 'Vision'. Without courage there is no vision, without vision there is no courage.

Walker Hancock — Courage — 1939

Walker Hancock — Vision — 1939

With these, there are two more fabulous sculptures of similar stature located at the Soldiers' Memorial in St. Louis, known as 'Sacrifice' and 'Loyalty'.

Safe Haven

2012-01-19T16:53:00.000-08:00

Everyone needs a safe haven . . .

Yoshitaka Amano

Show and Tell

2012-01-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

Harry Bliss — The New Yorker

Music Like

2012-01-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

Music I like (not your grandmother's fairy music, believe me):

Go to their website here

You have an option for a FREE download of this entire album!

Underwater Roughs

2012-01-17T20:32:00.000-08:00

Please do come over to The Pictorial Arts Journal and see the quartet of Andrew Loomis 'experimental roughs' this is excerpted from:

Andrew Loomis — Experimental Rough

Ancient Alexandria

2012-01-17T14:49:00.000-08:00

A fellow who 'dabbled' in portrayals of ancient history was, of course, Roy Krenkel. He had great passion for the subject, was very prolific in sketches, drawings and paintings, was top-notch in his ability . . . and barely made any money at it.

Roy Krenkel — Ancient Alexandria — ink & watercolor

Roy Krenkel — Alexandrian port — ink & wash

Roy Krenkel — Alexandrian Lighthouse — pen & ink

Donn Philip Crane

2012-01-16T17:38:00.000-08:00

Some of you perhaps have enjoyed the My BookHouse set of early 20th century books that collected stories, tales and legends for kids to understand and appreciate. Perhaps you inherited them from family or perhaps have seen them in quality used book stores. The illustrations are fondly remembered by many, and most of those illustrations were primarily the work of one artist, Donn P. Crane, a man I have admired for many many years and yet knew ab-so-lute-ly nothing about . . . until now.

Mr. Jaffe over at Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie kindly sent over a Crane bookplate and a heads up. Through his site, a lot of information falls into place via a link (babylonbaroque. wordpress) where some of Crane's descendants are in contact, as well as with Mr. Jaffe.

You can find info about Crane by linking to those two sites, and you can look here for some large scans I've made of a few of the MANY Crane drawings I have collected, admired and treasured over the years. I can post many more if some of you show interest.

Crane was prolific in illustrating history, legends and fairytales, mostly for the My BookHouse series in the 1st third of the xxth century. He worked in pen and ink and for color was limited to using various shadings of 3 colors, which to me is fascinating and enjoyable. If he had chosen to illustrate a comic strip, he could have rivaled the artistry of the great Hal Foster. But he chose to help inspire generations of kids to understand the world around them.

Really, please tell me you want to see more of Crane's work.

Carried away by the witchery of the clever, fascinating Cleopatra, the coarse, pleasure-loving Antony, master of the eastern Mediterranean, at once becomes her devoted slave. All matters of war and policy are completely forgotten.

Isis beseeching the sun god Ra, on behalf of Osiris

After his defeat by Aetius at Chalons, Attila withdraws the remnant of his host to a fortified wagon circle. There he prepares a pyre of saddles and horse-furnishings, on which to sacrifice himself if about to be taken captive.

Frey, god of sunshine, on his golden boar whose bristles symbolize the sunbeams, and Freya, his sister, in her chariot drawn by cats. As goddess of love, Freya entertained lovers and married pairs in her palace after death. Cats, as symbols of purring affection were sacred to her as doves were sacred to Venus; but when Christian missionaries said that Freya was not a goddess, but a demon, the Northern people said she was leader of the witches who held their hag-like revels on a barren mountain-top on the horrid Valpurgis-night, and hence to this very day a witch is always shown as being accompanied by a cat.

Alfheim

A lovely bookplate created for the artist himself.

Courtesy of Lew Jaffe at Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie

Thanks Lew!

It's About Time!

2012-01-16T08:49:00.000-08:00

What red-blooded person WOULDN'T want to master time?

J. Allen St. John — The Man Who Mastered Time — 1929

If a person didn't recognize the art style enough to know this was by St. John, a person could recognize the typography style as his. Nearly all St. John's book covers had this elaborate type treatment that he designed and integrated into his moody and muted adventure paintings. And oh, a novel about "Time" — my favorite sub genre of sci-fi!

Century Club

2012-01-15T20:55:00.000-08:00

What red-blooded person WOULDN'T want to be in the Lionel Century Club, especially with art like this to entice you in?

Lionel Century Club

Oh, sign me up!!!

View of Winter

2012-01-15T19:16:00.000-08:00

A beautiful, if not grisly, view of winter . . .

Erté — Winter

Sensuous Tableaux

2012-01-15T12:25:00.000-08:00

A rather sensuous tableaux for a cigarette ad, but it was the roaring twenties after all. And besides— these are theatuh folk!

Lewis Baumer — for Abdulla Cigarettes —1923

Sea Fantasy

2012-01-14T21:26:00.000-08:00

Have I told you what a fan I am of William Stout's work?

William Stout — Sea Fantasy — 1995

Brush with Fame

2012-01-14T13:10:00.000-08:00

Last post brought some appreciation about Janis Joplin, and Mr. Door Tree remembered a fantastic concert at Yale, back in the good ole daze, when life was more interesting in a number of ways.

And then, I have a good friend who has a 'brush with fame' memory:

It was June of 1970, when my friend was in Eden Park in Cincinnati, where her brother was setting up for a band gig, and it was a blistering hot day. She was wearing a mini skirt, as was appropriate for that time, and no shoes, so she was 'all legs' as she put it (this information is not pertinent but I like the way it sets the stage), when a young woman and three guys walked straight up to her. "Hey man, can you tell me where the nearest bathroom is?" (everyone was called 'man' back then, even pretty young women).

My friend started to tell her where a port-a-let was, but this other woman said, "naw, I mean a real bathroom." So my friend directed her to a place at the top of the hill on Mount Adams. "Thanks man", and she and her entourage hiked on up the hill.

A couple of seconds later, my friend's friends came running up to her. "You talked to her! You talked to Janis! Wow, man!" Well yes, of course, the woman was Janis Joplin, and my friend had no idea. "You didn't know who she was?" I ask now.

"Well, no. I knew her music of course, I loved her music, but I'd only seen a few blurry photographs of her, and she was dressed in a lot of layers of clothes and a big hat, even though it was really hot out."

Joplin was in town for a concert with Poco and Lee Michaels at Cincinnati Gardens, and she wanted to do a concert of her own at Eden Park, but the city wouldn't let her. It seems perhaps that she was there to hear the band that my friend's brother was in.

BRUSH with fame, as Letterman sez.

Steve Miller — Janis — 1975

Now, I don't find any source that says that this Steve Miller illustration portrait is by THE Steve Miller of the The Steve Miller Band, but THE Steve Miller was an old friend of Joplin when they were in Texas. Plus, they played at some of the same gigs. This illustration is based on a famous photograph of Joplin, but it is a nice rendition of it. Is it by THE Steve Miller? I dunno.

Playin' an' Singin' Fer Yew

2012-01-13T22:04:00.000-08:00

This album is great for the music and great for the cover art by Crumb. There's a lot of memories attached to this album — if only I could remember most of 'em.

This image is all over the internet, but the scans I've seen don't seem to be very good, so I'm puttin' up my scan,—you know, just for a cheap thrill.

R. Crumb — Cheap Thrills — 1968

AH!

2012-01-12T18:35:00.000-08:00

As much as I like preliminary art, there is, of course, much to be said for finished art, especially from the likes of Adam Hughes. AH!

Adam Hughes — Lara Croft-Tomb Raider — poster

Adam Hughes — Lara Croft-Tomb Raider — preliminary art

Progressives

2012-01-12T08:26:00.000-08:00

Milton Glaser is my favorite graphic designer/illustrator, though he doesn't consider himself an illustrator per se.

This is a set of 'progressives'.

Milton Glaser — preliminary

Milton Glaser — pen & ink

Milton Glaser — newspaper graphic

Milton Glaser — Woodstock Cultural Center — poster

1992

The World of Kull

2012-01-11T21:29:00.000-08:00

John Severin, a grand veteran of the legendary EC comics era is also grandly appreciated for his artistic work on the 1971 Kull the Conqueror comic book series, inking his sister Marie Severin's grand pencils. That was also the case for the grand portfolio set published by Goblin Graphix in 1973

Directly below is one of the plates from that portfolio and below that are some graphics from the ads and such that ran in Mirk-Wood Times—the same publishers as the portfolio.

Marie and John Severin — Kull — 1973

And below, I've posted this before, but why not again — Severin's original pen and ink and zip-a-tone art of Kull as king.

Dancing Girl

2012-01-11T09:20:00.000-08:00

And then there is this print of Conan, part of a 'minor edition' set, drawn by John Buscema who drew a squijillion issues of the Conan comic book. It's nice to see Buscema ink his own work.

John Buscema — Conan & Dancing Girl — 1980

Battling Bones

2012-01-11T01:15:00.000-08:00

Barry Smith probably used a whole bottle of india ink rendering this large, 24" x 27", masterful drawing of Conan battling bones. There's so much detail, it's almost hard to look at, but with masterful coloration I bet it would be . . . well . . . even more masterful.

Barry Windsor-Smith — Conan battling skeletal warriors

Fanboy Stuff

2012-01-10T17:50:00.000-08:00

Here's something for you fanboys out there (and fangirls?). As you Wally Wood fans know, Wood was in contention as artist when Hal Foster was retiring from the Prince Valiant strip. Wood 'lost out' to John Cullen Murphy, but (no offense to Murphy) I think we lost out from the direction Wood might have taken the strip (and I don't know, maybe given him more reason to live?). He couldn't have taken it as far as this page from his Wizard King pages, but one for one brief moment imagine this big panel as if Prince Valiant had ascended to King through mighty combat and fair Aleta was his Queene. Yeah, yeah, fanboy stuff.

Wally Wood — page from Wizard King story entitled The End

Century of Flight

2012-01-10T16:12:00.000-08:00

The early xxth century was also the golden age of graphic design, in my book—what a nice composition. This cover is from 1908, just a scant 5 years after the Wright boys' first powered flight, and it's a lovely touch placing a woman in the pilot cradle. The xxth century was a century of flight.

Robert J Wildhack — Century magazine — 1908

Game of Love

2012-01-09T16:51:00.000-08:00

Chéri Hérouard had a long and prolific history with the early xxth century French magazine La Vie Parisienne, creating cover illustrations, many of which were ribald and/or risque. Here is a gorgeous print that was also one of those covers—with a Leyendecker feel to the composition, if not the execution.

Chéri Hérouard — Gibier d'amour — 1920s

Spellbound

2012-01-09T10:34:00.000-08:00

It doesn't have to be Christmas for winter to be cheery.

This illustration would be beautiful on its own, but as a magazine cover design it is so effective with its warm yellow logotype, red price button and white type situated for a lovely balance.

I am spellbound by this graphic as I imagine the interior of this warm 'n' cozy little bungalow, probably with a warm 'n' cozy little den (back there where that fireplace is being used), filled with warm 'n' cozy little books.

Not only was there a golden age of illustrative design in the early xxth century, but also a golden age of architectural design.

R.C. Hare — Own Your Own Home — ca 1920s

Our Children's Children

2012-01-09T00:40:00.000-08:00

Kelly Freas' art lured me into many a sci-fi book.

Frank Kelly Freas — Our Children's Children — 1983

Below, without all that pesky type to get in the way of the art and the menace in the background, a concept Freas was prone to do.

Frank Kelly Freas — 1983

The Ultimate Legal Entertainment Experience

2012-01-08T23:18:00.000-08:00

Not your great-grandfather's Barnum and Bailey Circus, The Electric Circus was right smack in the midst of tuning in and turning on in the late 60s. I had a girlfriend who went to work there.

Jacqui Morgan — The Electric Circus — 1967

From Wikipedia:

The Electric Circus was a nightclub and discotheque located at 19-25 St. Marks Place between Second and Third Avenues in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, from 1967 to September 1971. With its invitation (from one of its press releases) to "play games, dress as you like, dance, sit, think, tune in and turn on," and its mix of light shows, music, circus performers and experimental theater, the Electric Circus embodied the wild and creative side of 1960s club culture.

Flame throwing jugglers and trapeze artists performed between musical sets, strobe lights flashed over a huge dance floor, and multiple projectors flashed images and footage from home movies. Seating was varied, with sofas provided. The Electric Circus became "New York's ultimate mixed-media pleasure dome, and its hallucinogenic light baths enthralled every sector of New York society." Its hedonistic atmosphere also influenced the later rise of disco culture and discotheques.

Experimental bands such as The Velvet Underground, jam bands such as The Grateful Dead and avant-garde composers such as minimalist Terry Riley and electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick, played at the club. Other bands played there before they were famous, such as Raven and "Soft White Underbelly" before it became known as Blue Öyster Cult, the Allman Brothers Band, Sly & the Family Stone and The Chambers Brothers.

Jupiter

2012-01-08T18:18:00.000-08:00

My wife and I took our daughter to the circus several times when she was younger, but none of us really enjoyed it—it was loud with the daredevil motorcycle roaring around in the sphere of death, the other acts were either trying too hard or not enough. Finally our daughter said 'thanks anyway' and chose not to go back.

But an act like the poster below would have enticed us I'm sure. That looks like fun, complete with a 'gorgeous pyrotechnic display'.

Barnum & Bailey — Jupiter — 1909 poster

BOOKS

2012-01-08T11:02:00.000-08:00

Read, Captain, read — upon your mystery ship . . .

N. C. Wyeth — Books — poster

A Return to Morality

2012-01-08T02:19:00.000-08:00

What's all this fuss I read about Charles Addams being 100 years old?

Charles Addams — Publishers Weekly — August 1973

Illustration and Photography

2012-01-07T15:53:00.000-08:00

At the dawn of the 20th century, and early in his career, Lejaren à Hiller was an accomplished illustrator, and in time his attention turned to photography. He became known as the creator of American photographic illustration, staging complex tableaux, and much like a movie director, he visualized the sets and directed the models while an assistant operated the camera. Not to compare myself to him except in philosophy, Hiller was "more interested in the final result than the means used to achieve it".

Below, he staged Aspasia, a renowned figure in Athenian history. If you're interested at all, google her, there's some good information. And below that, an example of his earlier illustrative style, pretty good in my opinion, with nice design qualities.

Lejaren à Hiller — Aspasia of Athens — 1933

Lejaren a Hiller — Life magazine — October 1914

Blogger and/or Tumblr Guy

2012-01-07T08:46:00.000-08:00

Walter Crane was a versatile artist of the pre and post 1900 era, with a style of art that lived in the arts and crafts movement and worked backwards from there. In other words, his work was beautiful, but not modern in any way.

So it's a surprise to see this little cartoon sketch of his that shows the 'man of the future', a button presser that looks to me like a portrait of a blogger and/or tumblr guy plugged into his fancies.

Walter Crane — Man of the Future — ca 1900

Wiener Chic

2012-01-06T22:20:00.000-08:00

Now THERE's a magazine title that might work in the 21st century!

Mucha — Wiener Chic — January 1905

Pause

2012-01-06T21:21:00.000-08:00

Let's pause a moment from our high-speed, high-jink antix of chasing after images and let me have a word (or two or three) with you, if I may . . .

George Herriman — Krazy Kat

I hope you're enjoying the show in this little corner of the blogosphere (wow, spellcheck is okay with that word), but I want to reach out to you other blogotainers (okay that got spellcheck's attention) and remind some of you that blogger's light box function is extremely irritating and off-putting for a lot of folks looking in to your blogs. I guess there's a way around it by right clicking or left clicking or hitting your mouse with a hammer. But some of us have Macs and a wireless mouse with no clicks and no way to easily look closely to your hard-earned images. The best answer is to turn-the-gosh-darn-function-OFF.

I put up a post a few months back that a number of people appreciated, explaining how to do that. Click anywhere on this paragraph to see that post if you haven't done that yet, and many people will be so happy when they tune in to see your lovelies.

Thank you and happy blogging.

We now return to our regularly scheduled posting. Do not adjust your set . . . no, wait! DO! DO adjust your set! bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Just Great

2012-01-06T13:09:00.000-08:00

This post is dedicated to Annie Swann, great friend of this blog, whose great Art of Narrative blog has wonderful fanciful images, usually from the great Golden Age of Illustration. Annie is a great fan of great illustration, great faerie art, and through seeing some work on this blog, great Beatrice Stevens art.

In total candor, I found the original monotone state of this drawing a bit flat, though totally beautifully drawn. To me it cried out for some sort of tonal values to give it a bit of depth. So, I gave it a duotone treatment. And if you don't like that, for you purists I've included the original state below that.

This is a total side note, but it's an autobiographical blog, so I'm entitled. Before I was married, I dated a couple of young women, who as I got to know them more, revealed that they liked to color with crayons in coloring books, just for mindless relaxation. I found that to be charming and endearing and I never discouraged those sorts of 'hobbies', even though I had no desire to emulate.

Until now. With digital programs I find myself taking existing line art and having at it with colorizing techniques. I can justify that, I tell myself, thinking that I'm training myself to be a colorist for the comics industry, but in reality it is mindless relaxation.

Beatrice Stevens — The Faeries (modern color) — 1917

I love the individual attention each faerie got from Stevens, but especially the one just to the left of the little girl, emulating her pose. A girl and her dog, with a big book of fantasy in her lap — Annie, that's how I visualize you as a kid.

Beatrice Stevens — The Faeries (original state) — 1917

Optimism and Hard Work

2012-01-05T20:02:00.000-08:00

I worry about the economy even though there isn't the least thing I can do about it, and I dread the thought of my daughter launching into a world that is on the verge of shutting down. But then I think of the hard times of the past and how society weathered them and prospered. Optimism and hard work will get us through.

Just a scant few years into the great depression and industry was chugging mightily as Fortune smiled down upon us . . .

T. M. Cleland — Fortune — January 1932

Of course the clouds of war were gathering on the horizon . . . crap.

Stories to Stagger the Imagination

2012-01-05T17:16:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting duo of images to compare, but I'm at a loss to describe how or why they came to be this way. The top image is an inked and nearly finished comic cover by Gil Kane. It functions well as a cover ready for production—coloring, adding the issue #, price and DC logo. But it never went 'beyond' that stage (a pun that is stillborn) . . . but the bottom image is the same cover, rendered completely by Neal Adams, and made its way to the comic spinners where I bought it 42 years ago.

Okay, so why wasn't Kane's cover used, though you can see the title changed, and actually Neal Adam's cover is better because the angle of the comet earth is more acute, aiming right for our intrepid moon men, and the angle of the scene puts them in more imminent danger. Was Kane's rejected? But why not have him redraw it? A whole bunch of other meaningless questions come to mind, but all I know is—any answers might stagger the imagination and would come from . . . BEYOND the UNKNOWN!

Gil Kane — From Beyond

Neal Adams — From Beyond the Unknown #3 — 1970

Pugnacious Mug

2012-01-05T12:18:00.000-08:00

I love scrutinizing photos of legendary people, searching for the characteristics that make their faces so iconically unique.

I know Jimmy Cagney didn't always play the lost guy with a bad attitude, but he did own that persona in this or that movie.

So it was interesting to scrutinize his pugnacious mug as an actor and compare it to his pugnacious mug as an infant.

Jimmy Cagney — age: I dunno, what? 25? 30?

Jimmy Cagney — age: 1

Mean . . Moody . . Magnificent

2012-01-04T23:02:00.000-08:00

Zoe Mozert is one of my top favorite 'pin-up' artists, with her verve and depth of rendering. Her movie poster rendition of Jane Russell in The Outlaw is superb and a classic of the genre.

Below, you see Mozert in the enviable position of having Russell posing for her, back in 1943. The pastel painting might actually be in progress, a rarity for that kind of publicity shot.

Below, somebody else did their lurid version of Mozert's art, sensationalizing it more than it need be, in my opinion.

Below, some other artist veered off in another direction. And there are a number of other versions out there. Such as here.

Such is Hollywood.

Kinetic Energy

2012-01-04T09:04:00.000-08:00

There is great strength in an archer and great strength in an image of an archer, poised at the critical point of greatest kinetic energy — the calm before the storm — and then let slip the arrow fly.

Esteban Maroto

Catherine Jeffrey Jones

Ingam

(Enzo Duffloco Magni)

Anthony Beauchamp

Robert Mapplethorpe

Suitable Only For Adults ; > )

2012-01-03T21:14:00.000-08:00

Peter Lorre's character acting was always a bit over the top, and yet subtle. How is that possible? However he did it, he was a beloved ensemble player—so much fun to watch.

Here is a favorite publicity still from Mad Love.

Peter Lorre/Frances Drake — Mad Love — 1935

The poster, below, didn't catch Lorre's looks, but E for effort.

Mad Love — poster — 1935

Resolution

2012-01-03T16:33:00.000-08:00

Resolve this year to get out from whatever thumb you're under.

George Herriman — Krazy Kat

Starlight Wonder

2012-01-03T08:15:00.000-08:00

Maurice Day really knew his way around an inkpot.

Of several Maurice Day illustrated books that I have, The Starlight Wonder Book is my favorite. This 1923 edition has been enjoyed by others over the years, evidenced by the wear and tear that comes from reading, not negligence.

The endpapers have to be close to my favorite of all time.

Maurice Day — The Starlight Wonder Book — 1923

cover

endpapers

frontispiece

frontis and title page

dedication

For All You Followers of the Female Form

2012-01-02T19:08:00.000-08:00

To help warm up the post-holiday blues for all you followers of the female form, here is a Harper's promotional poster from a few years back, based on one of its covers, featuring the amazing loveliness of Gisele Bündchen.

Personally, I think the colorful typography adds to the graphic impact, making an iconic poster of the early 21st century.

Harper's Bazaar — Gisele Bündchen — 2002

Storming Up the Stair

2012-01-02T18:00:00.000-08:00

Here is another closer examination of a Sunday panel of Hal Foster's Prince Valiant—just one 'ordinary' panel, but a masterpiece of composition from the 1960s.

Val is battling his way up the staircase, yet is front and center with his men for us to know who the good guys are here, displaying his heraldic horse and all. The perspective and shadows feel proper and the melange of arms and legs are perfectly placed and connected so that we feel a total authenticity to the scene.

Foster was not using models or photos here—you couldn't stage such a scene. This is his mind and hand at work.

Hal Foster — Prince Valiant — panel detail

Electric Air Boat

2012-01-02T09:29:00.000-08:00

It was a hundred and nine years ago today, but eleven months before the Wright Brothers first powered flight, that this cool neat-o electric air boat was making its way through the imagination of armchair adventurers everywhere.

Thoughts of flying were in the air, so to speak, with all kinds of attempts, and the time was ripe for it to happen—I just wish Orville had been reading this mag and called out to Wilbur, "Hey Will, maybe we should try it THIS way . . ."

Frank Reade Weekly Magazine — January 2, 1903

The Month of January

2012-01-01T19:59:00.000-08:00

Talk about the old days—here is a nostalgic scene from 1670 Rotterdam area, in the Netherlands, showing us skaters and Kolf* players on a frozen river (possibly the Rotte River?), in the month of January. A beautiful city in olden and modern times.

Herman Saftleven — The Month of January — 1670

black chalk with grey wash

*"Kolf is played by hitting a ball with a stick - a cross between a golf club and a hockey stick. The object is to hit the poles on the kolf pitch. Kolf used to be played on ice as well as on dry land. For centuries, ever since the Middle Ages, it was the most popular sport in the Netherlands: much like football today. Now it is only played in West Friesland."

Happy January One!

2012-01-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

Erté — Playboy cover — January 1987 (a very good year for me)

New Year Greetings!

2011-12-31T08:30:00.000-08:00

Let's not just wish each other a good new year . . .

LET'S MAKE IT HAPPEN!

To all our cyber-friends in the blogging community!

Impressionable Imagination

2011-12-30T20:03:00.000-08:00

Bittersweet memories are so easily triggered by evocative images.

This image speaks deeply to my childhood subconscious memories of similar absorption in spooky fantasy while home alone in a dimly lit room, surrounded by phantasms awakened by my impressionable imagination. And actually it is not so far from what I experience even now and then these days in my cozy little library.

Adelaide Claxton — Wonderland — ca 1870

She's reading Grimm's Goblins, with Arabian Nights and Lancashire Witches in her stack.

Wop! Umm Zop!

2011-12-30T13:53:00.000-08:00

Woosh. I-am-SOAKed. For those who couldn't join our snowball fight, here's an image to show you pretty much the way it looked:

Winsor McCay — Little Nemo panel — 1907

Snowball Fight!

2011-12-30T11:58:00.000-08:00

Anybody up for a friendly snowball fight? These guys are on my side.

E. Froment — The Snowball — 1884

Whatever

2011-12-29T20:47:00.000-08:00

I'll buy whatever Fiberloid is selling . . .

Coles Phillips — Fiberloid ad — 1922

Very Cool

2011-12-29T19:42:00.000-08:00

This is the very cool gift bag that held a very cool gift that I received for Christmas. Ya just never know what the next post will be, do ya?

Dr. Seuss — The Grinch (gift bag) — 2011

Springing Up to Everlasting Life

2011-12-29T13:23:00.000-08:00

Rick Griffin was a preeminent artistic force in the underground comix and psychedelic poster era of the circa 70s, with excellent graphics and not making a lot of sense to the reader (at least not while the reader was soberish).

Griffin died in a tragic motorcycle accident, but up to that point he had a number of years where he had found his personal Christianity, and during that time created scores and scores of graphics with the Gospel of John as his theme. This is one of those graphics:

Rick Griffin — The Gospel of John/Like a Well of Water — 1980

Dusklands

2011-12-29T00:18:00.000-08:00

This cover painting by Kinuko Craft for Elfland by Freda Warrington is chock full of intriguing elements and has done its job to make me want to read the book. Craft is a modern master.

Kinuko Craft — Mists of the Dusklands — 2010

Triumph of Art

2011-12-28T16:40:00.000-08:00

Another flying horse (allegorical), in a slightly similar pose to the last post, though I doubt it was a reference for the comic book cover (there was 89 years between them)—still, fun to compare.

Léon Bonnat — Triumph of Art — 1894

Amethyst

2011-12-28T00:11:00.000-08:00

My little category of Paneltopia is a close-up examination of stand-alone comic art panels. I'm including covers in Paneltopia, because they are indeed splash panels that just happen to be on the outside of a comic.

Amethyst-Princess of Gemworld was a comic that I believe was intended for a young female audience, seeing as the protagonist was a young female that, upon entering a transdimensional world, became a grown woman who just happened to be a princess. Some of the art was quite nice, as this cover demonstrates:

George Perez/Ernie Colon

Amethyst-Princess of Gemworld

October 1983

Passion Isle

2011-12-27T10:37:00.000-08:00

What a lot of fun the 'naughty pulps' were back in their day . . .

Jack Greiner — Gayety — August 1933

Colorful & Crafty

2011-12-26T21:22:00.000-08:00

Toucans are just ripe for rendering — colorful and crafty.

Harry Rountree — early 20th century

(Hi Pat Ann!)

Maurice Detmold —early 20th century

Gifts

2011-12-25T18:33:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful Christmas with my wife and daughter, staying close to home—with simple gifts, warmth, love and laughter. My fabulous daughter doesn't have to go back to university for a couple of weeks, and I am grateful for the best gifts—the simple pleasures of life.

So now, the gift that I can share with you is a digital photo of a rare print by Catherine Jeffrey Jones. It was a test print that was shelved after only a few were pulled from the press. It is a large size and was signed in felt-tip by Jones. I've seen the original drawing reproduced, but not the print. I haven't been able to photograph it well, because the frame glass creates such a glare, no matter what angle I came from. But finally with the use of a great filter, I have photographed it with part of the framing mat and can now share it with you.

Christmas Morning

2011-12-25T09:32:00.000-08:00

For a kid no time is better than Saturday mornings and Christmas mornings . . .

Maginel Wright Enright — Christmas Morning — 1905

Below, just to show some more of Enright's later work, a pleasant style.

Maginel Wright Enright — Woman's World — 1921

Maginel Wright Enright —Woman's World — 1920

Gloria in Excelsis Deo

2011-12-24T20:16:00.000-08:00

J.C. Leyendecker — ca 1906

FYI, From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

IHS

A monogram of the name of Jesus Christ. From the third century the names of our Saviour are sometimes shortened, particularly in Christian inscriptions (IH and XP, for Jesus and Christus). In the next century the "sigla" (chi-rho) occurs not only as an abbreviation but also as a symbol. From the beginning, however, inChristian inscriptions the nomina sacra, or names of Jesus Christ, were shortened by contraction, thus IC and XC or IHS and XPS for Iesous Christos. These Greek monograms continued to be used in Latin during theMiddle Ages. Eventually the right meaning was lost, and erroneous interpretation of IHS led to the faulty orthography "Jhesus". In Latin the learned abbreviation IHC rarely occurs after the Carlovingian era. The monogram became more popular after the twelfth century when St. Bernard insisted much on devotion to theHoly Name of Jesus, and the fourteenth, when the founder of the Jesuati, Blessed John Colombini (d. 1367), usually wore it on his breast. Towards the close of the Middle Ages IHS became a symbol, quite like the chi-rho in the Constantinian period. Sometimes above the H appears a cross and underneath three nails, while the whole figure is surrounded by rays. IHS became the accepted iconographical characteristic of St. VincentFerrer (d. 1419) and of St. Bernardine of Siena (d. 1444). The latter holy missionary, at the end of hissermons, was wont to exhibit this monogram devoutly to his audience, for which some blamed him; he was even called before Martin V. St. Ignatius of Loyola adopted the monogram in his seal as general of theSociety of Jesus (1541), and thus it became the emblem of his institute. IHS was sometimes wrongly understood as "Jesus Hominum (or Hierosolymae) Salvator", i.e. Jesus, the Saviour of men (or ofJerusalem=Hierosolyma).

A Creative Life

2011-12-24T12:32:00.000-08:00

I'm not through posting Christmas images, but I thought I better deliver this card now, as it is our YuleTide greeting to all of our internet and blogging friends, near and far. I wish I could name all of you, but there are so many and I would be afraid that I might leave someone out.

There are a lot of you folks that I may never meet, yet I feel a kinship, not just through our mutual love of images, but for our mutual love of a creative life.

This card is a project my wife made when she was but 10 years old. She made it from little scraps of this and that. She had it in a box of keepsakes until she felt the need to lighten the load of possessions and was going to put it in a pile to go out the door. I tackled her full on and wrestled it from her so that I could archive it. It is with sincere affection for you all that I share it now (with her blessings)!

I don't mean to make her feel old, 'cause she's not, but my wife made this when John F. Kennedy was President-Elect. Those were optimistic days, my friends.

Just Because I Forgot

2011-12-24T09:53:00.000-08:00

I would be remiss to not include this image, just because I forgot to yesterday, where the timing would have coincided with the title. Still, for most households getting ready, this scenario is apt for today as well.

Carl Larsson — The Day Before Christmas Eve — 1892

pen & ink—watercolor

Christmas Eve Feast

2011-12-24T09:06:00.000-08:00

Carl Larsson, the man and his work, was a Swedish national treasure. I have come to treasure his work as well, and in the coming year will feature a number of his beautiful images. Much of his work involved and revolved around family and community, featuring an idyllic simplicity that many of us long for in these complex and overwhelming times. His compositions were 'photographic' in the sense that many of his scenes look like snapshots, casual captures of family and friends involved in simple pleasures of well-lived lives.

Larsson had recorded that all he wanted was to make people happy with his work, and for the most part he did, though he went through some troubling times himself. So until the weeks ahead where I will feature a spectrum of warmth and charm imbued in his work, here is some warmth and charm of his depiction of a Christmas Eve feast, not in some nostalgic distant time (as indeed we view it), but from his time and home in Sundborn, Sweden.

Carl Larsson — Christmas Eve — ca 1904

A Christmas Dream Come True

2011-12-23T08:46:00.000-08:00

The first commercial electric Christmas tree lights weren't available until around 1900, so public displays must have been an amazing sight for people who were barely out of the gas lamp era.

It would have been like competing with the stars in the heavens.

Christmas in the Square — St Nicholas magazine — 1916

The Streets are Swarming

2011-12-22T21:15:00.000-08:00

A little story about a swell tree . . .

Carl Barks — 1948

Potent Totem

2011-12-22T16:49:00.000-08:00

A Christmas tree can be a pretty potent totem for magic . . .

Sarah Stillwell Weber — The Fairy of the Christmas Tree — 1918

Swedish Yuletide

2011-12-22T12:10:00.000-08:00

The next few posts are going to be themed around Christmas trees, that venerable old pagan tradition that breathes warmth into our lives, becoming a focal point for our spiritual longings.

Below is the right panel of a triptych by Carl Larsson, demonstrating the glow of a Swedish Yuletide from over a hundred years ago.

Carl Larsson — Now It's Christmas Again (detail) — 1907

Midvinterblot

2011-12-22T00:23:00.000-08:00

Good Winter Solstice to you. To those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, may your daylight grow longer and warmer.

This painting, by Carl Larsson, showing a Winter Solstice sacrifice, was intended for the Stockholm National Museum. It was meant to present a winter motif from heathen times, and was named Midvinterblot — 'blot' being an ancient term for a sacrificial ceremony.

Carl Larsson — Midvinterblot — 1915

The artist explained: "Here a king is being sacrificed for the weal of the people (to ensure a good harvest year). He was drowned in the sacred well at the root of the tree . . ."

The idea of the sacrifice appealed to Larsson—showing a king who tosses his furs aside and in nakedness stands ready to die voluntarily for the good of his people.

The problem was that no such event was to be found recorded in any historical resource, causing the painting to be a source of negative controversy.

Googly

2011-12-21T19:19:00.000-08:00

A season's greeting from some 75 years ago by Billy DeBeck, he of Google fame—Barney Google, that is, the one with the goo-goo googly eyes.

Billy DeBeck —Barny Google — 1930s

The Barks Treatment

2011-12-21T08:54:00.000-08:00

It's interesting to compare the 1988 cover below by Daan Jippes with the bottom cover from 1949. With the exact same pose and everything, Jippes' rendering gave the characters spirit and liveliness that the original cover lacked. He gave it the 'Barks treatment'.

Daan Jippes — Mickey & Donald #1 — 1988

Donald & Mickey _ Firestone Giveaway — 1949

Bright and Cheery

2011-12-20T18:34:00.000-08:00

Here is a bright and cheery duck cover by Daan Jippes — the only (in my opinion) artist to draw the ducks (slightly) better than the good duck artist himself, Carl Barks. It's sort of a scene from Christmas on Bear Mountain, but not quite (in the original story, none of the boys knew a bear cub was in the tree until later that night).

Does anyone know if Jippes' Disney art has ever been collected in one place? I'd pay real money for an album like that.

Daan Jippes — Gladstone's Christmas Parade #2 — 1989