Guise of a Mortal

George Romney, the painter, had a muse in the guise of a mortal. Her name was Emma, Lady Hamilton. Born in 1761, she was such a delightful model for Romney that he painted and sketched her many times, and here shown are but a few examples. One can certainly understand his obsession and see what he saw in her.

Above, Romney's most well-known painting of Emma, 1785

Above, Emma as Circe, 1782

'Nature'

Emma as a bacchante

Macabrely Beautiful

It's always fun to see sources and inspirations. This is a fairly famous poster for the Grateful Dead concert at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco in 1966. It recycled an illustration by Edmund J. Sullivan for Quatrain XXVI of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in 1859. 

Both uses are striking and macabrely beautiful.

Poster by Mouse Studios, 1966

Book illustration by Edmund J. Sullivan, 1859

Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise

To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies;

One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies;

The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.

Beautiful Tribute

Since we're admiring Esteban Maroto's work, let's do another post showing his beautiful tribute to Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon.

Inspiration

A panel by Esteban Maroto and, below it, his inspiration by John Atkinson Grimshaw. Grimshaw inspired himself by painting several very similar such paintings.

Esteban Maroto

John Atkinson Grimshaw—Iris—1886

Panels & Pages

I don't have full stories of Esteban Maroto to post, but these are my favorite Maroto panels & pages from my morgue. Fabulous graphix.

Panels & Pages

Gates of Dawn

Speaking of exquisite women, this painting is probably the most well-known of Herbert Draper's, Gates of Dawn, and I would be horribly remiss to not include it in our Draper collection. Directly below is a detail from the painting, and below that—allegory in all it's glory.

I think it looks a bit like James Gurney could have painted this, testament to just how great Gurney is.

Exquisite Women

JC Leyendecker, perhaps better known for his renderings of men, obviously could paint exquisite women.

Detail above, of ad below

Happy Birthday Walt Kelly!

Walt Kelly was born 96 years ago today.

Happy Birdday, as well, to Mike Kaluta! Oh, and Sean Connery!

Above and below from Songs of the Pogo

From the back cover of Pogo #11

This is a drawing I made of Kelly while sitting with a library reference file that I couldn't check out. It's from a portrait of him from the early 60s.

Really Heavy

There have been a lot of cool covers on Heavy Metal. This is probably my fave. 

Chris Moore

Howard, how cool that you were in that issue.

Typography as Art

Early 20th Century saw a lively use of typography utilized as art for art's sake. Yes, it was communication, thereby making it a practical art, but the lovely shapes of letters and the arrangement of them made for an aesthetic experience. Even if a person were illiterate, type could be lovely to gaze upon. 

This poster for an exhibition for the Munich Secession was designed by Franz von Stuck, the German symbolist.

Naiads

Imagine how hard it was for an artist to be accepted socially in Victorian times if nudes were their artistic forte.  But paint in some wispy wings to make them faerie, and then nudity was quite acceptable. Joseph Noel Paton, who painted these two naiads, or water nymphs, was one of the better known faerie fine artists.

Fahreda Mahzar Spyropolos

A Pogo Sunday strip that was published 45 years ago today.

Luxurious Traveling

I truly regret being born too late to travel the world in the 1930s, especially aboard luxurious flying boats, flying long-range routes to India, Africa, and Australia—landing in exotic locales for overnight stays in grand hotels with sumptuous meals.

The Princess

Howard Chandler Christy—The Princess.

1935ish

Joan Crawford is not a favorite actress of mine, but this is my favorite photo of Joan Crawford, 1935ish.

Reason for Our Existence

When I am facing life and death mysteries and searching for meaning, I look to the infinite nature of the universe for comfort. I am in awe, yet never feel overwhelmed, thinking of the vastness of existence—time and space in all directions. I feel connected, no matter how tiny my presence. 

There is reason for our existence and part of the spectrum of that reason is love and beauty, in their purest essence and many varieties.

Thank you to all I have heard from, in comments and emails. Blessings to everyone, as we each go through the same passages of life and death.

A lovely graphic from Light of Consciousness, Journal of Spiritual Awakening

Sorry, I need to suspend posts for a couple of days. We've had a death in my wife's family.

Galactic Empires

It would appear that I'm continuing the theme of women with swords, but really, it's just a coincidence . . . 

 Karel Thole

I don't know what it means, but when you click on my profile here on this 'blog, and then click on my interest label of 'Galactic Empires', I'm the only person out of, seemingly, millions of bloggers with that interest. Wow, not one other person appears to be interested in Galactic Empires.

Galactic Empire. Just utter those words in front of me and I lapse into a catatonic stupor as my mind floats free of my body and drifts into the star lanes of my imagination.

Galactic empires are in fact strictly products of the human imagination.

From the introduction to 'Galactic Empires, vol 1', edited by Brian Aldiss:

Galactic empires represent the ultimate absurdity in science fiction. 

Galactic empires represent a promiscuous liaison between Science and Glamour, with Glamour generally in the ascendent.

Galactic empires represent the spectaculars of the SF field.

Stories of galactic empires are my favorite SF sub-genre.

cover art by Karel Thole

Again, Brian Aldiss:

"What the authors do in the main is tell us a story adorned with alien creatures, swordplay, fascinating gadgets, and —for preference — beautiful princesses. The story itself is generally fairly traditional, the crux being resolved by quick wits, courage, and brute strength. If this sounds like the recipe for a fairy-tale, the point about fairy-tales is that they enchant us and enlarge our perception. As Michael Shaara puts it in his story:

"The history of Earth and of all Mankind just faded and dropped away. They heard of great races and worlds beyond number, the illimitable government which was the Galactic Federation. The fiction, the legends, the dreams of a thousand years had come true in a moment, in the figure of  a square little old man who was not from Earth. There was a great deal for them to learn and accept in the time of a single afternoon, on an alien planet."

. . .

You have to love the way villains or heroes flee across the remote star galaxies in pursuit of each other. You have to love the way Elder Races, Hideous Secrets, Ancient Forces or plain sneaky old teleportators crop up at every turn. And you have to love the imperial women."

Of course the most famous stories of Galactic Empires are the Star Wars and Star Trek sagas. But artistic and literary creations are by far more interesting, as our imaginations are far more free to fill in the gaps, to insert ourselves into the fabric and texture of star strewn adventures, with the potential of thousands of millennia of years of ancient histories and the jewel encrusted treasures waiting to be found on countless planets.

This is a new category for my posts, and I would love to hear from anyone with a similar interest. In fact I hope to see other bloggers profiles add Galactic Empires to their interests.

Evident Quality

Continuing a theme of women with swords . . .

As pointed out by a viewer, the Conan book with the cover by Sanjulian was profusely illustrated with black and white drawings by Esteban Maroto. The quality of the drawings is evidenced by the inside front cover:

Foreshortening Issue

This Film Fun cover is a recent post by Jack over at http://enochbolles.blogspot.com/, "a web log dedicated to the art of Enoch Bolles". It's a terrific 'blog and I enjoy each posting. This particular post points out the lame depiction of the lady's firearm in hand. I assume the problem is a foreshortening issue. But it reminded me of a modern day illustration of the same subject matter.

Artistic draughtsman extraordinaire Jim Silke continually pays genuine homage to exotic and adventure icons of yesteryear. The work below is similar to, yet quite distinctive from, the Bolles painting. It has the same use of foreshortening the flintlock, but this one succeeds. It demonstrates what just a tiny bit of detail and positioning makes. Gosh, both these guys are so good.

Note the nod to Howard Pyle as well.

Comparable, Not Derivative

Manuel Sanjulian's illustrative work in the 70s and 80s was powerful and dramatic and helped sell a lot of books and magazines. He was comparable to Frazetta, not derivative, and had an understandably European flavor to his work.  I've enjoyed his work over the years.

What's All the Turmly Turbulantz?

It's another Kelly Sunday. The days and weeks just roll on by, don't they? How many weeks since this strip appeared in papers 45 years ago today? Yow—two thousand, three hundred and forty.

Petty

A magazine ad for a George Petty exhibition. It's an old magazine, so don't try going to that address and expect to see any Pettys.

Animated Comic Book Style

A 1994 serigraph by Melanie Taylor Kent, um, celebrating the animated comic book style of Batman, incorporating nearly every major element and villain of the series (but amazingly, no bat signal).

Steinlen

 Such a lovely lovely poster, promoting an exhibition of work by Theophile Alexandre Steinlen.

Fabulous

The fabulous Black Canary by the fabulous Alex Toth. I miss seeing new work by Toth.