Category: Heads Up!

Heads Up! · Jeffrey "Jeff" Catherine Jones

Heads Up: JEFFREY JONES: A LIFE IN ART

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Coming this October from IDW, in both a regular hardcover and a signed and numbered limited edition:

Jeffrey Jones: A Life in Art

PRODUCT DETAILS:

* Hardcover: 256 pages
* Publisher: IDW Publishing (Oct 5 2010)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 1600107370
* ISBN-13: 978-1600107375

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:

Over the past 40 years, there have been few artists who have received as much acclaim and garnered as much attention as Jeffrey Jones. From his early comic book work for Heavy Metal and National Lampoon to his popular book covers for such authors as Dean Koontz and Andre Norton to his move into fine art, Jones has inspired generations of painters and artists. This beautiful volume of his personal favorites will only enhance his reputation and cement his standing as one of America’s greatest living artists.

The cover design of the new volume is very similar to the design of the Jeffrey Jones Sketchbook, which was published by Vanguard and has now gone out-of-print:

Need I add that the new collection is very exciting news!? In fact, I’ve already placed my order for the limited signed and numbered edition. Hope I get one.

BONUS “HEADS UP”:

The hardcover edition of The Art of Jeffrey Jones (Underwood, 2002) is currently on sale at Budsartbooks.com for US$14.95, while supplies last. The deluxe, slipcased edition was also on sale a short time ago — I know because I bought one, even though I already had the regular hardcover, which I purchased at full cover price — but it’s now sold out. Sorry I forgot to mention…

Dave Cooper · Heads Up!

Heads Up: “Bent” by Dave Cooper

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From 26 June through 24 July 2010, Jonathan LeVine Gallery is hosting Mangle — new drawings and paintings of twisted ladies, an exhibition of graphite drawings on polypropylene paper and oil paintings on canvas by Ottawa-based artist Dave Cooper. It is Cooper’s second solo show at the gallery, but more importantly for those of us who have been following Cooper’s career from afar, Fantagraphics Books plans to reproduce “most, if not all, of the work in the show” in a new Dave Cooper art book entitled Bent. Here’s the info currently up at Amazon.ca:

Bent [Hardcover]
Dave Cooper (Author, Artist)

List Price: CDN$ 24.01
Price: CDN$ 17.32 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39.
You Save: CDN$ 6.69 (28%)

Product Details

* Hardcover: 80 pages
* Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (Oct 12 2010)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 160699378X
* ISBN-13: 978-1606993781
* Product Dimensions: 26 x 22.9 x 2.5 cm

Product Description

Bent collects Cooper’s finest, most revealing paintings, ink drawings, pencil sketches, and photographs from the past five years, many of which enjoy homes in the collections of influential collectors and some of Hollywood’s elite. In this monograph, Dave Cooper continues to obsess and fixate over his bizarre procession of milky figures as they crawl and wriggle into hidden meadows, jungles and cities. Everything in this world seems to be undulating and overripe-the multi-colored Jell-O vegetation, the billowing clouds, and the twitching, agitated women, whether thin like sinewy rubber, or fat and bursting with doughy flesh. The characters in Cooper’s work have been likened to a dog chasing its tail. Or maybe it’s as though they’re like someone on drugs who can stare at their own hand for 20 minutes; either way, these girls are hypnotized by wriggling around on the ground, twisting in on themselves, walking on their hands, squeezing and chewing one another. This fine art may sound hellish, but to the demons, hell must seem like heaven. So maybe Cooper’s landscapes are more like a weird kind of utopia where all those insane facial expressions and physical contortions are more an expression of elation or giddiness.

BONUS LINK FOR NEW VISITORS TO THIS BLOG:

Look Here: Our Teeny-Tiny Drawing by Hector Mumbly, a.k.a. Dave Cooper

Al Williamson · Heads Up!

Heads Up: AL WILLIAMSON ARCHIVES

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Forthcoming from Flesk Publications, publisher of Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic:

Al Williamson Archives

Introduction by Angelo Torres
Over 100 illustrations
64 pages, 9 x 12”
Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-933865-29-4

COMING JULY 2010

The beloved illustrator’s private work, revealed for the first time.

Revered by his fellow craftsmen, critics and fans alike, this living legend boasts a storied career spanning fifty years. He has produced a body of narrative fiction that continues to provide endless hours of entertainment and inspiration to this day.

Now, the Al Williamson Archives will grant unprecedented access to this master storyteller’s unseen work. Culled from the artist’s extensive private files, every themed volume of this ongoing series will feature unpublished sketches, preliminary artwork and pieces the artist created for his personal enjoyment. Williamson’s fondness for fantasy and SF is showcased in this first volume. It collects work created throughout his career: impeccably rendered dinosaurs, barbarians, spacemen and their craft–even a few sexy maidens. It also features a partially inked Xenozoic tale, previously unpublished newspaper strips and unused Western comics pages from the ’50s.

Every page will be printed in full color to best capture the subtleties of the source material and Williamson’s prodigious skill with pencil, pen, ink and brush. And the entire Al Williamson Archives library will be presented with the same exacting attention to detail and obvious obsession for faithful reproduction that readers can always expect from Flesk Publications.

Obviously, the promotional copy above was written before Al Williamson’s death last weekend. But, although he’s no longer living, Williamson will always be a legend in the field of comics.

BONUS LINK:

Retro Randy: Al Williamson Archive, by Randy Dahlk — “a progression of cover designs for the new Al Williamson Archive [sic] book from Flesk Publications.”

Heads Up! · Philip K. Dick

Heads Up: “The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick”

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crumb-pkd

Once again, I’m a bit late to the party…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Acquires the Philip K. Dick Library

Global education publisher plans to launch program with two-volume unpublished master work, The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick

NEW YORK, NY — April 28, 2010 — Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has acquired North American publishing rights to Philip K. Dick’s two-volume unpublished masterwork, The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick. Edited by Jonathan Lethem and Pamela Jackson, The Exegesis “serves as the foundation for ideas and themes that would appear throughout the work of this visionary author,” notes Bruce Nichols, Publisher of Adult Trade at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. HMH has also acquired rights to 39 titles from the author’s backlist, which will be published in paperback under their Mariner imprint beginning fall, 2011.

During his lifetime, Philip K. Dick won both the prestigious Hugo Award and the John W. Campbell Award, which honor excellence in science fiction. Inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005 and with publication in three volumes in the Library of America in 2007, Dick’s 45 novels and 120 short stories have been adapted into numerous films, including, most notably, “Minority Report” and “Blade Runner” (based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). Other films based on his work are forthcoming.

“Philip K. Dick’s books remain as provocative and cutting-edge today as ever.” said Nichols. “Each generation wants to claim him as its own and we look forward not only to the landmark publication of The Exegesis in fall 2011, but to inspiring a new generation of readers with his significant backlist and its potential in all formats.”

Dick’s daughters, Laura Leslie and Isa Dick Hackett added: “We are excited by this opportunity to work with Bruce and his team at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. We look forward to the re-launch and reinvigoration of our father’s backlist. The publication of The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick has been a goal of ours for years, and we’re thrilled to find a publisher who shares this goal, embracing Jonathan Lethem’s and Pamela Jackson’s edit.”

Jonathan Lethem, winner of the National Book Critics Circle award and recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, is the critically praised author of eight novels, including Motherless Brooklyn and his latest, Chronic City. He has published and spoken widely on Dick and is the editor of the Library of America editions of Dick’s novels.

Pamela Jackson, is the author of a doctoral dissertation examining 2-3-74 and Dick’s Exegesis in the context of Dick’s life and fiction (The World Philip K. Dick Made), and has been working with the Philip K. Dick Estate since 2008 to develop a publishing and preservation plan for The Exegesis.

About Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company is a global education leader and the world’s largest publisher of educational materials for pre-K-12 schools. The Company publishes a comprehensive set of best-in-class educational solutions, ranging from research-based textbook programs to instructional technology to standards-based assessments for students and educators. The Company also publishes an extensive line of reference works and award-winning literature for adults and young readers. With origins dating back to 1832, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt combines its tradition of excellence with a commitment to innovation. To learn more about Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, visit www.hmhpub.com

Contact:
Lori Glazer
Vice President, Executive Director of Publicity
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
(212) 420-5840

lori.glazer@hmhpub.com

BONUS LINK:

From Weirdo #17: “The Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick” by R. Crumb

Comics · Heads Up!

Heads Up: STIGMATA by Lorenzo Mattotti and Claudio Piersanti

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In January 2011, Fantagraphics Books plans to release a hardcover edition, in English, of Stigmata, a 192-page, critically acclaimed collaboration between the great Italian illustrator and comics creator, Lorenzo Mattotti, and writer Claudio Piersanti, first published in 1998. As far as I am aware, only two comics by Mattotti, alone or in collaboration, are currently in print in English: 1) Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, with Jerry Kramsky (NBM, 2008), a harrowing adaptation of the famous novella, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by R. L. Stevenson, and 2) Mattotti’s recently re-printed contribution to Fantagraphics’ “Ignatz Series” of deluxe comics, Chimera #1 (2009). So let’s hope that this new reprint, unlike previous efforts, will open the floodgates for more of Mattotti’s amazing work to be brought into print in English — or back into print, as the case may be!

Heads Up! · Richard Corben

Heads Up: Corben Art Sale!

RC2 Comments

This morning, I received an email announcement that original black-and-white comic art pages by Richard Corben are now up for preview at the Corben Studios Web site and will go on sale on Saturday 29 May 2010, at noon CST. [N.B.: Due to technical difficulties with the secure cart service, the Corben art sale has been stopped today, 29 May 2010, and will be rescheduled. Please consult the Corben site for updated information!] Prices will be posted when the sale goes live, and pages will be allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis: “the first person to complete the shopping cart, gets the page.” The sale includes pages from Hellboy: The Crooked Man, Aliens: Alchemy, and Rip in Time. Here’s an example of a page you could own:

And one final thought: let’s all hope somebody somewhere has good quality digital scans of all of these pages, with proper backups, because reprints scanned from printed comics always show it, and I don’t mean in a good way!

Heads Up! · Mike Mignola · Richard Corben

Heads Up: HELLBOY: DOUBLE FEATURE OF EVIL by Mignola and Corben

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Just noticed that CBR news has a preview of the forthcoming collaboration between Mike Mignola and Richard Corben, entitled Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil. Mignola and Corben have worked together on several different Hellboy stories in the past few years — every one of which is worth adding to your bookshelf — so I think one can safely say that, at last, Corben has found a new regular collaborator (à la Jan Strnad) who is genuinely excited to work with him and fully capable of delivering compelling scripts that play to Corben’s strengths as an artist!

“Richard and I were talking about shorter stories,” Mignola explained to CBR. “Richard apparently likes drawing Hellboy, and my opinion is, as long as he wants to draw Hellboy, I will keep throwing stories to him.

“One of the things I said to him was, ‘Would you mind if I came up with a couple of shorter stories for you to do?’ Both of these were stories that had been knocking about in my head for a long time, and so Double Feature Of Evil was just us coming up with a name for a one-shot that would have two stories.”

“With Double Feature of Evil,” adds Hellboy editor Scott Allie, “there was some internal factor in Mike making him think about these stories more often, but the external factor is that Richard did such an excellent job on Crooked Man that we wanted to give him some more straight horror stories. A lot of Hellboy stories aren’t really horror stories. They’re monster stories or action adventure stories. Double Feature is a pair of horror stories that Richard can pull off just about better than anybody.”

Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil is scheduled for publication later this year.

BONUS LINK:

Dark Horse: Corben’s cover for Buzzard #1 by Eric Powell

Frank Frazetta · Heads Up!

Heads Up: “Thun’da, King of the Congo,” with art by Frazetta

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Available from Dark Horse in July 2010, Thun’da, King of the Congo will bring together, in one 232-page hardcover volume, all six issues of Thun’da, King of the Congo, as well as the Thun’da backup stories that appeared in Cave Girl and Africa: Thrilling Land of Mystery, featuring work by Golden Age greats Frank Frazetta, Gardner Fox, and Bob Powell.

Here’s the publisher’s description of the book:

Frank Frazetta is widely renowned as one of the greatest fantasy illustrators of all time. But he didn’t hone his skills in study at the fabled galleries of Paris or Milan; his legendary talents flourished as he worked for hire during the Golden Age of comics!

In the early 1950s, Frazetta set up shop at bustling comics publisher Magazine Enterprises, contributing beautiful cover illustrations and comics pages. There, he also created his first mighty adventurer: the lost-world-jungle hero Thun’da! Though Frazetta left Magazine Enterprises shortly after the first issue of Thun’da was released, and the series was ultimately short lived despite the talented care of collaborators Gardner Fox and Bob Powell, to this day the Thun’da, King of the Congo comics series is held in high regard both as an exciting adventure title and as the only comics series ever to include a cover-to-cover, all-Frazetta issue!

BONUS LINKS:

The Comic Book Catacombs: Frank Frazetta Tribute: Thun’da in “Gods of the Jungle”

Don Markstein’s Toonopedia: THUN’DA, KING OF THE CONGO

Thun’da #1 cover — original art.

Heads Up!

Heads Up: “Weathercraft” by Jim Woodring

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Over on his blog, The Woodring Monitor, cartoonist Jim Woodring announced yesterday that the latest “Frank Comic” — hardcover, 104 pages, black-and-white interior — is now on American soil and soon to be on sale at a store near you, or you may order directly from the author, with the option of having it lovingly defaced with a signature and a drawing.

Video, slideshow, and PDF previews of Weathercraft are available via the Fantagraphics online catalogue. Publisher’s Weekly also has a six-page excerpt.

If you’re interested, you’d best order now! Supplies, apparently, are limited.

BONUS LINKS:

The Woodring Monitor: Jesus and the Bear

Heads Up! · Sanjulian

Heads Up: SWORD’S EDGE by Sanjulian

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Forthcoming from Underwood Books:

Sword’s Edge: Paintings Inspired by the Works of Robert E. Howard by Sanjulian, edited by Arnie & Cathy Fenner and Manuel Auad

We love Robert E. Howard and we love Sanjulian: put the two together and you know you’ve got magic. This is a slim powerhouse of a collection featuring Sanjulian’s full color interpretations of the classic Conan stories. The book features a vibrant selection of previously unpublished works along with several rare covers from the 1970s.

Product description from Amazon.com:

Countless artists have painted Robert E. Howard’s characters through the years, but none have done so more brilliantly than legendary Spanish painter Manuel Pérez Clemente Sanjulián. With the impact of a battle axe, Sword’s Edge collects an action-filled brace of paintings that brings Howard’s classic stories to vivid life for a new generation of enthusiasts. Best known in the United States for his cover paintings for the comic magazine Vampirella, Sanjulián has been rightly called “an artist’s artist” for his masterful compositions and vibrant use of color. Honored by the Society of Illustrators, he has created his numerous book jackets for a diverse range of publishers.

Product Details from Amazon.com:

* Hardcover: 48 pages
* Publisher: Underwood Books (September 1, 2010)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 1599290537
* ISBN-13: 978-1599290539

BONUS LINKS:

The Cimmerian: An upcoming book of Sanjulian’s Howard-inspired paintings by Miguel Martins — includes small scans of three of Sanjulian’s R.E.H. covers for Ace, along with a scan of an R.E.H.-inspired painting Sanjulian produced for a calendar that was never printed.

Ragged Claws Network: Look Here: “Worms of the Earth” cover by Sanjulian — includes scans of two covers by Sanjulian.