Deadlines

I feel strangely compelled to tell the truth that I'm tied up with deadlines—like in a major way. See you again in a few days.

(I love the spin Jaime Hernandez can put on silver age motifs. Sure wish he coulda done some mainstream superhero stories in a Love and Rockets mode. Boy I'd buy those books in a heartbeat.)

Charming

A favorite photo of a favorite actress—Claudia Cardinale. I met her many long years ago, a charming and lovely memory.

Rocket Goddess

This is a fabulous sculpture, here set in intergalactic space, by the renowned and fabulous artist Audrey Flack.

Audrey Flack — Egyptian Rocket Goddess

Graphic Master

Dick Giordano, who just passed away, had an art style that I identify with the best of the 'bronze' age—a nostalgic reminder of coming home from a hard day to relax to the stylings of such graphic masters as he was.

Enticing

Sexy playfulness with simple boldness of color and cropping. Such a shame that magazines on today's newsstands can't be so enticing. Art by British artist Tom Purvis.

Detail:

The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill

Continuing our excursion with Alice in Wonderland . . .

Mabel Lucie Attwell — 1910

Bessie Pease Guttman — 1907

Oliver Herford — 1917

Charles Robinson — 1907

Mabel Lucie Attwell — 1910

Disney Studio — 1951

Thomas Maybank — 1907

Mabel Lucie Attwell — 1910

Charles Robinson — 1907

Harry Rountree — 1908

K M R — 1908

Har Har Har

We've got some real action going on over at Whirled of Kelly, in the middle of an arc. If you haven't been there for a while, pop over and check it out.

His Royal Puss

This painting has been loose in my morgue without notation of artist. My apologies to whomever the artist may be, but it's a lovely homage to Holbein's portrait of King Henry viii and I'm guessing that is a feline Jane Seymour fronting His Royal Puss.

Anon lets us know this is by Suzanne Duranceu—thanks!

And below, for comparison sake, the original iconic portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1540.

Lines of Ink

I'm amazed and flabbergasted that some lines of ink on paper can create such magic as this image does, by Maurice Day. Flabbergasted.

Thealette stepped farther into the dark street, and hurried along it to the royal gate of the city wall.

Merciless

Another of Warwick Goble's illustrations of merciless beauty, from the Chaucer book we've been quoting from, this one entitled To Merciless Beauty. Chaucer's work never looked so good.

Ex Libris

A pretty cool bookplate.

Homer Colby, designer — circa 1900

Yay!

Yay—Flash Gordon characters! Yay—Stanley Pitt! Yay—1972!

More 'Centaurettes'

More 'Centaurette' concept studies for Disney's Fantasia:

Goodness of All Kinds

Gotta keep making a living. I am on major major major deadline again all this week, can't take time for blogging till the weekend. I'm sure you won't miss me.

But until then, here are a few of a number of 'centaurette' studies from Disney's Fantasia concept phase. When I wrap up the deadline I'll post some more. And please do come back, there's much more goodness of all kinds yet to come.

Back Cover Story

I don't normally buy a comic just for its back cover, but I was really struck by the features of this photo. The title of the comic was Supermodels in the Rainforest, an unfortunate title— but certainly descriptive of the story spread out over three issues.

"Eight supermodels fight to save the rainforest from complete annihilation. Join Raine, Moniqua, Virginia, Lolita and the other supermodels in their quest to stop the rampant exhaustion of Earth's resources."

'Course the paper for the print-run used up a few trees, but hey—it was worth it to get this photo.

Golden Age Sensibiliity

Yoshitaka Amano has a golden age sensibility in his design for lithographs that is admired by legions of fans worldwide, and adapted here to a comic book cover. I wish more comics would tap on this sort of work. That might bring a some of us self-exiled geeks back to the fold of buying comics every week.

This cover's logo design was a co-creation of Todd Klein and Dave Stevens.

Une épopée grandiose

Whew, if you didn't have the text to go by, you might think this was a poster for an operatic tragedy.

Georges Rochegrosse—Lithograph—1901