Howard Pyle · Illustration Art · Look Here

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

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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)

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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)

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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)

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Barry Windsor-Smith · Frank Bellamy · Heads Up!

Heads Up: Tully and Bellamy’s “Heros the Spartan” in 2011?

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Here are two sample pages from Heros the Spartan, written by Tom Tully and drawn by Frank Bellamy:

And here are the details of the forthcoming collection from Titan Books; my source is the Amazon.co.uk online catalogue:

Heros the Spartan [Hardcover]
Tom Tully (Author)

RRP: £12.57
Price: £9.59 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.98

# Hardcover: 128 pages
# Publisher: Titan Books (UK) (3 May 2011)
# Language English
# ISBN-10: 1848568932
# ISBN-13: 978-1848568938

There’s also a listing for Heros the Spartan at Amazon.ca with a ridiculous publication date of “Dec 31 2035,” but the ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 numbers are the same as in the listing at Amazon.co.uk, so I think Bellamy fans have reason to believe that a collection really is in the works.

BTW, if you’re looking for a heavy-weight endorsement of Frank Bellamy’s work on Heros the Spartan, you need look no further than RCN favourite, Barry Windsor-Smith, who said in an interview with Comic Book Artist magazine in 1998, “I was quite awestruck by Bellamy, his Heros the Spartan was simply magnificent.[…] Britain had a clutch of exceptionally gifted comics artists during the ’50s and ’60s but the subject matter of the strips often disinterested me. I liked Dan Dare and Heros, I think that’s all. I named the lead male character in my ‘Young Gods’ series Heros in homage to Bellamy.”

Given his fond memories and admiring assessment of Heros the Spartan, I would imagine that BWS was pleased to be profiled, along with Frank Bellamy (and eight other comics luminaries), by P. R. Garriock in his 1978 book, Masters of Comic Book Art. As I recall, one of the highlights of Garriock’s book was the inclusion of an episode of Heros that had been “exhibited in New York in 1972 when Bellamy received the award for Best Foreign Artist from the Academy of Comic Book Art” (Garriock, p. 38); a monumental battle sequence, the strip was reproduced in full-colour across two full pages — 40 and 41 — of what was a 9-by-12-inch trade paperback.

The other artists profiled by Garriock included Richard Corben, Robert Crumb, Philippe Druillet, Will Eisner, Jean Giraud, Harvey Kurtzman, Victor Moscoso, and Wallace Wood.

Craig Thompson · Heads Up!

Heads Up: Craig Thompson’s “Habibi” to appear in September 2011

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Over at his “Doot Doot Garden Blog,” Craig Thompson posted today to let his fans know that he has confirmed with his publisher, Pantheon, that his new graphic novel, Habibi, will officially be released on 20 September 2011, the day before his 36th birthday.

“The book,” writes Thompson, “will be $29.95 — 672 b&w pages — clothbound hardcover with stamped gold foil, and look something like the mock-up above. ”

Near as I can determine, Thompson has been working on Habibi for almost six years. And in a mere eight months time, he will be able to enjoy the fruits of his labour — a lengthy publicity tour with hour upon hour of sketching in and autographing books for his fans. As an admirer of Thompson’s draughtsmanship and virtuoso brush-and-ink technique, I worry about the toll the tour will take upon the artist’s drawing hand, but so long as he doesn’t try to produce a second Carnet de Voyage at the same time, he should be all right. Right?

———-

UPDATE (23 January 2011):

According to the Random House online catalogue, Craig Thompson’s Habibi will be released on 20 September 2011 not only as a hardcover but also as an eBook.

Barry Windsor-Smith · Heads Up! · Here, Read · Interviews · Jim Steranko · Look Here

Look Here, Read: An interview with BWS from 1978

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From a 33-year-old catalogue of “original art for sale” entitled Cartoonists and Illustrator’s Portfolio Volume Three (Wyomissing, PA: Supergraphics, 1978), here’s a short interview with Barry Windsor-Smith, conducted by the catalogue’s publisher, James Steranko:

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As I’ve noted previously on this blog, BWS has a new print available for purchase from Glimmer Graphics. Also, just to give you a little heads up, I should note that 2011 will see the re-publication, in hardcover, of X-Men: Lifedeath.

As of today at Amazon.ca, here are the details:

X-Men: Lifedeath [Hardcover]

Arnold Drake (Author), Chris Claremont (Author), Barry Windsor-Smith (Illustrator)

List Price: CDN$ 27.99
Price: CDN$ 17.55 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 25.
You Save: CDN$ 10.44

# Hardcover: 152 pages
# Publisher: Marvel (July 20 2011)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0785155244
# ISBN-13: 978-0785155249

Product Description

Revolutionary artist Barry Windsor-Smith takes on the Uncanny X-Men! The original X-Men go toe-to-toe against Blastaar, deadly menace from the Negative Zone! Storm and Forge find themselves trapped on a primitive paradise world with no hope of escape! Spiral and Lady Deathstrike target Wolverine for death! And Dazzler is hunted by the Marauders, with only the X-Men to save her!

“Arnold Drake (Author)”? Funny, I bought the LifeDeath comics, back in the day, and I don’t remember that at all… but anyway, it’ll be nice to have the work on my bookshelf in hardcover form… I just hope they don’t screw up the colour too badly…

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

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

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

Keywords: A Life for the Stars, Close to Critical, Hellstrom’s Hive.