Category: Heads Up!

Heads Up!

Heads Up: THE COMICS JOURNAL #302: SENDAK

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Coming in January 2013:

maurice-sendak_the-comics-journal-n302

The publisher’s description, via Amazon.com:

This comics criticism annual feature career-spanning interviews with Maurice Sendak and Jacques Tardi, a kids’ comics roundtable moderated by Art Speigelman, and much more.

The newly formatted, 600+ page Comics Journal has proved a resounding success with 2011’s edition, featuring a cover and interview with R. Crumb, instantly selling out. 2012’s #302 is sure to prove just as critically and commercially exciting to comics readers worldwide. This edition’s cover feature is a long, intimate interview-portrait with and of Maurice Sendak, the greatest and most successful children’s book author of the 20th — and 21st — century, the author of Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There, Higglety Piggelty Pop, and the illustrator of works by Herman Melville, Leo Tolstoy, and Randall Jarrell. In his longest published interview, Sendak looks back over a career spanning over 60 years and talks to Gary Groth about art, life, and death (especially death), how his childhood, his parents, and his siblings affected his art and outlook, his search for meaning — and also, on the lighter side, about his love (and hate) of movies. Kim Thompson conducts a career-spanning interview with French graphic novel pioneer Jacques Tardi; the two will explore the Eisner Award-winner’s genre-spanning oeuvre comprising historical fiction, action-adventure, crime-thriller, “icepunk” and more. Art Spiegelman conducts a wide-ranging aesthetic colloquy on classic kids’ comics (Carl Barks’s Donald Duck, John Stanley’s Little Lulu, Sheldon Mayer’s Sugar and Spike, and many more) with a group of comics critics and historians. Michael Dooley moderates a roundtable discussion with Robert Williams, Joe Coleman, Marc Bell, and Esther Pearl Watson about the relationship between fine art and comics. Bob Levin provides a revelatory investigation of the twisted history of the Keep on Truckin’ litigation and a fascinating biographical portrait of R. Crumb’s lawyer, Albert Morse. Warren Bernard writes a groundbreaking historical investigation of the 1954 Senate Subcommittee Hearing on Juvenile Delinquency. Plus: “How to Draw Buz Sawyer” by renowned newspaper cartoonist Roy Crane (and a previously unpublished interview), comics by Lewis Trondheim in English for the first time, Tim Kreider on Chester Brown, a visual gallery of and commentary on proto-comics, and more. The Comics Journal has been for 37 years the world’s foremost critical magazine about comics. It is now more vital than ever, a gigantic print compendium of critiques, interviews, and comics.

Product details:

Paperback: 624 pages
Publisher: Fantagraphics; 1 edition (January 23, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1606996037
ISBN-13: 978-1606996034

And my recommendation:

Buy it!

Heads Up!

Heads Up: WHITE CLAY by Thomas Herpich

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Coming in September 2012:

In late February, news circulated that White Clay will be Thomas Herpich’s first comics collection from AdHouse Books, but the artist has assured his fans on “Flour,” the blog he shares with his twin brother, Peter, that the new work is “definitely of a piece with Cusp and Gongwanadon,” two previous magazine-sized collections that were published by Jeff Mason’s Alternative Comics and are currently being distributed by AdHouse’s own AdDistro services.

Herpich is a terrific cartoonist, illustrator, and all-round draftsman (or draughtsman, if you prefer) whose work in comics combines visual poetry and wry humour in equal measure. I purchased both of Herpich’s previous collections when they were first published, and I have already added White Clay to my autumn 2012 shopping list.

(On a side note, it’s a pity that Herpich doesn’t sell his original artwork online, because if the price were right, I’d definitely be interested…)

If you’d like to read some of Thomas Herpich’s comics before you buy, you should visit the artist’s website, where you’ll find a number of stories and excerpts from various publications, including Cusp and Gongwanadon. Enjoy!

BONUS LINK:

Meathaus Enterprises > Thomas Herpich — an online profile published in February 2009.

Heads Up! · Look Here

Heads Up: Water-damaged art by Eldon Dedini for sale on eBay

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Right now on eBay, Lewis Wayne Gallery has the following cartoon by Eldon Dedini up for auction:

[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

The lower half of the sheet is water damaged, but Dedini was a master cartoonist, so the image is still fun to examine up close.

(Click it and see for yourself.)

Of course, if you’re interested in purchasing the piece, the damage means that you might actually be able to secure it for a reasonable sum. At the time I am writing this post, “THIS SPACE FOR RENT” has attracted six bids, with the current bid sitting at US $105.95, although with two-and-a-half days to go until the auction closes, I predict that the final bid will be quite a bit higher.

To find the piece on eBay, simply search for “Eldon Dedini” and “THIS SPACE FOR RENT.”

Heads Up! · John Buscema

Heads Up: BIG JOHN BUSCEMA: COMICS & DRAWINGS

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Coming in July from IDW:

Big John Buscema: Comics & Drawings [Hardcover]
N/A (Author), John Buscema (Artist)

  • Hardcover: 328 pages
  • Publisher: IDW Publishing (July 3 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1613771959
  • ISBN-13: 978-1613771952

Product Description:

“John Buscema has been called one of the finest comic artists who ever put pen to paper. His work for Marvel Comics on The Avengers, Thor, The Fantastic Four, and Silver Surfer are all classics, highly regarded by fans from around the world. The same is true for his definitive rendition of Conan the Barbarian — Buscema breathed life into Robert E. Howard’s legendary creation in a manner that has rarely been rivaled. IDW is proud to announce the first American publication of John Buscema: Comics & Drawings, a special edition of the fine art catalog created for the most extensive exhibition of Buscema’s art ever staged. Weighing in at nearly 300-pages, this gorgeous hardcover book is a dream come true for fans of the visual mastery of John Buscema, an artist who’s ilk we are unlikely to see again.”

As excellent as his comics art was, especially when he inked his own work, John Buscema did not love to draw comics. He did, however, love to draw. Even after a full day’s work in the “Marvel Bullpen,” Busema’s idea of relaxation was to spend a few hours in the evening covering sketchbook sheets, copier paper, surplus comics boards, and even the backs of pages destined for reproduction, with sketches and studies that not only related to whatever work he had on his plate at the time but also served as an outlet for his personal obsessions — cowboys, horses, pirates, vikings, beautiful women, big cats, hand-to-hand combat, unusual character faces, etc., etc.

If you’re interested in Buscema’s sketches, three books have been published that, with varying degrees of success and failure, try to cover the territory: 1) The Art of John Buscema (1978), 2) John Buscema Sketchbook (Vanguard, 2001), and 3) John Buscema: A Life in Sketches (Pearl Press, 2008). I wish I could wholeheartedly endorse one of those books, but each has shortcomings in terms of design and/or reproduction that prevent me from doing so.

I suppose I might also mention that a four-page illustrated feature, “John Buscema: The Lost Drawings,” appeared in Heavy Metal Magazine in November 2011; by my count, the article includes reproductions — one large, the rest quite small — of a grand total of nineteen sketches.

No… in truth, the best place to view Buscema sketches is on the Web.

Speaking of which…

In our small collection of art by John Buscema, my wife and I have a couple of signed pages of pencilled and partially inked figure drawings on full sheets of sketchbook paper, ten signed sketches clipped by Buscema himself from larger sheets, an unusual signed graphite sketch on a sheet on copier paper, and a Conan page that the artist pencilled, inked, and shaded in what appears to be black grease pencil (a.k.a., china marker). So, obviously, somebody in our house is a bit of a Buscema fan!

For my next post, I plan to scan and share five of the small, signed sketches by Buscema in our collection, and I promise to follow that post up a bit later with another five.

Al Williamson · Bernie Krigstein · Frank Frazetta · Gahan Wilson · Heads Up! · Jack Davis · Joe Kubert

Heads Up: A selection of new books coming soon from Fantagraphics!

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Every once in a while, I like to use the Amazon “Advanced Search” to find out what I have to look forward to in the coming months from my favourite publishers. Sometimes the information published in the Amazon catalogue is not precisely accurate. Sometimes a book will be credited to the wrong publisher. Often the books are listed without descriptions or cover images. Often the publication date that is listed turns out to be wildly optimistic. I think you get the picture. Anyway, today I was looking for forthcoming books available for pre-order from venerable comics publisher, Fantagraphics, and I just thought I’d share with you some of the titles that caught my eye. I don’t know if I will be willing or able to purchase all of these books if and when they finally are released, but they are all titles that I, and perhaps you, will definitely want to consider. So, without further ado, here’s my very tentative shopping list:

[NO IMAGE — that’s not an error; that’s my way of letting you know that there’s no image yet in the Amazon catalogue.]

Problematic: Selected Sketchbook Drawings 2004-2011 [Hardcover]
Jim Woodring (Author)

  • Hardcover: 300 pages
  • Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (October 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1606995944
  • ISBN-13: 978-1606995945

[NO DESCRIPTION — but it doesn’t matter; for me, it’s a must have!]

[NO IMAGE]

The Love and Rockets Reader: From Hoppers to Palomar [Paperback]
Marc Sobel (Author), Los Bros Hernandez (Illustrator)

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (October 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1606995928
  • ISBN-13: 978-1606995921

[NO DESCRIPTION — I want to know what this is before I pre-order, but they’ve got my attention.]

[NO IMAGE]

The Love and Rockets Companion: 30 Years (and Counting)< [Paperback]
Neil Gaiman (Contributor), Marc Sobel (Editor), Kristy Valenti (Editor)

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (September 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1606995790
  • ISBN-13: 978-1606995792

[NO DESCRIPTION — again, I want to know what’s in this!]

DAL TOKYO [Hardcover]
Gary Panter (Author, Artist)

  • Hardcover: 212 pages
  • Publisher: Fantagraphics Books; 1 edition (Jun 12 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1560978864
  • ISBN-13: 978-1560978862

Product Description

“Dal Tokyo was a monthly comic strip, drawn in Panter’s groundbreaking “ratty line,” about a future Mars that is terra-formed by Texan and Japanese workers. In 1983 the L.A. Reader published the first 63 strips. A few years later, the Japanese reggae magazine Riddim picked up the strip, and Panter continued the saga of Dal Tokyo in installments for over a decade.”

About the Author

“GARY PANTER (Brooklyn, New York) is the author of Jimbo in Purgatory and Jimbo’s Inferno.”

[There’s some of Panter’s work that I like and some that I don’t. Dal Tokyo, however, is one that I will definitely consider purchasing. I won’t pre-order, though.]

[NO IMAGE]

Love and Rockets: The Covers [Hardcover]
Los Bros Hernandez (Author)

  • Hardcover: 200 pages
  • Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (November 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1606995987
  • ISBN-13: 978-1606995983

[NO DESCRIPTION — but an easy decision: a must have!]

[NO IMAGE]

Weird Horrors & Daring Adventures [Hardcover]
Joe Kubert (Author), Bill Schelly (Editor)

  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (September 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1606995812
  • ISBN-13: 978-1606995815

[NO DESCRIPTION — but very tempting nonetheless!]

[NO IMAGE]

Messages in a Bottle: Comic Book Stories by B. Krigstein [Paperback]
B. (Bernard) Krigstein (Author), Greg Sadowski (Editor)

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (March 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1606995804
  • ISBN-13: 978-1606995808

[NO DESCRIPTION — doesn’t matter, I want it!]

[NO IMAGE]

Gahan Wilson Sunday Comics [Hardcover]
Gahan Wilson (Author)

  • Hardcover: 184 pages
  • Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (February 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1606996126
  • ISBN-13: 978-1606996126

[NO DESCRIPTION — Do I need another collection of Wilson cartoons? Nope. Do I want another one? Yep. Will I be able to afford one? Time will tell.]

[NO IMAGE]

“‘Taint the Meat…It’s the Humanity!” and Other Stories [Hardcover]
Jack Davis (Author), Al Feldstein (Author), Gary Groth (Editor)

  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (January 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1606995782
  • ISBN-13: 978-1606995785

[NO DESCRIPTION — but probably part of Fantagraphics’ new EC Comics Library, and therefore a must have!]

“50 Girls 50” and Other Stories [Hardcover]
Frank Frazetta (Author), Al Williamson (Author), Gary Groth (Editor)

  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (January 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1606995774
  • ISBN-13: 978-1606995778

[NO DESCRIPTION — again, if it’s part of the new EC Comics Library from Fantagraphics, it’s a must have!]

Notice that I haven’t linked to any of the books listed above at Amazon or any other bookseller. That’s deliberate on my part. I’m not trying to make money by enticing you to buy things via RCN. My sole interest is to promote the kind of books that I enjoy so that those books will sell more copies and (maybe) publishers will keep producing the kind of books that I enjoy.

Heads Up! · Wallace Wood

Heads Up: WALLY WOOD’S EC STORIES ARTIST’S EDITION going back to press!

RC6 Comments

[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

If (like most people) you were unable to get hold of a copy of the first printing of Wally Wood’s EC Stories Artist’s Edition, Scott Dunbier of IDW has some good news: the publisher is sending the book back to press for a second printing! If you’re interested in purchasing the book, and you want to guarantee that you get a copy this time around, you would be well advised to PRE-ORDER directly from the publisher. Here’s the link.

Please note, however, that Wally Wood’s EC Stories Artist’s Edition will not ship until it becomes available in late May to early June 2012.

BONUS LINK:

Wings Studio > Wally Wood’s EC Stories Artist’s Edition – The Friday Book Review by Christopher “Wing” King

Heads Up! · Nicolas de Crecy

Heads Up: THE CELESTIAL BIBENDUM by Nicolas de Crecy

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[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

Having been published first in three-volumes in French, and then in a collected edition in French, and most recently in an expensive, oversized, limited, slip-cased edition in English — an edition so limited that the book appears to have sold out before it was even published; in fact, when it’s all said and done, I doubt a single copy will have made it to a bookstore shelf — Nicholas de Crecy’s The Celestial Bibendum will at long last appear in a single 200-page hardcover volume in English (ISBN-10: 0861661753; ISBN-13: 978-0861661756) from British publisher Knockabout in May 2012. From the excerpts that I’ve seen, de Crecy’s artwork in The Celestial Bibendum is in a similar style to the author’s gorgeous graphic novel, Foligatto (with script by Alexios Tjoyas), which was printed in English in Heavy Metal (vol. 15, no. 7), way back in March 1992. The publisher describes The Celestial Bibendum as follows:

De Crecy’s comics are mysterious concoctions where anthropomorphic animals interact with humans, mixing fantasy, absurd humour and realism with breathtaking classically styled illustration. Charming images and moments combine with shocking frightening scenes. You never know with de Crecy what turn a story will take. This is the story of Diego, a seal, living in a city in Europe getting about on one shoe and a pair of crutches, who sails to a fantasy city New York-sur-Loire, a grim and polluted port, where he becomes a darling of the intelligentsia.

To whet your appetite for the book, here is the image (from the cover of volume three of the first French edition) that is currently being used to promote the forthcoming Knockabout edition of The Celestial Bibendum in the Amazon catalogue, along with a couple of interior pages in French that are currently featured in the online Humanoids catalogue:

Gosh! London has a slightly longer preview with a sequence of pages translated into English!

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Heads Up! · Illustration Art · Jack Davis · Look Here

Heads Up Follow-Up: JACK DAVIS: DRAWING AMERICAN POP CULTURE — A CAREER RETROSPECTIVE

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Yesterday on the FLOG! Blog, Mike Baehr announced that Fantagraphics has pulled the first printing of Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture — A Career Retrospective from (almost!) distribution and has gone back to press to correct a problem with the covers, which apparently were prone to warping. At the same time, the publisher has decided to replace the original cover in sepia (?) and orange with a less design-centric confection that gives pride of place to a cropped, colour version of Davis’s illustration from the first printing:

If you purchased a copy of the first printing of the book, you have several options: you can be happy with what you’ve got, you can exchange what you’ve got for a copy of the new printing, or you can keep what you’ve got and buy a copy of the new printing at a discount. Check out this post on the FLOG! Blog for the official details.

Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture — A Career Retrospective was originally the subject of a “Heads Up” post here at RCN back on 08 November 2010. The cover image included with that post, however, was not the final cover of the first printing. This was:

It’s an interesting design, I guess, although I don’t think all of the elements are as readable as they should be. In an effort to diagnose the problem, I converted the cover to greyscale, and the result is instructive, I think:

Notice how the greenish colour on the lighted side of the forms in Davis’s illustration is pretty much the same value as the orange background. It’s that similarity of value, combined with a lack of any truly dark darks, that I think makes the details of the illustration so difficult to discern. Sure, the narrow range of values in the illustration makes the busy letter forms of the superimposed title more readable than they otherwise would be. Just look what happens, for instance, when I bump up the contrast on that greyscale image:

Setting aside the issue of the annoying visual artifacts that have emerged from my amateurish processing of the low-resolution colour JPEG of the original cover, I think it’s obvious that while the title in the above version of the cover has become more difficult to read, the illustration itself is now more easily decipherable and has a lot more pop!

But why mess around with the contrast at all when it would have been so much easier simply not to put really busy lettering over a really busy illustration?

I suppose the fundamental question for me is, what ought to be the main attraction on the cover a coffee-table book devoted to the art of Jack Davis: some old-timey title lettering or Jack Davis’s art? I think it should be the art. The designer, obviously, had a different idea. Until now, that is.

BONUS IMAGE:

Here’s a really busy cover in which expert designer and all-round comics genius Harvey Kurtzman uses visual hierarchy and contrast to enable the viewer to take in the various elements, all of which are easily readable, in an orderly fashion, without any confusion as to what is most important, what is next most important, and so on, and so forth:

[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

To me, Kurtzman and Davis’s cover stands head and shoulders above any of the designs I’ve seen for Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture. But don’t be angry at me for pointing this out, Fantagraphics: I still do plan to buy the book.

P.S. If you work for Fantagraphics and you’re reading this, you ought to mention to the designer of Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture that the blue background that represents the sky on the new cover ought to be visible through the structure of the telescopic fire-truck ladder at the top-centre of Davis’s illustration as well as through the spaces between the upper and lower wings of the biplane, etc. In the image currently featured on the FLOG! Blog, those spaces are white, which suggests to me that the background of the original illustration was also white, though I don’t know that for sure…

BELATED DOUBLE BONUS IMAGE (added 09 February 2013):

Here’s what the cover of the new improved version of Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture actually looked like, when all was said and done:

[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

Problems solved!

Harry Lucey · Heads Up!

Heads Up: THE BEST OF HARRY LUCEY VOLUME 2

RC4 Comments

Coming in July 2012 from IDW:

[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

“The Best of Harry Lucey,” writes the publisher, “is all scanned from original art and then re-colored using the original comics as guides to match the original published comics as much as possible – except with far batter production values!” Pre-order now from Amazon.ca, and it’ll set you back a mere CDN$16.62 for an oversized 152-page hardcover collection of beautifully drawn, crisply reproduced, classic comics by a newly minted member (Class of 2012!) of the Eisner Hall of Fame — and that’s a bargain any way you slice it, kids!

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Edgar Allan Poe · Heads Up! · Illustration Art · Look Here · Richard Corben

Heads Up: Even more Corben from Dark Horse

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Available in North American comic shops tomorrow, Dark Horse Presents #9 will include Corben’s adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The City in the Sea”:

And coming in April, Creepy Comics #8 will have a cover with art by Corben:

BONUS CONTENT:

“The City in the Sea”
By Edgar Allan Poe

LO! Death has reared himself a throne
In a strange city lying alone
Far down within the dim West,
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best
Have gone to their eternal rest.
There shrines and palaces and towers
(Time-eaten towers that tremble not)
Resemble nothing that is ours.
Around, by lifting winds forgot,
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.

No rays from the holy heaven come down
On the long night-time of that town;
But light from out the lurid sea
Streams up the turrets silently,
Gleams up the pinnacles far and free:
Up domes, up spires, up kingly halls,
Up fanes, up Babylon-like walls,
Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers
Of sculptured ivy and stone flowers,
Up many and many a marvellous shrine
Whose wreathëd friezes intertwine
The viol, the violet, and the vine.

Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air,
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.

There open fanes and gaping graves
Yawn level with the luminous waves;
But not the riches there that lie
In each idol’s diamond eye,–
Not the gayly-jewelled dead,
Tempt the waters from their bed;
For no ripples curl, alas,
Along that wilderness of glass;
No swellings tell that winds may be
Upon some far-off happier sea;
No heavings hint that winds have been
On seas less hideously serene!

But lo, a stir is in the air!
The wave–there is a movement there!
As if the towers had thrust aside,
In slightly sinking, the dull tide;
As if their tops had feebly given
A void within the filmy Heaven!
The waves have now a redder glow,
The hours are breathing faint and low;
And when, amid no earthly moans,
Down, down that town shall settle hence,
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence.