Haunting Vision

Faust, in search of knowledge, makes a deal with Mephistopheles. And what a deal it was. Goethe wrote about it over a period of 60 years. Artists were inspired to illuminate the tale of a man who sells his soul. August von Kreling was one of the most successful to do so with this haunting vision.

Don't tell me you wouldn't sell your soul for a long box of mint golden age comix.

August von Kreling—Faust's Dream—1873

Favorite Foster

Hal Foster created one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight Prince Valiant Sunday pages in his lifetime, and they are all beautiful in various degrees. But my all time favorite Prince Valiant page was created as a limited edition print in a very small run:

President of Neptune

Ah, speaking of Mignola, here's a comic everyone remembers, ey? Hard to believe it's been 14 years since it changed our lives. At least it shows that Mike Mignola wasn't always hellbent for Hellboy. This story was written by Steve Purcell, but I bought it strictly for the Mignola art.

There are many black and white art purists out there, but I'm not one of 'em. Oh I appreciate the concept and have seen some terrific examples, but I think stories like this would have looked really keen with some hues splashed around—case in point, look how cool the cover is.

It's probably not the case, but I had an odd thought that maybe Mignola had underground cartoonist Fred Schrier as one of his artistic inspirations for this piece.

President of Neptune — 2

Fafhrd

Mike Mignola's artwork fascinates me. Mannered and stylized with heavy ink spotting, it has a graphic impact that endures. I only hope that Hellboy isn't his magnum opus.

This frenetic panel of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser from 1990 is a beautiful example of his finest work.

Years Ago

Michael Whelan painted this piece years ago. James Cameron started planning and writing Avatar years ago. Inspiration?

Treasure Planet

It's taking a real effort to stay away from 'blogging. Case in point, here I am again. I've really got to focus on other stuff, but my collection of images has a siren's call to my inner blogger.

Wasn't there a Diz animated movie called Treasure Planet? Well, I've heard that you can't copyright a title, but this short story emanates from the DC Silver Age of sci-fi. It's weakly derivative of EC sci-fi, but it's always fun to see work by Gil Kane, this time aided by Bernard Sachs. Gardner Fox is always fun too.

The Artist's Dream

This 'blog started just over one year ago, and I think some mighty fine images have been showcased during that span. But man and boy it's taken up a lot of time that I should've otherwise been working for a living.

I've still got tons of great material waiting to be processed and shared, but I'm going to slow down my posting schedule just a bit. There are so many sites showcasing so many great images that I'm sure you won't be inconvenienced a bit if I post every few days or so.

After I catch up on my deadlines, and get a little rest, I'll return to a daily schedule.

Below, John Anster Fitzgerald, for his own reasons, created an 1857 painting called The Artist's Dream. But it is symbolic for me, of unborn images that haunt and urge me to wake up and return to my painting.

Egyptian Myth and Legend

This book, Egyptian Myth and Legend, is available here and there as a PDF download and a selection for the Kindle. But these are my scans from an early edition of a hundred years ago. Certainly an entertaining way to learn history. Note that the final art plate in this post originates from Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, not commonly seen in detail.

The Hobgoblin

And of course let's not forget this little guy from H. J. Ford's version of The Snow Queen.

The Snow Queen King

As Steve points out in the comments to the previous post, the king of Snow Queen art is H. J. Ford, from The Pink Fairy Book. Even though the art is not in color, it fairly glows.

The Snow Queen

And another New Year's greeting, as a greeting card, from the same person a year later.

Margaret Tarrant — The Snow Queen

The Galante

This is from a postcard I received with New Year's greetings in 1985.

Stephen Fabian — The Galante — 1983

Moon's First Voyage

Continuing an odd sort of baby trend, this is an unpublished 1916ish illustration by W. Heath Robinson, entitled Moon's First Voyage.

Wishes for a Good Year

In his day, you could always count on a new year's baby from J. C. Leyendecker. It was just something he did, and he did it uniquely his way.

And hey, I mean it—I really hope we all have a good year.

December 27, 1930

January 4, 1936

January 1, 1927

December 31, 1932

January 2, 1932

The Skater

Ah, what better way to spend New Years' Eve day than ice skating.

Marie Danforth Page (1869-1940)—The Skater—ca 1920

What We Have Here . . .

Before we move too far past the season, I wanted to pull out this Playboy cartoon by the late Eldon Dedini. Dedini's art was a lovely blend of cartooning and watercolor painting, and always a feast for the eyes.

Sensual Moon

Sensuality: a photograph by Sara Moon:

Science Digest

I used to really enjoy Science Digest magazine. This Robert McCall cover is a favorite. I've met with McCall on two different occasions, once at a conference and once in his studio, and it was such a pleasure talking with him and seeing his paintings up close—including the painting for this cover.

I will have more about McCall down the line.

Somerset Rail Station

The late John Berkey was an artist known for spaceships and high tech sci-fi. So, it's a bit surprising to see a folksy Somerset rail station, dramatic as it is. It's also a bit surprising to see the image used for a scotch ad, but why not I suppose. I do like it better as a magazine cover.