Illustration Art · Look Here · Sergius Hruby

Look Here: Another seven by S. Hruby, just because…

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The nuttiness continues…

From the Austrian humour/men’s magazine, Die Muskete, here are another seven illustrations, all from 1933 this time, by Sergius Hruby (1869 – 1943), selected, sized, cropped, processed, and posted, for better or worse, by yours truly from scans in the online archive of the Austrian National Library:

[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

Specific publication information for each image is included in the file name, as usual.

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Illustration Art · Look Here · Sergius Hruby

Look Here: One plus six by Sergius Hruby

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To continue with what is turning out to be “Hruby Day” here at RCN…

From the Austrian humour/men’s magazine, Die Muskete, here’s one illustration from 1932 along with six from 1933, all by Sergius Hruby (1869 – 1943), selected, sized, cropped, processed, and posted, for better or worse, by yours truly from scans in the online archive of the Austrian National Library:

[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

Specific publication information for each image is included in the file name, as usual.

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Illustration Art · Look Here · Sergius Hruby

Look Here: Seven more illustrations by Sergius Hruby

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From the Austrian humour/men’s magazine, Die Muskete, here are seven illustrations — three from 1930 and four from 1931 — by Sergius Hruby (1869 – 1943), selected, sized, cropped, processed, and posted, for better or worse, by yours truly from scans in the online archive of the Austrian National Library:

[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

Specific publication information for each image is included in the file name, as usual.

RELATED LINKS:

Illustration Art · Look Here · Sergius Hruby

Look Here: Six illustrations by Sergius Hruby

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From the Austrian humour/men’s magazine, Die Muskete, here are six illustrations — two from 1926 and four from 1929 — by Sergius Hruby (1869 – 1943), selected, sized, cropped, processed, and posted, for better or worse, by yours truly from scans in the online archive of the Austrian National Library:

[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

Specific publication information for each image is included in the file name, as usual.

RELATED LINKS:

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Illustration Art · Look Here · Peter Lloyd

Look Here: One lovely cover with antiseptic airbrush art by Peter Lloyd

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Last time I scanned and posted two covers with uncredited, unsigned art in a style that precisely matches what we see on the cover of Richard A. Lupoff’s The Crack in the Sky, a reader more knowledgeable than I am kindly delurked to suggest that the artist might be Peter Lloyd, and since I agreed with the attribution then, I’m going to go out on a limb now and claim that the uncredited creator of the unsigned cover art here is also Peter Lloyd:

[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

But whether by Peter Lloyd or not, it’s lovely work, don’t you think? Slightly menacing, too, like a glittering shard of glass grasped by the hand of a child.

Art Collection · Comics · Gabrielle Bell · Here, Read · Look Here

Look Here: A “July Diary” page by Gabrielle Bell

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Two and a half months ago, more or less, my wife and I purchased a page of original art by Gabrielle Bell, author of When I’m Old And Other Stories (Alternative Comics, 2003), Lucky (D&Q, 2006), Cecil and Jordan in New York (D&Q, 2008), The Voyeurs (Uncivilized Books, 2012), and the forthcoming Travelogues (Uncivilized Books, 2014). How did this happen?

Each July for the past three years, Bell has set herself the task to produce a comics page a day, and has funded the project by selling the original art immediately after she has scanned it for book publication at a later date and posted a copy on her blog to enable her fans to follow her progress. As someone who follows Gabrielle Bell on Twitter, I, along with more than three thousand other people, had advance word that “July Diary 2013” was all systems go, and Bell’s daily tweet notifications enabled me to check out each new page very soon after it was posted — so long as I was at my computer at the right time, that is. And since the price per page this year was very reasonable — one hundred dollars, plus shipping and handling — I thought vaguely, pretty much right from the start, that I might attempt to buy one; however, as I watched the first several pages get snapped up by Bell’s fans, I realized I would have to pay attention and act quickly if I was going to be the first to complete the PayPal cart and secure my choice, if the right page should appear…

Well, fortunately for me, everything went just as I (sort of) planned it. I knew the page that I wanted as soon as I saw it on 18 July 2013, I didn’t let second thoughts hold me back, I just laid my money down. And here’s what I have to show for my “effort”:

[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

Yes, the page is tiny, a mere six inches wide by eight inches tall, and the paper is thin, but according to Bell’s website, the materials are of reasonably good quality — acid-free graph paper and permanent black ink — so I would venture to guess that as long as the artwork is protected from the elements, it will probably disintegrate far more slowly and more gracefully than I will, even if I should live to a grand old age and keep all of the teeth and the lion’s share of the mane that I have left right now.

As you can see, the page is also signed and dated. I don’t know if Bell is in the habit of signing every page before it leaves her hands, but in this instance, I do know that I specifically requested that she sign it, and it arrived with her signature.

As for the content of the piece, well, let’s just say that the theme of ambition waylaid by self-doubt and wishful thinking speaks to me…

You can view a version of the 7-18-13 diary page that Bell has cleaned up with Photoshop on her blog. And if you want to read “July Diary 2013” from the beginning, click here and then simply follow the links just before the comments to browse forward in time.

Finally, Bell yesterday posted page one of her “Columbia Comicumentary” and is (again) selling the original art as she posts each page. The new pages are slightly more expensive than the “July Diary 2013” pages were, but even so, they are probably still under-valued when one considers Gabrielle Bell’s past accomplishments and growing stature in the world of comics.

Art Collection · Illustration Art · Look Here

Look Here: A CONGORILLA splash page with art by Neil Vokes and Jay Geldhof

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This morning, I’m going to dip into our collection of original art, and… picking at random… sort of… I’ve got… the opening splash/credit page from Congorilla #3 (January 1993), with pencils by Neil Vokes and inks by Jay Geldhof:

[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

The way that this page came into our possession is not at all interesting, but I’m going to tell you about it anyway. Back in about 2001, we were looking to buy some original comics art to frame and display in our son’s room, and as I perused the listings on ebay, I noticed that one seller with the screen name “artguy” always seemed to have an interesting selection of all-ages work for sale with very low starting bids. So I found a page I liked, placed several bids, won the auction, and discovered, through experience, that artguy was a very friendly, very reliable seller who didn’t overcharge for shipping! And I guess I got caught up in the process, because I ended up buying quite a few pieces from artguy, including — if memory serves — the Buscema page that I posted earlier.

Anyway, the Congorilla page that you see above was one of FIVE pages that I bought (all for our son’s room, of course!) with pencils or pencils and inks by Neil Vokes. I was not a fan, or even simply a reader, of Congorilla before or after I bought the page, nor was I particularly a fan of Neil Vokes and/or Jay Geldhof. Rather, I bought the page entirely on its own merits, i.e., because I was impressed by the overall design of the image and by the extensive, attractive use of counterchange throughout, because I was amused by contrast between the man’s words — “Death… Death…” — and the deflating exclamation — “HUMBAH!” — from the gorilla (?) in the background, because I thought the boldly lettered headline quotation from the classic children’s bedtime prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep,” gave the tableau a sort of weird edginess that would irritate my in-laws, because I thought that the drawing and text together made a bold statement that would read even from all the way across the room, and, of course, because the price was right!

Unfortunately, I have yet to frame any of the pages that I bought from artguy. But our son will inherit the lot of them… eventually…

And who knows? Maybe… eventually… there will be a grandkid’s room to decorate, although the picture is probably inappropriate for a nursery.

Probably… inappropriate… HUMBAH!

Jeffrey "Jeff" Catherine Jones

Look There, Download: BETTER THINGS

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Recently, in the comments here at RCN, the following exchange took place:

he-likes-it_hey-mikey

As regular followers of this blog and the RCN twitter feed will know, I promoted the HELL out of the fundraiser for Better Things: The Life and Choices of Jeffrey Catherine Jones, produced and directed by Maria Cabardo. So I suppose it only makes sense for me to follow up now with a link to the download site for the completed film.

— HERE! IT! IS! —

$19.95 Download the movie on Mac or Windows computer and watch in High Definition HD 720p 1280 x 720 on QuickTime Player, on iTunes, on VLC Media Player or on your TV using your Apple TV anytime (1.33 GB).

Duration: 01:28:39

If you download the Jones documentary and have something to say about it, good, bad, or indifferent, feel free to post a comment here.

And, oh yeah… one last thing…

We good now, Mikey?

Admin Announcements

Today, just for you…

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04 October 2013:

… I rescanned all four of the books with Jones cover art here and added a fifth “bonus” cover scan.

03 October 2013:

… I re-scanned all five of the books here and two out of three of the books here.

In case anyone is wondering, yes, I have in fact re-scanned and re-uploaded certain covers in the past. I just didn’t publicize the fact, because I didn’t want to raise expectations for extensive improvements to the RCN archive. Which is why I shouldn’t post this message! But… aw, what the hell… PUBLISH!

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Illustration Art · Look Here · Rachel L. Carson · Robert Jonas

Look Here: One lovely cover with art by Robert Jonas

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[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

Unfortunately, I have only the one paperback with cover art by American illustrator Robert Jonas (1907-1997) in my collection, but the Set of Robert Jonas over at Flickr includes almost two hundred!