"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"
From Big Apple Comix (September 1975), here’s “New York City: The Future,” a prescient one-page story by Paul Kirchner, whose excellent surrealist comic strip, “The Bus,” was a regular feature in Heavy Metal, back in the day:
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I bought a hardcover collection of “The Bus” from PictureBox back in March 2012, and it appears that there are still copies available for sale. If you’re at all interested, be sure to order while you can! Apparently, only 150 copies of the collection were printed in English.
The Bus collection is widely available in French, however. For a slide show in French, click here.
From Bogeyman Comics #2 (1969), here’s “23 Skidoo,” a one-page comix jam by American underground artists Rick Griffin (18 June 1944 – 18 August 1991) and Rory Hayes (8 August 1949 – 29 August 1983):
Well, I’m back with sort of a grab bag of covers this time around. Not sure why I chose to scan these particular items this morning, though I do think that even when the cover art is lacking, the overall design of vintage pulp paperbacks from Pocket Books, front and back covers included, is often interesting, and sometimes even amusing — “WOULD YOU ANSWER THIS AD? Thousands of men did, including Perry Mason, and one of the answers was MURDER!” — so maybe that’s the theme here:
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Keywords:The Case of the Rolling Bones, The Case of the Lonely Heiress, Murder up My Sleeve, The Golden Goose.
Don’t delay! The donation deadline is Thursday 28 February 11:59PM PT.
Jeffrey Jones: artist, model, conventioneer…
If you visited the Indiegogo fundraiser for the independent documentary film, Better Things: The Life and Choices of Jeffrey Catherine Jones, the last time I linked to it, you may have noticed that the “perks” at the $100.00 level include the following:
a limited-edition art book showcasing works by artists inspired by the work and example of Jeffrey Catherine Jones,
a DVD of the film TO BE SHIPPED ONCE IT HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY RELEASED BY A DISTRIBUTOR, and
a set of 6-8 postcards featuring artwork randomly selected from the art book.
Since that time, producer/director/writer Maria Cabardo has added a $75.00 contribution tier with just the limited-edition art book as the perk.
Jeffrey Catherine Jones and Maria Cabardo in conversation…
I’ve copied out the very diverse and impressive list of participating artists below and added links to various official and unofficial websites so you can check out their work; my apologies in advance if I’ve copied a name incorrectly or linked to the wrong website:
And last but definitely not least, the art book will feature reproductions of several pieces of art by JEFFREY JONES himself, including a watercolour sketch donated by collector Robert Weiner, president of Donald M. Grant Publisher, Inc., that will be featured on the cover.
Here’s the official description of the book, cut and pasted from the Better Things Indiegogo home page:
An amazing collection of artwork from artists in the comics, publishing, role-playing, and entertainment field. This book is dedicated to help fund BETTER THINGS and was only made possible by their generosity and willingness to help get Jones’ story and art to the world. It contains 48 pgs of color and black and white work.
Estimated delivery: July 2013
Help Better Things meet its fundraising goal by donating at the $75.00 or $100.00 levels (or higher!), and receive the art book as thanks from your favourite artists. Go to the Better Things home page at Indiegogo and reserve a copy now!
Jeffrey Jones with an unusual fan…
UPDATE (10 February 2013):
If you are reluctant to contribute to the Better Things Indiegogo fundraiser because you think that the campaign is unlikely to reach its fundraising goal of $30,000 dollars — if you think, well, I see a perk that I really like, but it’s never going to happen for Better Things, so why should I bother — here’s something you should know:
The choice of a flexible funding campaign for BETTER THINGS means you will get your perks no matter how much is raised! http://t.co/NglBF30Q
Yes, indeed, the Better Things Indiegogo fundraiser is a “flexible funding campaign,” and as such, the campaign owner receives any money raised but in return has agreed to fulfill the perks even if the stated goal is not met. For more information, see “Following Up and Sending Perks.”
Therese Nielsen (http://tnielsen.com/) and Patrick Hill has been added to the list of artists contributing to the Jones Artbook. It is now a 64-page art extravaganza [upgraded from 48 pages], a tribute to Jones and a wonderful example of the artistic community’s generosity.
UPDATE (13 February 2013):
Earlier today, Maria Cabardo posted a new pledge video:
Don’t delay! The donation deadline is Thursday 28 February 11:59PM PT.
ABOVE: Frank Kane, The Fatal Foursome (New York: Dell, 1958), with cover art by Victor Kalin.
The ragged white patches along the head and shoulder of the figure in the foreground might look a bit like wear on the paperback, but I assure you they’re actually part of the original artwork.
First published in National Geographic Magazine, vol. 144, no. 6 (December 1973), the following drawings by Noel Sickles of “Scorchy Smith” fame were commissioned by the magazine’s editors to accompany an article by David Lewis entitled “Alone to Antarctica”; they were scanned for display here at RCN, by me, from a copy of the magazine that I bought at a local thrift store:
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Notice that the two largest drawings have a seam about two-thirds of the way from right. This is because the pictures were spread over two pages. Lazy bum that I am, I have done nothing to try to “fix” them.
“[S]kewered on a spit of material need just like everyone else,” artist Jess Johnson is having a sale of art that she produced in the mid-1990s under the name Jeff Johnson. Earlier this morning, I purchased page six of the story, “Gruesome Charlie in ‘No Erect Penises,'” which was published in 1995 in issue #4 of the Fantagraphics anthology series, Zero Zero, and is #23 on The Comics Reporter’s list of “1000 Things to Like about Comics” (posted 23 March 2005). Although I don’t have the page in hand yet, I do have the images from the sale page:
If you think you might like to add a page by “Jeff Johnson” to your own collection of original comic art — at a very reasonable price, I might add — check out Jess’s Etsy shop, “The Door.”
Ragged Claws Network 