Andrew Loomis · Heads Up!

Heads Up: SUCCESSFUL DRAWING and CREATIVE ILLUSTRATION by Andrew Loomis

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The good news today is that Titan Books is slowly but surely making good on its plan to bring Andrew Loomis’s legendary art instruction books back into print in high-quality facsimile editions. Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth and Drawing the Head and Hands are already available from your local bookseller, and according to the Amazon catalogue, Successful Drawing (ISBN-10: 0857687611; ISBN-13: 978-0857687616) will be available on 08 May 2012, with Creative Illustration (ISBN-10: 1845769287; ISBN-13: 978-1845769284) to follow on 09 October 2012.

Harvey Pekar · Heads Up!

Heads Up: HARVEY PEKAR’S CLEVELAND, illustrated by Joseph Remnant

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Coming soon from Top Shelf and Zip Comics:

Read all about it right here. Although the promotional image above says otherwise, the Amazon entry for Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland indicates that the book will be released in March 2012. Amazon also states that the completed graphic novel will be 128 pages in length and will be published in hardcover.

In an interview with Forbidden Planet International published online in January of this year, editor Jeff Newelt describes Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland as “1/3 history of Cleveland, 1/3 Pekar autobio, 1/3 biographical sketches of prominent Cleveland ‘characters.’ It was fully written before Harvey passed, and Joseph had already drawn 20 pages.” And the result? In his introduction, Alan Moore says that Cleveland is “[o]ne of the very greatest works by that unique and irreplaceable American voice, the truly splendorous Harvey Pekar… graced by the impeccable and poignant artistry of Joseph Remnant.”

To give you a more concrete idea of the type of artwork you can expect to find in Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland, here are links to seven previous collaborations between Harvey Pekar and Joseph Remnant, collaborations that were published as part of SMITH Magazine’s Pekar Project: 1) Autodidact; 2) Back in the Day; 3) Legendary Vienna; 4) Muncie, Indiana; 5) Muncie, Indiana Part II; 6) Reciprocity; and 7) Sweeping Problem. There’s also a 4-page preview of Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland on the SMITH Magazine site.

Now, it is a truth factionally acknowledged that the quality of Pekar’s comics tended to rise or fall according to the skillfulness or ineptitude of the artists that our man was able to attract or conscript to illustrate his scripts. But if you thought Pekar’s collaborations with R. Crumb were the best that American Splendor had to offer, I expect that you will be looking forward to Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland, illustrated by Joseph Remnant, as much as I am!

Frank Frazetta · Heads Up!

Heads Up: FRAZETTA – FUNNY STUFF, edited and designed by Craig Yoe

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Coming in March 2012 from IDW:

Here’s the publisher’s description of the book, as it appears in the Amazon catalogue:

Frank Frazetta! He’s been rightfully called “The Grand Master of Fantasy Art”! But, it’s little known that Frazetta also conquered other worlds in the Golden Age of Comics, as shown in his Donald Duck-ish funny animal and hilarious hillbilly comic book stories. Even those aware of this wonderful Frazetta art don’t know the extent – this book is a whopping 256, large-format pages! Did we mention ferocious, terrifying wolves and swampland creatures in the plethora of animal stories illustrations as only Frazetta could draw them? There’s also lions and tigers and bears – oh my! – before Frazetta’s famous paintings captured the same subjects. But wait, there’s more! You’ll see the roots of the Frazetta Girl in the sexy Kathy teenage girl adventures and the hot Daisy Mae-look-alike, Clarabelle, in the hillbilly hi-jinks stories of her beau, Looey Lazybones (Holy Li’l Abner!). The introduction is by famed cartoon director Ralph Bakshi, who closely worked with Frazetta when they co-produced the animated feature film, Fire and Ice. Bakshi shares rare insights, anecdotes, photos, and Frazetta drawings, and created a special painting of Frazetta and himself as funny animals for this beautiful hardcover, full-color coffee table book! Frazetta – Funny Stuff is edited and designed by Eisner award-winner Craig Yoe.

The last substantial collection of Frazetta’s “funny animal” work was published by Kitchen Sink two decades ago under the title Small Wonders: The Funny Animal Art of Frank Frazetta, with an introduction by William Stout. You can view selections from Small Wonders courtesy of Clarke Snyder’s Inspiration Grab-Bag, in a post titled Frank Frazetta (Fritz) Funny Animal Comics-1940’s. However, since Small Wonders is only 80 pages in length — apparently it was book one of a two volume set, the second volume of which was never published — while Frazetta – Funny Stuff is, according to the publisher, “a whopping 256, large-format pages,” I think I can say with some certainty that even Frazetta fans who already own Small Wonders are going to want to add Frazetta – Funny Stuff to their collections.

Small Wonders, btw, had a terrific, art-centric cover that I like much better than the cover of the new collection, which is okay but which I would characterize as more design-centric; need I add that, where comics reprints and art books are concerned, I prefer art-centric covers:

The only down side of that cover is that the artwork is not by Frazetta but rather is a tribute to Frazetta’s funny animal comics by William Stout.

“I’m just a straight, ordinary guy. I truly wish the world was full of sweetness, flowers and happiness. But it’s not, and I do reveal that dark side in some of my work. I am known for my violent stuff. But the funny stuff is the real me.” —Frank Frazetta

BONUS LINKS:

Cartoon SNAP > More Frank Frazetta Funny Animal Comics – Bruno the Bear 1949, Frank Frazetta Funny Animals: Daffy and Dilly in “All At Sea” – Sept 1949, Frazetta Funny Animal Comic Book Scans from 1948: Dodger the Squirrel – Coo Coo Comics – all in colour.

ComiCrazys > Barney Rooster > Frank Frazetta – in black and white.

Shane Glines’ Cartoon Retro > Frank Frazetta: Barney Rooster, Frank Frazetta: Bruno, Frank Frazetta: Dodger, Frank Frazetta: Hucky Duck – all in colour.

TOTALLY OFF-TOPIC BONUS LINK:

Shane Glines’ Cartoon Retro > Frazetta as Model – now that is a great find!

Carmine Infantino · Comics · Here, Read · Look Here

Look Here, Read: “Don’t Try to Outsmart the Devil,” with art by Carmine Infantino

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From Vampire Tales #3 (February 1974; reprinted from Adventures into Terror #13 [December 1952]), here’s “Don’t Try to Outsmart the Devil,” with script by Stan Lee and pencils by a much-admired artist who, by his own admission, never actually lived up to his considerable potential, Carmine Infantino, while, depending on what source you trust, the inks were either by Infantino himself or by Gil Kane; this is followed by a cool picture of Stan Lee typing at an improvised stand-up desk on the terrace outside his house in the early 1950s:

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Carmine Infantino writes:

The enigma of my art is that it never fully matured. In the 1960s, as I was maturing as an artist, I stopped drawing in favor of attaining the executive positions. A good friend of mine once asked, “Why don’t you ever talk about your artwork? Why don’t you have any around your apartment?” The answer is simple: my artwork is an unfinished symphony, a painting never completed, a baby never raised.

I don’t know what direction I would have gone into had I continued to draw through my executive tenure. There were all sorts of works coming out of me at the time. I could see the growth that applying myself very differently was bringing. Right up to my becoming Editorial Director, the art was constantly growing and changing.

It was almost like someone else was controlling the work. It was gaining sophistication, but the evolution was never completed. To this day, I know not what it was to have become. Or it might not have grown any further. Considering I was working in the commercial medium of comics, it could have stopped quite naturally at that point.

[Source: Carmine Infantino, The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino: An Autobiography, second printing (Lebanon, N.J.: Vanguard Productions, 2001), pp. 172-174.]

Alex Toth · Carmine Infantino · Comics · Here, Read · Look Here

Look Here, Read: “Jacque Cocteau’s Circus of the Bizarre,” with art by Infantino and Toth

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To mark the season, here’s an old favourite of mine from Creepy #125 (February 1981): it’s “Jacque Cocteau’s Circus of the Bizarre,” with script by Roger McKenzie and amazing art by the odd couple of Carmine Infantino and Alex Toth:

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Eat your heart out, Gilbert Hernandez – LOL!