Look Here: Howard Pyle’s “The Story of King Arthur and His Knights” (post 1 of 4)

25 January 201111 August 2016 RC4 Comments

For my money, Howard Pyle’s illustrations for his 1903 book, The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, were among the finest pen-and-ink illustrations of his career, which, of course, makes them some of the finest pen-and-ink illustrations of all time.

I scanned the following images from a library discard book that I bought a week or two ago at the local thrift store; the stain on the first image is from the glue that holds the circulation-card pocket in place on the other side of the page. Fortunately, the rest of the images were undamaged, though it was, at times, difficult to press the book down sufficiently to avoid focus problems near the gutters.

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P.S. I’ve long thought that Pyle’s portraits of King Arthur, Uther Pendragon, etc., were the inspiration for the portraits of King Arthur, Queen Ginevere, Sir Launcelot, Merlyn Ambrose, Elaine of Shalott, and Sir Galahad, contained in the minature Gorblimey Press portfolio, Excalibur: Six Drawings by Barry Windsor-Smith.

Howard Pyle · Illustration Art · Look Here

Look Here: Howard Pyle’s “The Story of King Arthur and His Knights” (post 2 of 4)

25 January 201111 August 2016 RC2 Comments

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Howard Pyle · Illustration Art · Look Here

Look Here: Howard Pyle’s “The Story of King Arthur and His Knights” (post 3 of 4)

25 January 201111 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

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Howard Pyle · Illustration Art · Look Here

Look Here: Howard Pyle’s “The Story of King Arthur and His Knights” (post 4 of 4)

25 January 201111 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

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Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Illustration Art · Look Here · Paul Lehr

Look Here: Two early, one late, by Paul Lehr

17 January 201111 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

None of the following three covers with art by Paul Lehr really hits the mark. The painting on the cover of Hellstrom’s Hive (1982) is especially anemic; as far as I am concerned, it has very little of interest to say about Frank Herbert’s novel, the SF genre, Lehr’s chosen subject matter, or anything else other than, perhaps, the vain hope that slick technique alone would be enough to fulfil the brief. (Yes, I understand the idea here is that the viewer is supposed put together the visual clues to realize that the red barn, farm house, windrows of hay, etc., are actually located on a planet that is not earth, and that the tiny figures on the hill are not merely your typical human farmers but something more sinister; however, when such a simple idea is so blandly and schematically worked out, how can the viewer’s reaction be anything but boredom?) The fact that Lehr’s hypothetical hope turned out to be not so vain after all — the painting, obviously, was published — seems to me to have been less likely an endorsement of the painting as an effective cover illustration and more likely a tribute to Lehr’s long track record as a distinctive, reliable, and admired SF cover artist.

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paul-lehr_a-life-for-the-stars_ny-avon-1962 — **ABOVE:** James Blish, *A Life for the Stars* (New York: Avon, 1962), with cover art by Paul Lehr.

paul-lehr_close-to-critical_ny-ballantine-1964 — **ABOVE:** Hal Clement, *Close to Critical* (New York: Ballantine, 1964), with cover art by Paul Lehr.

paul-lehr_hellstroms-hive_ny-bantam-1982 — **ABOVE:** Frank Herbert, *Hellstrom’s Hive* (New York: Bantam, 1982), with cover art by Paul Lehr.

Click here to view all of the covers with art by Paul Lehr that I’ve posted so far.

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Illustration Art · Richard Powers

Look Here: Three more SF paperbacks with cover art by Richard Powers

10 January 201110 June 2022 RCLeave a comment

As the title of this post says, here are three more SF covers with art by Richard Powers, scanned by yours truly from my own Private Idaho of brittle old paperbacks.

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richard-powers_a-mirror-for-observers_ny-dell-1958 — **ABOVE:** Edgar Pangborn, *A Mirror for Observers* (New York: Dell, 1958), with cover art by Richard Powers.

richard-powers_the-greks-bring-gifts_ny-macfadden-books-1964 — **ABOVE:** Murray Leinster, *The Greks Bring Gifts* (New York: Macfadden Books, 1964), with cover art by Richard Powers.

richard-powers_the-spacejacks_ny-berkley-1975 — **ABOVE:** Robert Wells, *The Spacejacks* (New York: Berkley, 1975), with cover art by Richard Powers.

Click here to view all of the covers with art by Richard Powers that I’ve scanned and posted so far.

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Book/Magazine Covers (Jones) · Illustration Art · Jeffrey "Jeff" Catherine Jones · Look Here

Look Here: Four paperback covers from 1968-69, with art by Jeffrey Jones

6 January 201111 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

More scans from the paperback library of yours truly:

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jeffrey-jones_the-big-jump_ny-ace-1968 — **ABOVE:** Leigh Brackett, *The Big Jump* (New York: Ace, 1968), with cover art by Jeffrey Jones.

jeffrey-jones_across-time_ny-ace-1968 — **ABOVE:** David Grinnell, *Across Time* (New York: Ace, 1968), with cover art by Jeffrey Jones.

jeffrey-jones_thongor-and-the-wizard-of-lemuria_ny-berkley-1969 — **ABOVE:** Lin Carter, *Thongor and the Wizard of Lemuria* (New York: Berkley, 1969), with cover art by Jeffrey Jones.

jeffrey-jones_kandar_ny-paperback-library-1969 — **ABOVE:** Kenneth Bulmer, *Kandar* (New York: Paperback Library, 1969), with cover art by Jeffrey Jones.

To view all of the paperback and other covers with art by Jeffrey Jones that I’ve posted so far, click here. And fair warning: I still have a few more left to scan!