Look Here: A Zebra illustrated picture gothic with cover art by Fernando Fernandez

17 April 201410 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

The cover is uncredited, but the moment I pulled Larksong at Dawn out of the stacks of old paperbacks at a local church sale, I knew by the signature that the illustrator was Fernando Fernández, whose “Circles Trilogy” was featured here at RCN back in 2010. Fernández had died earlier that same year, and his passing was noted, and his career celebrated, in an obituary published on the Guardian website right here.

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**ABOVE:** Agnes Russell, *Larksong at Dawn* (NY: Zebra Books, 1978), with cover art by Fernando Fernandez.

Look Here: Two more covers with art by Jeffrey Jones

15 April 201410 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

One of the following covers with art by Jeffrey Jones is pretty badly scuffed. Can you guess which one it is?

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**ABOVE:** Stanley G. Wienbaum, *The New Adam*(NY: Avon, 1969), with cover art by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** Robert E. Howard, *The Hand of Kane*(NY: Centaur Press, 1970), with cover art by Jeffrey Jones.

If I ever come across a better copy of The New Adam, I’ll probably buy it. I only purchased the battered copy that you see above at a local church sale because I couldn’t, at that moment, remember having seen one before, ever.

As for my copy of The Hand of Kane, I have to say, it’s in much better condition than the scan makes it look.

And so it goes…

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

Look Here: A classic novel with sinister cover art by Ralph McQuarrie

14 April 201410 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

Although American commercial artist Ralph McQuarrie (13 June 1929 – 03 March 2012) was perhaps best known for his work as a conceptual designer for movies and television, including the original Star Wars trilogy (1977-1983), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the original Battlestar Galactica TV series (1978), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Cocoon (1985), he was also active, especially in the 1980s, as a cover illustrator for non-movie-related SF paperbacks. Here’s an especially effective example of McQuarrie’s work in that vein, scanned by me from my very own copy of Eric Frank Russell’s Sinister Barrier:

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**ABOVE:** Eric Frank Russell, *Sinister Barrier* (NY: Ballantine, 1986), with cover art by Ralph McQuarrie.

Connections · Fine Art · Look Here · Mark English

Connections: Hans Holbein the Younger and Mark English

10 April 201410 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

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Heads Up! · Richard Corben

Heads Up: Corben Art Sale, 12 April 2014

7 April 201410 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

On Saturday 12 April 2014 at 12:00 noon CST, twenty-eight pages of original black-and-white comic art by Richard Corben will go on sale via the “Sales” page on the artist’s official website, while twenty figure drawings by Corben will go on sale via the “Figure Drawing” page.

The sale will include ten pages from Mutant World by Strnad and Corben, eight pages from the tale of Conan’s grandfather, Connacht, as written by Timothy Truman and published in Dark Horse’s Conan the Cimmerian, and all ten pages of “The Well,” adapted from Lovecraft by Corben and published in Haunt of Horror: Lovecraft.

All Mutant World pages are drawn in pen, markers, and grey pencil on 11 1/2 x 15 1/2 inch paper. All other comics pages are in Sharpie pens and Pigma pens on 11 x 17 inch paper. The figure drawings are in markers, grey pencil, and other drawing media.

The small scans that are on the Corben website here and here right now are intended for “viewing only.” Prices will be posted when the sale goes live, at which point the first person to complete the PayPal shopping cart for each page will receive that page.

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Bruce Pennington · Illustration Art · Look Here

Look Here: Five paperback covers with art by Bruce Pennington

31 March 201410 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

More scans of books selected from the piles that continually rise and fall and fall and rise again around me here in our tiny home office; the artist this time around is Bruce Pennington:

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**ABOVE:** Laurence James, *Starcross* (London: Sphere, 1974), with cover art by Bruce Pennington.

**ABOVE:** Clark Ashton Smith, *Lost Worlds: Volume 1* (Frogmore: Panther, 1974), with wraparound cover art by Bruce Pennington.

**ABOVE:** Mack Reynolds, *The Towers of Utopia* (NY: Bantam, 1975), with cover art by Bruce Pennington.

**ABOVE:** Ronald Holmes, ed., *Macabre Railway Stories* (London: Star, 1983), with cover art by Bruce Pennington.

**ABOVE:** Robert Silverberg, ed., *Alpha 5* (NY: Ballantine, 1974), with cover art by Bruce Pennington.

Bob Peak · Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Illustration Art · Look Here

Look Here: ROLLERBALL MURDER with cover art by Bob Peak

26 March 201410 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

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**ABOVE:** William Harrison, *Rollerball Murder* (London: Futura, 1978), with cover art by Bob Peak.

The artwork for the above cover, which I just scanned from the battered copy in my personal collection, is uncredited and unsigned, but the style is unmistakable — even if one didn’t already know that the image had been recycled from the Rollerball movie poster.

Finally, apropos of nothing, here’s a bit of discontinuity that I noticed: although the cover of William Harrison’s book sports the title “Rollerball Murder” (two words), the title page says it’s “Rollerball [one word]: 13 Selected Stories by William Harrison,” while the actual title of the short story upon which the movie Rollerball was based is given in two places — the contents page and the story’s title page — as “Roller Ball Murder” (three words). A mistake, or a case of the publishers wanting to have their cake and eat it? You decide.

BONUS IMAGE:

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Illustration Art · Look Here · Robert McGinnis

Look Here: Two lovely mystery covers with art by McGinnis

25 March 201410 August 2016 RC1 Comment

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**ABOVE:** Erle Stanley Gardner, *The Case of the Golddigger’s Purse* (Montreal: Pocket Books, 1963), with cover art by Robert McGinnis.

**ABOVE:** Erle Stanley Gardner, *The Case of the the Bigamous Spouse* (Montreal: Pocket Books, 1964), with cover art by Robert McGinnis.

Wish the books were in better condition, and cleaner, but cheapskates can’t be choosers. “Buy low, pile high” is my motto. Okay, not really; I just made that up. Clever turn of phrase, though. And true, all too true, too. Just ask my wife.

Art Collection · Look Here

Look Here: Original art by Michael Lark and Richard Case

18 March 201410 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

As I have mentioned in the past, I have often bought pages of original comic art based not on the name(s) of the artist(s) or on the title of the book or on the characters in the scene but on my positive reaction to and assessment of the page itself, in isolation from its proper context. What follows is one of those pages:

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The script here is by Steven T. Seagle, from a story idea by Matt Wagner, the penciller is Michael Lark, the inker is Richard Case, and the letterer is John Costanza. The page was published in Sandman Mystery Theatre #57 (December 1997). The magnificent edifice that the people construct and then are consumed by is a doppelganger of the Battersea Power Station, which was constructed in two stages beginning in 1929 and decommissioned in two stages in the mid 1970s and early 1980s: