From Vampirella #5 (June 1970), here’s “An Axe to Grind,” a story both written and drawn by Jeffrey Jones:
Look Here, Read: “An Axe to Grind” by Jeffrey Jones
Category: Here, Read
Look Here, Read: “69” by Jeffrey Jones
Look There: “Jones Touch” from SWANK MAGAZINE, May-Nov/1972
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!)
Look Here: Original Art by George Woodbridge
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).
Connections: Jeffrey Jones vs. Esteban Maroto
Do you see it? Look for the girl with her hands on her head…
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!
Look Here, Read: “Deep Secrets,” with art by Jeffrey Jones
Alien Worlds #4 (September 1983), pages 21 and 22:
Jeffrey Jones on artistic freedom…
The first time I saw the following hand-written letter, it was for sale on ebay. Having been an admirer of Jones’s ongoing self-education and steady development as an artist since the early 1980s, when in my late teens I purchased in quick succession the three Dragon’s Dream books, The Studio, Yesterday’s Lily, and Idyl, I was sorely tempted. But I could not afford at the time to bid for it — or, at least, I didn’t feel like I could justify the expense to my wife — so I let it slip through my fingers. However, as a compensation of sorts, I saved the JPEG from the auction listing so that I could re-read it later for inspiration, because the fact is that I DID, for various personal and professional reasons I won’t go into here, find it tremendously inspiring. But then, somehow, I misplaced the JPEG when I moved all my e-stuff to a new computer, this computer, and the fact is, I thought at that point I would never get to read it again. And I was okay with that. I shrugged and moved on. It wasn’t that big a deal. But today is my lucky day, because here it is:
Small things, even ill-favoured things, are treasure when they are truly one’s own.
———-
Thanks to Rob Pistella for inviting me to use scans from his CAF gallery on this blog. Rob has a terrific and growing collection of artwork (and ephemera!) by Jeffrey Jones, and I am delighted to be in a position to highlight some of those items here.
Look Here: “Jones Touch” (1972) by Jeffrey Jones
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.
Look Here: Two from 1972, by Jeffrey Jones
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!
Look Here, Read: SPASM! (1973) by Jeffrey Jones
My apologies in advance for the poor quality of the scans in this post. It’s not easy to get decent results from thin, yellowing newsprint. But if you’re like me, you don’t want scans. You want a hardcover omnibus of every comic Jeffrey Jones has produced!
Published by Last Gasp in 1973 (36 years ago!), Spasm! collects the following short stories, all written and drawn by Jones, solo, for various pro and fan publications: “Co-Incidence” (2 pages), “Spirit of ’76” (4 pages), “Saved” (2 pages), “The Enemy” (5 pages), “Luce” (2 pages), “Deja-Vu” (4 pages), “The Bridge” (3 pages), “Guarantee” (4 pages), and “Death” (5 pages).
Notice that Jones’s distinctive J-cartouche on the back cover is upside down. That’s no mistake on my part; rather, it’s the way the piece was printed. In fact, the identical motif of the woman cradling and kissing the skull also appears, with the same orientation, in a painting and a drawing I posted earlier. Then again, the back cover of Spasm! is reprinted, with the J-cartouche right-side up, in The Art of Jeffrey Jones (Underwood Books, 2002). So…
Ragged Claws Network 