Category: Here, Read

Here, Read · Joe Kubert · John Buscema · Look Here

Look Here, Read: Buscema on Kubert, Kubert on Buscema

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Buscema, in answer to the question, “Who is your favourite comic artist?”:

I’ll tell you, I’m at the point where I’m not impressed with anyone anymore. I was always looking for the good draftsmanship. Later on, I became interested in the story-telling aspect of comics. I think Hal Foster is perhaps the best story-teller in comics. As was Milton Caniff. A lot of guys, like Roy Crane — all great.

I did admire them, but now that I’m older, I’ve been in it for so many years, I can see things that I didn’t see before. I have the experience now. I have all the books of the collected works of Raymond, and of Hal Foster, and I’ve looked at the work of the old timers, and I’m not as impressed anymore. In fact, I see a lot of things they did, they could have improved upon. I see things now that leave me cold. I’m not impressed with anything in comics today. The only thing in recent times that I was impressed with, but not really floored by, was Tarzan by Joe Kubert. I think it was one of the best comics produced, of all times. I admire the guy. I think he’s fantastic, I really do. But that’s it. Maybe I’m too close to comics.

[The Art of John Buscema: Volume One (Sal Quartuccio, 1978), p. 9 (or 11, if you count the front cover and inside front)]

Kubert, on the importance of life drawing vs. copying from the masters:

Fine artists have learned through the ages by painting from sculptures and copying classic works but, when it comes to really knowing the figure, if you try to learn from copying other people’s drawings you end up with a double exaggeration. This especially holds true when the person who has really affected you and inspired you to draw like them is drawing an exaggerated figure to begin with. When you try to learn from an artist (comics or other) who is adding exaggeration, you end up exaggerating even more, which removes the figure from reality. One could be copying Mark Silvestri, who’s copying John Buscema, who’s copying Hal Foster, who did Life [sic] drawing! I find that, going back to Life drawing is like going back to the well — the source of inspiration — and it is a necessity which I find it [sic] absolutely essential.

[How to Draw from Life (Vanguard, 2009), p. 12]

Al Williamson · Comics · Connections · Here, Read · Look Here

Look Here, Read: “Out of Phase,” with art by Al Williamson

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Continuing my little tribute to Al Williamson here at RCN, here is a story from the farewell issue (#34 [February 1986]) of Epic Illustrated, with story by Archie Goodwin and art by Al Williamson. The story includes a number of references to other artists and their work, including an homage to Frederic Leighton’s Perseus and Andromeda (1891) and a swipe from a publicity photo of Sophia Loren that was taken 35 years before “Out of Phase” was published! I’ve posted JPEGs of both of those swipes, dear reader, just because I think you might enjoy seeing them:

BONUS LINKS:

The Golden Age: Al Williamson: March 21, 1931 ~ June 12, 2010, posted by Mr. Door Tree — includes the story “Food for Thought” from Incredible Science Fiction #32 (Nov.-Dec. 1955), with suitably incredible art by Al Williamson and Roy Krenkel

Mr. Media: Mark Schultz on Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic, interview by Bob Andelman

Here, Read · Interviews · Look Here · Richard Corben

Look Here, Read: “Living in the Underground” with Richard Corben

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The following interview-based article on Richard Corben from the June 1993 issue of Airbrush Action was published at a time when Corben’s creative energy was almost entirely focused on his own Fantagor Press. The article includes a brief overview of Corben’s career to that point, technical information about how Corben used Paasche H and V airbrushes in conjunction with other media, and cool tidbits such as Corben’s recollection that the celebrated Bat out of Hell album cover took him only two days to produce.

And as a bonus, at the end, I’ve included a pair of images that don’t appear in the interview.

Enjoy!

Keywords: The Wizard of Anharitte, Bat Out of Hell.

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!

Art Collection · Comics · Ebay Win · Look Here · Mell Lazarus

Look Here: Original “Miss Peach” art by Mell

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In the past month or so, my wife and I have become the proud owners of two pieces of original art from the second year of the amazing 45-year run, 1957 to 2002, of the comic strip, Miss Peach, by Mell Lazarus. Although I feel that Lazarus did his best work in his Sunday strips, where he was able more fully to indulge his tremendous gift for comic dialogue, I was thrilled to be able to purchase two fine dailies, dated 09-09-58 and 09-24-58, in two separate auctions, for a mere US$55.50 each, shipping from the USA to Canada included. Here are the strips, which, btw, are not only huge — the paper is 18.5 inches wide by 6.06 inches high — but also in excellent condition, especially considering that they’re more than 50 years old:

Now, I am fully aware that many academically trained artists hate Mell Lazarus’s style of cartooning in Miss Peach, dismissing it as “childish” or worse, but as for me, well, I’ve always had a soft spot for the big-headed, big-nosed, sharp-tongued kids of the Kelly School. Modelled to a large extent on Charles Schulz’s beloved Peanuts, Lazarus’s Miss Peach combined economical but expressive and amusing drawings with witty and incisive social observation and punch lines that could make you laugh and squirm at the same time. The effectiveness of Lazarus’s visual shorthand is especially evident in his characters’ facial expressions, which in my experience always deliver more relevant and touching emotion than Lazarus’s (and Schulz’s) critics would have you believe possible.

In the first decade and a half of his career, Lazarus, who was never short on ambition, steadily worked his way up in the newspaper comics world, going from fledgling freelancer/comic-strip artist — his first, moderately successful strips were “Wee Women” and “Li’l One” — to an assistant position with Al Capp and Elliot A. Caplin’s Toby Press, to art director/comics editor at Toby Press, to nationally syndicated cartoonist. Following the success of Miss Peach, Lazarus, restless as ever, went on to create a short-lived humour-adventure strip, Pauline McPeril, with artist Jack Rickard, in 1966 — it was cancelled after three years — and then bounced back with a second comic-strip hit with Momma, in 1970. And for the next 30 years, Lazarus wrote and drew two syndicated strips, Miss Peach and Momma, until health issues caused him to reduce his work load by dropping Miss Peach in 2002. Momma, however, is still going strong!

But Mell Lazarus hasn’t only had success with readers; he’s also enjoyed the respect and approbation of his peers, winning the Best in Humour Strip Award from the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) in 1973 and 1979, the Reuben from the NCS for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year in 1982 for his work on Miss Peach, and the Silver T-Square from the NCS “for outstanding dedication or service to the NCS or the profession” in 2000. And as if that wasn’t enough, Lazarus’s fellow cartoonists also elected him President of the National Cartoonists Society for two terms, 1989 to 1991 and 1991 to 1993.

Finally, in addition to cartooning, Mell Lazarus has found time to write television scripts, plays, two novels — The Boss is Crazy, Too and The Neighborhood Watch — and, well, you get the picture. He’s always been a busy guy. But not too busy to answer his own front door:

Comics · Connections · Frank Frazetta

Connections: Frank Frazetta vs. Esteban Maroto

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Here’s an old-fashioned swipe that’s rather funny — mainly due to the timing! In Eerie #126 (November 1981), on page 19, in the bottom right-hand corner, you’ll find an advertisement for the 1982 Frazetta Calendar. And, IN THE VERY SAME ISSUE, you’ll find a 12-page story called “Korsar,” with art by Esteban Maroto, which runs from page 35 to page 46. Now, take a look at page 9, panel 3 of the Maroto-illustrated story (Eerie page 43), paying special attention to the composition, the landscape, and the group of figures led by the fellow carrying the woman on his shoulder, on the left-hand side of the panel.

For your convenience, I’ve included both pages below, along with a slightly larger, colour version of the cover of the 1982 Frazetta Calendar:

See it?

Comics · Comics (Jones) · Connections · Idyl · Jeffrey "Jeff" Catherine Jones

Connections: Jeffrey Jones vs. Esteban Maroto, again

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The first page here is by Esteban Maroto. It is from a story called “Idi and Me,” written by Bill DuBay, that first appeared in issue #4 of the Warren magazine, 1984, way back in 1978. And though the script is junk, it’s an attractive page. Only problem is, all of the female figures are very clearly swiped from Jeffrey Jones’s celebrated comic strip, Idyl, which ran in National Lampoon from 1972 to 1975. See below for the ocular proof:

For those who haven’t read 1984 #4, which would be almost everyone, the woman in the DuBay-penned “Idi and Me” is the brutal dictator, Idi Amin, whose chromosomes have been jumbled, just for laughs, by the American “Department of Dirty Tricks” (DDT), thereby turning “the former gorilla-faced leader of Uganda into this heavenly image of white Anglo-Saxon femininity,” Idi, who nonetheless retains a male psychology and sex drive and is thus seeking an operation to change back into a man. (And the final line/moral of the story? “I guess no matter what form you’re in… the world just isn’t ready for Idi Amin!”) All of which seems very odd, given Jeffrey Catherine Jones’s own difficult journey; however, the story did appear way back in 1978, as I noted above, which is about 20 years, more or less, before Jones decided to take definite steps become a woman. So what’s going on here? Seems most likely to me that it’s just a coincidence — though if it isn’t, if DuBay is taking a shot at Jones’s sexuality based on industry rumours, private confidences, or whatever, it’s an incredibly crude commentary! I mean, why would DuBay have done it, and why on earth would Maroto have participated? It doesn’t make sense to me, though, of course, even if the sex-change theme is a coincidence, it doesn’t mean that the story of Idi wasn’t intended, in part, as a parody of Jones’s Idyl. That would certainly explain the blatant swipes, except that Maroto has swiped from Jones (and others) before. So maybe the simple answer is that Jones’s work on Idyl was so skillful, so sensitive, so gorgeous, and — perhaps it seemed to Maroto — so obscure, that it was ripe for the swiping… or not… because the fact is, I’m not sure what to think…

Anyone have any ideas?