Look Here, Read: SPASM! (1973) by Jeffrey Jones

21 April 200911 August 2016 RC2 Comments

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…

Frank Frazetta · Here, Read · Jeffrey "Jeff" Catherine Jones

Here, Read: “A Recollecting Remembrance” by Jeffrey Jones

14 April 200911 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

On offer this time round at RCN is a touching concatenation of fragile biographical reminiscences rescued from Jeffrey Jones’s former Web site; the header of the HTML source lists a “publicationdate” of “122197” (December 21, 1997) and a “version” date of “12.20.2003” (December 20, 2003). Since the piece is a bit too long to display comfortably, in its entirety, in-line with my other blog entries, please click here to jump to a separate blog page that includes the full text of “A Recollecting Remembrance” by Jeffrey Jones.

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

Look Here: Three more paperback covers by Jeffrey Jones

14 April 200911 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

Jones really began to hit his stride as a skilled cover artist with a distinctive stylistic sensibility in the early 1970s:

**ABOVE:** Lin Carter, *Thongor and the Dragon City* (Berkley, 1970), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** Gardner F. Fox, *Kothar and the Wizard Slayer* (Unibook, 1970), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** Lin Carter, *The Quest of Kadji* (Belmont, 1971), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** Closeup of Jeffrey Jones’s cover art for Lin Carter’s *The Quest of Kadji* (Belmont, 1971).

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

Look Here: Four more early paperback covers by Jeffrey Jones

13 April 200911 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

I don’t much care for any of these covers from 1968 and 1969, but since I have yet to break out of the collector/completist mentality — and believe me, I’ve tried — here they are, scanned and posted for your “enjoyment”:

**ABOVE:** Lin Carter, *Thongor at the End of Time* (Paperback Library, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** Robert Lory, *Master of the Etrax* (Dell, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** Robert Moore Williams, *Zanthar at Moon’s Madness* (Lancer Books, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** John Jakes, *The Hybrid* (Paperback Library, 1969), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

To make up for the lacklustre art this time round, my next post will feature two covers by Jones from the early 1970s that I think are very strong, along with one that I have mixed feelings about, so stay tuned for that!

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

Look Here: Another early paperback cover by Jeffrey Jones

8 April 200911 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

If you have been following my posts over the past few days, you’ll already know why I decided the time was right to scan and post this:

**ABOVE:** Norvell W. Page, *Sons of the Bear-God* (Berkley, 1969), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

If you have not been following along, click here to jump to my post on Lucian Freud’s The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer.

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

Look Here: Four paperback covers by Jeffrey Jones

3 April 200911 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

Further selections from a growing collection of brittle books that I’ve purchased just so I could scan the covers, post them here, lean back in my chair, and admire my own busywork:

**ABOVE:** Brian W. Aldiss, ed., *All about Venus* (Dell, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** David St. John, *Diabolus* (Fawcett, 1971), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** John Dalmas, *The Yngling* (Pyramid Books, 1971), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

The main thing to notice here is the improvement in Jones’s compositions, draftsmanship, and paint handling, from 1968 to 1971. There’s an awful lot of fudging going on in those covers from 1968 and 1969! There’s noticeably less fudging in the 1971 covers, however, which are not only very good in themselves but point the way to Jones’s terrific mid-1970s work for Zebra/Kensington and others.