The Sphinx Speaks

Time for another colorful episode of The Boy Commandos by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, this from Detective Comics #66, August 1942. This is truly the Golden Age of Comics:

The cover from this issue, by Jerry Robinson and George Roussos:

Gone Native

This Frazetta portrait of Flash Gordon and Dale Arden looks all the world like a portrait of John Carter and Dejah Thoris. But you can tell it's Flash by his cool headpiece and his monogrammed codpiece.

That's quite a halter that Flash is sporting and that Dale isn't. Apparently these two have gone native after the vanquishing of Ming.

Really nice drawing, except that it's unfortunate that Flash's left leg is lined up with Dale so that it looks like she's got a beefy thigh, bony knee and size 13 combat boot.

Adventure

In order to pull out some Stout stuff, I also had to pull out some Frazetta stuff. It's been a while since these two mags have seen the light of day. And these are my two favorite NatLampoon covers ever—even more than that cover that sez 'Buy this magazine or we'll shoot this dog'.

The 70s were still part of the Silver Age of periodicals, when it seemed like Frazetta showed up on the newsstand every coupla months, always promising adventure.

Barsoomian Tradition

There is a proud lineage of illustrators handling the vision of Edgar Rice Burroughs. I know there are lots of names over the years, but the most involved and loved and linked with ERB are J. Allen St. John, Frank Frazetta and Roy Krenkel.

Who is there to carry on the Barsoomian tradition? Well, there's Mark Schultz, Frank Cho, Joe Jusko, Michael Whelan and William Stout, among others. Each brings their own vision to the saga, but personally I think Stout comes closest to the traditional lineage of style. I know that Mr. Stout is very busy these days, but I hope Barsoom is still part of the mix of what he does. Here are some examples of Stout's Barsoomian sketches:

The Monster Men

This very cool and iconic cover by William Stout depicts a scene from Edgar Rice Burrough's adventure novel, The Monster Men. And you thought Frazetta had the lock on that.

And below, check out the loyally modeled 13" figurine, here posed and photographed in the great out-of-doors. ERBdom comes to life. I'm hoping someone was smart enough to hire Stout to be concept artist and graphic adaptation novelist for ERB's A Princess of Mars, the Disney (!) PG-13 movie.

Best of EC Rolled Into One

That last post reminded me how much I really like the work of William Stout. He's like the EC artist that was born too late, or something like that. He's like Frazetta and Williamson and Krenkel and the best of EC rolled into one, yet he's master of his own style.

Of course his museum art stuff is really great and all, but if only he would work in the land of comix more often. The more I study his work, the more astounded I am at the flawlessness of it.

Love the arrested motion and other-worldly color in these two

More Recent St George

A more recent (and more exciting) take on the subject of St. George, by one of my favorite artist/illustrators (and probably yours too)—William Stout:

Another reminder that this beautiful image and most all the beautiful images on this site are copyrighted by somebody, meaning no commercial use for any of this!

Comparison Study

I love comparison studies—whether one image inspires another, or the images develop along parallel lines. This version of St. George is by Walter Crane, from Book I of Spenser's Faerie Queene, published in the 1890s. This drawing predates the Harold Nelson drawing of the last post. Both images were undoubtedly inspired by many a painting of St. George prior to their times.

St George

Harold Nelson (1871—1948) is one of my favorite ink illustrators, though it doesn't seem his body of work is as large as it might be hoped for. Primarily known for his book-plate designs, he illustrated several books, one of which I will post soon. The St George image shown above was, I believe, originally drawn for Spenser's Faerie Queene; but this version with coloration is from an early XXth century Inland Printer periodical insert, advertising a paper mill. One of my very favorite images.

Nelson submitted a similar design for the British Wembley stamp in January 1924. It was not accepted for that, but formed the basis for the £1 Postal Union Congress stamp of 1929:

It's interesting to see the changes made from concept design to issue:

Gremlins!

Hard to believe that it's been 30 years since this neat little package by Joe Kubert. What a magnificent career Joe has had. I love everything that he's ever drawn.

Astronomical Entities

Remember the good old days when Pluto was a planet and the moon was a huntress?

I love that Astronomy, our oldest science, is still intermingled with mythology, our oldest spirituality. We still categorize the skies with constellations and their wondrous tales. Astronomical labels are laden with poetic Latin appellations. Astronomy magazines still include mythological tales when they write of the heavenly bodies.

And one of National Geographic's astronomy books included some beautiful mythological graphics, early work by pre-eminent sci-fi artist Michael Whelan, when introducing factoids about our solar system: