"This day's experience, set in order, none of it left ragged or lying about, all of it gathered in like treasure and finished with, set aside." –Alice Munro, "What is Remembered"
Here’s a recent addition to our little library of vintage SF paperbacks, along with a bonus image taken from a profile of Leo and Diane Dillon published in Heavy Metal:
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To view the other ACE Science Fiction Specials with cover art by Leo & Diane Dillon that I’ve scanned and posted, click here.
To view ALL of the covers with art by Leo & Diane Dillon that have been featured on RCN, click here.
The first illustration posted below appeared on the inside back cover of Barbarian Comics #2 (1972) and the second appeared in Barbarian Comics #3 (1974):
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I wonder if the illustration from 1972 was one of the inspirations for the opening scene of Corben and Strnad’s New Tales of the Arabian Nights (New York: HM Communications, 1979), in which two brothers, Shahryar and Shahzaman, are blackmailed by a woman who was snatched on her wedding night by a giant jinni named Ifrit so that none might lay with her but him, and who takes her revenge on the beast by cuckolding him, whenever he sleeps, with whatever men happen to be available: “My lovers have numbered five hundred and seventy,” she tells the brothers with a leer, “and now I would count two more.” And since refusal means certain death at the hands of the jealous jinni, whom the woman has threatened to awaken from his sleep should she not get her way, the pragmatic brothers do what must be done to save their lives.
From Star*Reach #7 (1977):
Please don’t try to order anything from that old GbP address. I have no idea if GbP is still a going concern, but BWS has a lovely Web site, so it’s easy enough to contact him about his current offerings, such as his new print, Poetry, published by Glimmer Graphics.
From Heavy Metal, volume III, number 6 (October 1979), here is Alberto Breccia’s adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror”:
[UPDATE: The version published in Heavy Metal is now followed by a scan of the Spanish-language original, which provides the ocular proof of HM’s legendary translation and relettering butchery — not to mention HM’s failure to give credit to Breccia collaborator Norberto Buscaglia!]
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Alberto Breccia (1919–1993) was a 2009 Will Eisner Comic Industry Hall of Fame nominee. That Breccia was passed over for the award says considerably more about the shameful lack of availability of English translations of Breccia’s comics than it does about the quality of the work, which was first-rate.
The artists who were named to the Will Eisner Comic Industry Hall of Fame for 2009: Harold Gray, Graham Ingalls, Matt Baker, Reed Crandall, and Russ Heath. Ah nostalgia… there’s no soporific like it…
Here’s a relatively new addition to our collection of comic art; it’s page 4 of a 5-page story entitled “In the Swim,” with art by Samm Schwartz, which appeared in Archie’s Pal Jughead #103 (December 1963):
I posted the cover of Archie’s Pal Jughead #103 six days ago in a post entitled “Ebay Wins: Schwartz, Marek, Bacon,” at which time I wrote, “it’s not the oddly composed cover of Archie’s Pal Jughead #103 that caused me to buy it — nose meet pocket; pocket, nose — but the interior art. Can you guess why?” Well, the reason is that I think it’s always cool, when one owns a piece of original comic art, to own a copy of a comic in which the page was printed. Also, by having the comic at hand, I am able to post a decent scan of the printed page along with a digital photo of the art on this blog.
Along with the above page, my wife and I also own the original art of a complete story drawn by Samm Schwartz, “Color Me True Love,” Jughead #321 (February 1982), created about 19 years after “In the Swim,” but still clearly by the same hand, guided by the same minimalist artistic sensibility.
Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the cover of the first edition of Herbert D. Kastle’s paperback original, The Reassembled Man, which I purchased for the princely sum of four bucks in a used bookstore here in the Queen City earlier today:
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Enjoy!
Here’s another justly forgotten Lin Carter novel, half of an “Ace Double,” with cover art mistakenly credited on the verso of the title page to Kelly Freas even though the art is clearly signed “Jones”:
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[CLICK IMAGE TO VISIT RECOMMENDED BLOG POST]
Hey, kids! I think it’s time for more comics, so here, straight outta Heavy Metal, volume III, number 10 (February 1980), is Mirko Ilić and Les Lilley’s “Survival”:
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To read the five single-page fantasies by Mirko Ilić that were published in Epic Illustrated back in the day, click here.
I wonder… is the Corben influence on Ilić’s comics as obvious to you as it is to me?
Another visible influence: Rene Laloux’s 1973 movie, Fantastic Planet.
BONUS LINK:
Success Secrets of the Graphic Design Superstars: Mirko Ilić
Ragged Claws Network 