Category: Heads Up!

Frank Frazetta · Heads Up!

Heads Up: “The Complete Johnny Comet” by Frank Frazetta

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Vanguard Productions has just announced that, in August of this year, the company will release The Complete Johnny Comet by Frank Frazetta, the first volume in their “Vanguard Frazetta Classics Series.” According the news release, The Complete Johnny Comet “will feature Frazetta’s newspaper strip shot from the artist’s personal proofs, ensuring the best reproduction ever for this material. The 224-page, 8.5” x 11” glossy b/w hardcover will retail for US$39.95.”

Back in May, when the new publishing deal with Frazetta was first announced, Vanguard founder J. David Spurlock gave Frazetta fans a tantalizing glimpse of what they could expect see in the coming years. “We are very excited about launching a line of Frazetta books under the new Vanguard Frazetta Classics brand.” said Spurlock. “The line will include a series of volumes collecting Frazetta’s comics work in top quality book format,” said Spurlock, “Other Vanguard Frazetta Classics will include a new edition of the 1998 hit, Frazetta – The Definitive Reference, a richly illustrated index of every Frazetta work ever published; a Frank Frazetta Sketchbook; and more–all in library-quality collections fully authorized by Frank Frazetta.”

Heads Up! · Illustration Art

Heads Up: Robert Fawcett, The Illustrator’s Illustrator

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Here’s a book, currently in production at Auad Publishing, that discerning admirers of illustration art will want to watch out for:

ROBERT FAWCETT:
THE ILLUSTRATOR’S ILLUSTRATOR

Illustration fans everywhere have impatiently waited for a book on the legendary Robert Fawcett, known as “The Illustrator’s Illustrator.” At last their dream is about to come true.

The first book on the life and work of Fawcett is under development by Auad Publishing, scheduled for release in early spring 2010. Walt Reed, who knew Fawcett personally, has written an insightful introduction and David Apatoff, a foremost authority on Fawcett, has contributed the text.

The book will contain over a hundred color illustrations and numerous black and white drawings. These are images which have long been out of circulation and are largely unavailable today. Many of the images in the book were made from the originals which have been hidden away for decades by private collectors so the quality will be superior to the images published in magazines many decades ago.

Best of all, the 12 Fawcett Sherlock Holmes illustrations will be together in a book for the first time, some taken from the original paintings. A great deal of passion has been devoted to this project.

Everyone who is familiar with Fawcett’s work will surely want a copy, and those who are unfamiliar with his work will enjoy seeing what they have been missing. Stay tuned to this website as we bring you the latest on the progress of this marvelous book.

IN PRODUCTION!

BONUS LINK:

Robert Fawcett – A Set on Flickr – compiled by Leif Peng, whose blog, Today’s Inspiration, you need to bookmark right now!

Heads Up! · Illustration Art · Jeffrey "Jeff" Catherine Jones · Prints (Jones)

Heads Up: Two vintage posters by Jeffrey Jones available now on Ebay

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Just a friendly note to let fans of Jeffrey Jones know that ebay seller intergalactic (Positive Feedback: 99.8%) has multiple copies of two vintage posters by Jeffrey Jones on sale right now: Chastity (9 available, as of today, for the “Buy It Now” price of US$10.95 each plus shipping) and Sleep (10 available, as of today, for the “Buy it Now” price of US$12.95 each plus shipping). I myself purchased one copy of each poster a short time ago, and was impressed both by the service and by the quality of the merchandise, though please keep in mind, if you decide to follow my lead, you buy at your own risk.

Drawing · Heads Up! · Look Here · Original art vs. printed page · Richard Corben

Richard Corben: Grand Master

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I’m a bit late to the party, but knocking about on the Web this morning I happily discovered that on October 2nd, 2009, the Directors of Spectrum, an annual showcase of “The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art,” announced that Richard Corben would receive the Spectrum‘s 2009 Grand Master Award. Previous recipients of the award include Frank Frazetta, Don Ivan Punchatz, Leo and Diane Dillon, James E. Bama, John Berkey, Alan Lee, Jean Giraud, Kinuko Y. Craft, Michael William Kaluta, Michael Whelan, H.R. Giger, Jeffrey Jones, Syd Mead, and John Jude Palencar. A biography and full appreciation of Corben appears in Spectrum 16, on sale now. Congratulations, Richard!

BONUS LINK:

Book Review: Spectrum 16: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art

Barron Storey · Heads Up! · Illustration Art

Heads Up: Barron Storey’s “The Marat/Sade Journals”

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Here’s a book I never expected to see reprinted. It’s Barron Storey’s The Marat/Sade Journals, a visual diary that uses the play Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss as the jumping off point for a raw, painterly exploration of the deep despair of “an ageing artist” forced to deal with the end of a romantic relationship. The book was first published in 1993 by Tundra Publishing and limited to 1,000 copies, and the price of a good, used copy has since climbed into the hundreds of dollars in the collector’s market. The new edition by Graphic Novel Art, re-edited by the artist — 80% of the art has been re-scanned from the originals — with an introduction by David Mack, a new drawing by Dave McKean, and an afterword by Storey himself, is printed on silk-varnished 140gr paper and includes a sewn binding (rather than the glued binding of the first edition) to make the book feel more like one of Storey’s actual journals.

DETAILS:

Barron Storey: The Marat/Sade Journals
132 pages
6.4″ x 9.4″ x 0.8″
Full colour

PURCHASE LINKS:

Buy Barron Storey: The Marat/Sade Journals from the publisher on ebay

Buy Barron Storey: The Marat/Sade Journals from Gallery Nucleus

Buy Barron Storey: Life after Black (the sequel to The Marat/Sade Journals) from the publisher on ebay

[N.B.: I receive no money at all from the sale of this book, which I ordered for my personal library just yesterday; my recommendation is free.]

BONUS LINKS:

Barron Storey: The Journals — follow the progress of Storey’s latest journal pages on blogspot.

Paint it Black: Carl Wyckaert on Barron Storey’s Life After Black — an interview with Barron Storey’s publisher, the owner of Graphic Novel Art, based in Belgium.

Review of Barron Storey: Life after Black

Comics · Heads Up! · Richard Corben

Coming Soon: “Odds and Ends” by Richard Corben

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As advertised on the Corben Studios Web site, Odds and Ends is to be a 32-page, black-and-white collection of unfinished, cancelled, and abandoned projects as well as works in progress, including the second chapter of From the Pit, book and CD covers, and more. No specific release date has been announced, but if this little project does eventually come to fruition, it will be the first publication from Corben’s own Fantagor Press that we’ve seen in a long time.

Alex Toth · Heads Up!

Heads Up: Toth Times Two in Twenty-Ten

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1. Genius, Isolated: The Life & Art Of Alex Toth
By Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell
IDW Publishing
Release Date: Fall 2010

In an interview at Westfield Comics Blog, Bruce Canwell says:

Almost exactly a year from now, we’re presenting Genius, Isolated: The Life & Art Of Alex Toth. Dean Mullaney and I are writing this together — Dean knew Alex, and back in the days of Eclipse Comics, he reprinted Toth’s much-beloved Zorro comics from the late 1950s/early ’60s. Most folks know about Toth from his work for Hanna-Barbera, where he created the look of Space Ghost, The Herculoids, and many other Saturday morning heroes. We’re working with Alex’s estate, as well as his many friends and fans, to create an in-depth biography that will be accompanied by plenty of rare images, plus a section that will reprint several complete Toth stories. Big companies are being very generous in allowing us to reprint Alex’s stories from their backlist, while individual collectors are giving us total access to their many Tothian treasures. Our goal is to make Genius, Isolated a fitting bookend to our 2008 Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles (currently nominated for two Harvey Awards). Since Toth was the biggest Sickles fan ever, we like to think Alex would approve of that goal!

Even if Alex wouldn’t approve, I certainly do!

2. Setting the Standard: Alex Toth at Standard Comics 1952-54
Edited by Greg Sadowski
Fantagraphics Books
Release Date: Fall 2010 Spring 2011

“It’s hard to overstate the influence of Alex Toth on the art of comic books,” says Sadowski. “Toth was from that first generation who grew up reading comic books, and he came to the medium armed with enough discipline, talent, and sheer love and respect for the medium to create a technique free of condescension, artifice, or shortcuts. His work at Standard first established him as the ‘comic book artist’s artist.’” Learning his craft at Eastern and DC, Alex Toth arrived at Standard Comics in late 1951 with a fully formed, graphically impeccable technique perfectly suited to the comic book medium – honest, uncompromising, and free of condescension and artifice. Includes a biographical sketch and an essay on Toth’s approach to comic book storytelling, based heavily on his interviews and written correspondence.

Woo-hoo! Just in time for Christmas Easter… next year the year after next…

BONUS LINKS:

Black and White Wednesday: Gerry Boudreau and Alex Toth’s “The Phantom of Pleasure Island”

Opinions by Alex Toth

Heads Up! · Robert Crumb

Uneeda Comics Slipcase

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If you are like me, and bought all of the softcover volumes of The Complete Crumb Comics, you will want about four of these:

From the Fantagraphics catalogue:

WAREHOUSE FIND! These handsome, sturdy clothbound slipcases are designed to hold 5 volumes of the softcover editions of The Complete Crumb Comics series. (Note: Hardcover volumes will not fit.) They are stamped in gold with a Crumb logo and art on the front and spine. Books not included. Supplies are limited, so order today!

I placed my order yesterday. How about you?

UPDATE (22 May 2010):

I just checked the link to the Fantagraphics catalogue, and it looks as though the Crumb slipcases are sold out. So I’ve deleted the link, but I’m leaving the eye candy.