"This day's experience, set in order, none of it left ragged or lying about, all of it gathered in like treasure and finished with, set aside." –Alice Munro, "What is Remembered"
From The Witching Hour #14 (April-May 1971), here’s “Fourteen Months!” with art by Jeffrey Jones and script by Gerry Conway:
The last panel on the last page wasn’t drawn by Jeffrey Jones, obviously.
From Creepy #16 (August 1967), pages 21 to 26, here’s “Angel of Doom,” with script by Archie Goodwin and art by Jeffrey Jones:
From Vampirella #5 (June 1970), here’s “An Axe to Grind,” a story both written and drawn by Jeffrey Jones:
A while ago, I posted a modest selection of “Jones Touch” comic strips by Jeffrey Jones. Well, today Mr. Door Tree over at the “Golden Age Comic Book Stories” blog has done us all a favour by posting a slightly more generous selection of “Jones Touch” strips that features larger and better quality scans that I was able to offer here. (I posted five strips altogether; Mr. Door Tree has posted that same five along with seven others you will no doubt want to see, although keep in mind that they’re defintely NSFW, i.e., not safe for work.) Click here to jump to Mr. Door Tree’s post at “The Golden Age” “Golden Age Comic Book Stories.” (And while you’re there, be sure to check out all the other work by Jeff Jones that Mr. Door Tree has posted since he started blogging. It’s an impressive collection!)
Yesterday evening, I succumbed to temptation and bought another piece of Mad Magazine art by George Woodbridge (1930-2004). So now here, for your delectation, is a scan of the artwork, along with a scan of the feature of which it was originally a part:
What I especially like about this piece, other than the fact that it is expertly drawn, is that the bracingly cynical satirical message shines through even though it doesn’t include any of the typeset text written by Tom Koch.
Miscellaneous info: The “Ain’t It Great!!” feature appeared in Mad #251 (Dec 1984). The image area of the artwork is 7.5 x 6 inches. And the cost, shipping included, was US$45.95.
So now we have a grand total of three pieces of original art by the talented Mr. Woodbridge in our collection.
Click here to see the last piece we purchased (which is still my favourite).
P.S. I’d be tempted to cut Maroto some slack and call this an homage to Jones, if not for his longstanding reputation as a lover of swipes in general and for this proof of his excesses in particular!
Alien Worlds #4 (September 1983), pages 21 and 22:
Here are three “Jones Touch” strips, all dated 1972, that were originally published in Swank Magazine:
Fantagraphics published a comic-book collection of “Jones Touch” strips in 1993 under their Eros imprint, but the book is long out of print. So if anyone has a copy they would be willing to sell me for a decent price, just let me know, because although I don’t own it, I would very much like to.
UPDATE:
Turns out, I’ve been barking up the wrong trees, looking for the Eros “Jones Touch” collection in old back-issue bins and on ebay.ca, abebooks.com, etc., because Eros still lists the book in their Web catalogue. I was prompted to check the Eros catalogue by a recent post on the Fantagraphics blog, which — thank you very much — includes a link to RCN. I have placed an order, and will report back when the book arrives.
ANOTHER UPDATE:
Well, Fantagraphic’s “Jones Touch” collection is a huge disappointment. It’s in black and white rather than colour, and it simply doesn’t do justice to Jones’s work at all. No wonder copies were still available from the publisher 16 years after the comic was published.
I do believe these are from the “Jones Touch” series of strips that was published in Swank Magazine:
What a difference good paper makes to the quality of the scans!
Ragged Claws Network 