Frank Frazetta · Heads Up!

Heads Up: “Thun’da, King of the Congo,” with art by Frazetta

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Available from Dark Horse in July 2010, Thun’da, King of the Congo will bring together, in one 232-page hardcover volume, all six issues of Thun’da, King of the Congo, as well as the Thun’da backup stories that appeared in Cave Girl and Africa: Thrilling Land of Mystery, featuring work by Golden Age greats Frank Frazetta, Gardner Fox, and Bob Powell.

Here’s the publisher’s description of the book:

Frank Frazetta is widely renowned as one of the greatest fantasy illustrators of all time. But he didn’t hone his skills in study at the fabled galleries of Paris or Milan; his legendary talents flourished as he worked for hire during the Golden Age of comics!

In the early 1950s, Frazetta set up shop at bustling comics publisher Magazine Enterprises, contributing beautiful cover illustrations and comics pages. There, he also created his first mighty adventurer: the lost-world-jungle hero Thun’da! Though Frazetta left Magazine Enterprises shortly after the first issue of Thun’da was released, and the series was ultimately short lived despite the talented care of collaborators Gardner Fox and Bob Powell, to this day the Thun’da, King of the Congo comics series is held in high regard both as an exciting adventure title and as the only comics series ever to include a cover-to-cover, all-Frazetta issue!

BONUS LINKS:

The Comic Book Catacombs: Frank Frazetta Tribute: Thun’da in “Gods of the Jungle”

Don Markstein’s Toonopedia: THUN’DA, KING OF THE CONGO

Thun’da #1 cover — original art.

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

Look Here: Four more SF covers by Paul Lehr

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Notice that the publication dates of these covers by Paul Lehr, scanned just this morning directly from the library of yours truly, range from 1969 to 1980. I’m sure some people think of Lehr as a bit of a one-trick pony, but with this little group of four, one gets a nice sense of Lehr’s quiet versatility as an image maker, in a nutshell, as it were. Oddly enough, Frazetta later painted an image, entitled Torment (1986), of a guy impaled on a curvilinear structure that would not look out of place in the future city hinted at in the Gunner Cade cover — which perhaps tells you all you need to know about Frazetta’s attitude to modernity — but Lehr’s flamboyantly attired, bubble-helmeted hero is about as far from the half-naked, heavily muscled, hard-charging Frazetta archetype as one can get. Yes, the Glory Road and Power of Blackness covers are fairly typical Lehr productions; however, with the cover for The Centauri Device, Lehr charges boldly into John Berkey territory, and acquits himself very well indeed.

Keywords: Gunner Cade, Glory Road, The Power of Blackness, The Centauri Device.

Documentaries

Look Here: Barry N. Malzberg’s Favorite Astoundings

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Here, courtesy of YouTube and producer Greg Moosnick, is Barry N. Malzberg’s short “extra” to the DVD release of Eric Solstein’s documentary film, John W. Campbell’s Golden Age of Science Fiction. Malzberg received the inaugural John W. Campbell Memorial Award for his distinctly un-Campbellian novel, Beyond Apollo. But don’t hold that against him…

BONUS LINKS:

Those Sexy Vintage Sleaze Books: Archive for the Barry N. Malzberg Category

The “Agony Column Podcast News Report” at Trashotron.com has a link to an MP3 file of Malzberg reading from his indispensible collection of SF criticism, Breakfast in the Ruins.

Documentaries · Look There · Movies · Samuel R. Delany · YouTube Finds

Look There: The Polymath, or the Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman

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I’m a bit late to notice this, but back in November of 2009, MaestroMedia Productions released a two-disk DVD set of The Polymath, or the Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman, produced, written, directed, and photographed by Fred Barney Taylor. Available for a mere US$30 plus shipping and handling (request a total if you live outside the United States), the DVD set includes the original 80-minute documentary, along with a second DVD with over two hours of raw footage of Delany in conversation and a digital transfer of Delany’s “lost” 16-mm film from 1971, The Orchid (which, comic readers may be interested to know, includes Bernie Wrightson as an extra).

From the official Facebook Web site for the film:

The iconic and larger-than life Samuel R. Delany, best known as the author of Dhalgren and Babel-17, winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, is considered a grandmaster of the sci-fi community. Born and raised in New York City, Delany began writing in the early 1960s and became famous for his provocative futuristic explorations of race and sexual identity. He was a rebellious pioneer who opened up the white male universe of science fiction to issues of race, gender and sexuality

The grandson of a slave, he has written frankly about his life and sexual adventures as a gay African-American, notably in his brilliantly reflexive memoir, The Motion of Light and [in] Water and in Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, a social and critical complaint about the disappearance of the area’s famous porn theatres.

Back in the day, Chip shared a stage with Bob Dylan, drank with W.H. Auden, wrote an opera, made a film, formed a theatre company, and authored several issues of Wonder Woman. He has had, by his count, over 50,000 sexual partners during the course of his lifetime.

Taylor uses visually-stunning images of water and bridges as abstract compositions; a visual correlative of the author’s multi-layered writing. By juxtaposing Delany’s flow of memories, readings and archival footage with mesmerizing imagery of the city, The Polymath expresses in vivid detail the complexities of an eclectic intellectual.

Also, if you’re a fan of Delany, watch for his new novel, Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, which, if Amazon is to be believed, will appear in early 2011.

Heads Up!

Heads Up: “Weathercraft” by Jim Woodring

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Over on his blog, The Woodring Monitor, cartoonist Jim Woodring announced yesterday that the latest “Frank Comic” — hardcover, 104 pages, black-and-white interior — is now on American soil and soon to be on sale at a store near you, or you may order directly from the author, with the option of having it lovingly defaced with a signature and a drawing.

Video, slideshow, and PDF previews of Weathercraft are available via the Fantagraphics online catalogue. Publisher’s Weekly also has a six-page excerpt.

If you’re interested, you’d best order now! Supplies, apparently, are limited.

BONUS LINKS:

The Woodring Monitor: Jesus and the Bear

Heads Up! · Sanjulian

Heads Up: SWORD’S EDGE by Sanjulian

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Forthcoming from Underwood Books:

Sword’s Edge: Paintings Inspired by the Works of Robert E. Howard by Sanjulian, edited by Arnie & Cathy Fenner and Manuel Auad

We love Robert E. Howard and we love Sanjulian: put the two together and you know you’ve got magic. This is a slim powerhouse of a collection featuring Sanjulian’s full color interpretations of the classic Conan stories. The book features a vibrant selection of previously unpublished works along with several rare covers from the 1970s.

Product description from Amazon.com:

Countless artists have painted Robert E. Howard’s characters through the years, but none have done so more brilliantly than legendary Spanish painter Manuel Pérez Clemente Sanjulián. With the impact of a battle axe, Sword’s Edge collects an action-filled brace of paintings that brings Howard’s classic stories to vivid life for a new generation of enthusiasts. Best known in the United States for his cover paintings for the comic magazine Vampirella, Sanjulián has been rightly called “an artist’s artist” for his masterful compositions and vibrant use of color. Honored by the Society of Illustrators, he has created his numerous book jackets for a diverse range of publishers.

Product Details from Amazon.com:

* Hardcover: 48 pages
* Publisher: Underwood Books (September 1, 2010)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 1599290537
* ISBN-13: 978-1599290539

BONUS LINKS:

The Cimmerian: An upcoming book of Sanjulian’s Howard-inspired paintings by Miguel Martins — includes small scans of three of Sanjulian’s R.E.H. covers for Ace, along with a scan of an R.E.H.-inspired painting Sanjulian produced for a calendar that was never printed.

Ragged Claws Network: Look Here: “Worms of the Earth” cover by Sanjulian — includes scans of two covers by Sanjulian.

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Connections · Illustration Art · Richard Corben

Connections: Richard Corben vs. Eagles of Death Metal

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Pictures of hands holding Valentine’s Day hearts are a dime a dozen; pictures of hands holding actual hearts are far more dear.

I almost included the cover to Green Day’s American Idiot (2004) in this post, but I have since decided it isn’t quite the same idea.