Birds Gotta Swim, Fish Gotta Fly

Here's an energetic work entitled Flying Fish by Herbert Draper, and below it, his study drawing.

Apex of Life

An example of a Norman Lindsay extravaganza that might have inspired Krenkel:

Norman Lindsay—Apex of Life—drawing for etching—1923

Pure Gold

Damn. I'm really mad at myself. I mis-credited the last post with the great Krenkel drawing, even though I knew better. I purposely didn't credit it on the main post, because I doubted the caption in the Vanguard Krenkel book. But when the question came in about its source I doubted myself and went with the book caption. I KNEW better.

So now, when I put THESE two images together for the first time, I find a discrepancy that makes me question the source's caption. The Krenkel color illustration below is captioned in Illustration Magazine as The Baths of Khandahar. Whereas the grey-tone study is labeled in Krenkel's writing as a study for Zenobia. Khandahar is an ancient city of Afghanistan, and Zenobia was a 3rd century queen of Palmyra, which is present day Syria.

I suppose Illustration Magazine is accurate with the caption, but now I don't trust anyone's info . . . except for Mr. Door Tree.

In any event, once again, pure Krenkel gold:

Stunning

Another stunning drawing by Roy Krenkel:

Masterwork of Pen & Ink

This Roy Krenkel rendering is PROBably my favorite pen and ink drawing of all time, of any artist. Even though it's a static portrait, the intense lines are full of energy, mystery and adventure. To me, it's outrageously mesmerizing, a masterwork.

Volunteers

An amazing bas relief 'illustration' of a battle regiment backed by the angels, entitled Departure of the Volunteers of 1792, created in 1820 by Francois Rude. Looks like a 'full-frontal' assault to me.

RGK Portfolio

Back in the early 80s, my finances were like a roller coaster, and when I saw this Roy Krenkel portfolio in a comix shoppe window, I was devastated to realize I couldn't afford it at the moment (yes I was that low on cash). Several years later I was able to get it at auction for a couple bucks more than cover price. It's not the best portfolio, but I was really glad to finally get it.




The items that I'm showing here are just a selection of the portfolio.

RGK Portfolio 2

Danzarina con Tucan

An interesting portrait by Armando Drechsler of a Toucan Dancer:

Armando Drechsler—Danzarina con Tucan—1942

A Zen Fable

I love all of Fred Schrier's comix and stories, but somehow A Zen Fable is maybe my favorite. In the early 70s my body may have belonged to Uncle Sam, but my mind was mine. This kind of stuff was comforting, yet expansive to my disheartened soul. Not to give underground comix too much credit, but Fred Schrier was one of the reasons I was able to survive the Viet Nam era.

Meef #2—May, 1973—copyright Fred Schrier

Up and Walking

It's certainly taken awhile, but the new 'blog regarding the oldest boy cartoonist, Walt Kelly, is up and . . . walking. There will be Pogo Sundays aplenty, but also more of the wider spectrum of all things Kelly. Please toon in and toon on, and follow along at Whirled of Kelly. Hope to see you over there and hope that you will share your thoughts about Kelly.

Silke Sheet

One more Silke sheet . . . of artwork:

The Silke Touch

I really like Jim Silke's draughtsmanship and ability to evoke earlier golden age times. He is a true aficionado of the 30s and 40s, and yet has a truly modern style. Love his work.

Here are a few actresses rendered with the Silke touch.

Gene Tierney

Doloros Del Rio

Clara Bow

Anna Mae Wong

Always

Kinuko Craft. ALWAYS superb!

The Bather(s)

I know we have some new Herbert Draper fans out there. Excellent. Here's another of his sensuous paintings from 1896/7, The Bathers (hmm, but I only see one).

Wings of Democracy

World travel, once upon a time, was an exotic adventure, perpetuated by travel carrier promotional material. This poster invokes my wanderlust for a world that used to be, and Pan Am would have been my carrier of choice. These travel routes were affected by post Pearl Harbor censorship.

Pack my bags, Jeeves!

Tenggren's D'aulnoy

Here's a book that has survived by the skin of it's binding, sharing its treasure of Gustaf Tenggren's 1923 fairy tale illustrations. With shades of Rackham and Dulac, Tenggren still brings his own vision to the art.

Tenggren's D'aulnoy

Wonder Kane

As some of you know, who have read my earlier posts, I had the chance, opportunity, and good fortune to obtain some original Gil Kane work directly from the man himself. Here is another original sketch preliminary, this one for Wonder Woman # 303. The series of Kane covers shown below is a high point in the DC history of graphics, relying on a good sense of graphic design as well as comic illustration.

The preliminary is, obviously, a mirror image of the final art, but interestingly, Wonder Woman's hand didn't translate very well to the final art, in my opinion ending up being out of scale and weakly drawn.

Wonder Kane

Winter It Was

Well, hi. I am back.

This has been an intensive few days, and quite sensory deprived, with no electronic media, no internet. I feel good at what I accomplished. But when I poked my widdle head up out of my hole, I found that it had snowed, and winter it was. This is what I saw when I sledded down the hill:

Well, at least it's the way it looked in my little world . . . a good little world.

This winter view is by F.M. Kruseman (1816-1882), signed & dated 1875.