Connections: Brunner, Jones, Simonson

12 December 2022 RCLeave a comment

**ABOVE:** Howard the Duck #1 (Jan 1976), with cover art by Frank Brunner.

**ABOVE:** Jeffrey Catherine Jones, “Dragon Slayer,” oil painting originally commissioned, and then rejected, for the January 1982 issue of National Lampoon. It was published as a print by Glimmer Graphics in 1992.

**ABOVE:** National Lampoon, vol. 2, no. 42 (Jan 1982), with cover art by Walt Simonson.

The love triangle between the knight, the damsel, and the dragon depicted in both the Jones painting and the Simonson cover is oddly, unintentionally, wryly symbolic. As many comics fans know, Walt Simonson’s wife, Louise, had previously been married to Jeffrey Jones. Jeffrey and Louise had met at college in 1964, married in 1966, and eventually divorced some time in the early 1970s, or so it has been vaguely reported. Meanwhile, Louise Jones apparently met Walt Simonson in 1973, they began dating in 1974, and they married in 1980. Thus, in a sense, Jones was the knight who lost the damsel to the dragon, and what’s more — adding insult to injury, so to speak — failed to win the competition, if one may refer to it as such, with Simonson to have work published on the cover of National Lampoon. Or maybe Jones suggested Simonson for the job when his (Jones’s) painting was rejected. That’s a nice thought, though I have zero evidence to back it up…

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

Look Here: Four more early 1970s SF covers with art by Charles Moll

21 June 201310 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

This morning, let us give thanks to the gods themselves for churches that organize used-book sales:

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**ABOVE:** Isaac Asimov, *The Gods Themselves* (New York: Fawcett, n.d.), with cover art by Charles Moll.

**ABOVE:** Poul Anderson, *Virgin Planet* (New York: Warner, 1973), with cover art by Charles Moll.

**ABOVE:** John Brunner, *The Whole Man* (New York: Ballantine, 1973), with cover art by Charles Moll.

**ABOVE:** Robert Silverberg, ed., *New Dimensions III* (Scarborough, ON: New American Library of Canada, 1974), with cover art by Charles Moll.

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

Look Here: Three paperback covers plus with art by Don Ivan Punchatz

16 May 201311 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

“Don Ivan Punchatz — Don Ivan’s ability to touch men with acrylic and melt them into beasts, or touch beasts with oil and ink, and voila, they are senators or brokers is endlessly stunning. Metaphor, after all, is the universal language and Don Ivan Punchatz could teach at Berlitz.”
— Ray Bradbury

BONUS IMAGES:

The covers displayed above were scanned by me from books in my own collection; the covers displayed below were not:

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

Look Here: Three SF covers with art by Powers, one with art by Schoenherr

13 June 201210 June 2022 RCLeave a comment

Today RCN has got four freshly scanned selections from my personal archive of disintegrating SF paperback pulp for your viewing pleasure:

I don’t know much about John Schoenherr’s career in illustration, but I must say, Schoenherr’s painting for the 1961 Ace edition of Brunner’s Meeting at Infinity is a surreal stunner that even the universally acknowledged king of surreal SF cover art himself, Richard Powers, must have envied when he first laid eyes on it. For a minute or two. Maybe.

To view all of the scans of covers with art by Richard Powers that I’ve posted here at RCN, click here. And don’t forget to click the “Older posts” link when you get to the bottom of the page.

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Illustration Art · Leo and Diane Dillon · Look Here · Obituaries

Rest in Peace: Leo Dillon (1933 – 2012)

29 May 201211 August 2016 RC1 Comment

In a post on the Tor.com blog dated 29 May 2012, Irene Gallo announced the passing of Leo Dillon, one half of the legendary husband-and-wife illustration team of Leo and Diane Dillon. Leo was 79 years old.

Here, in remembrance of Leo Dillon, is a teeny-tiny sampler from the magnificent body of work the Dillons created together (although the Tolstoy cover from 1961 is just signed “Dillon,” so I suppose it might just be rare example of a solo cover illustration by Leo; yes, Leo and Diane were married in 1957, but my understanding is that they didn’t immediately begin to do all of their illustration work as a team); the covers have been scanned by yours truly, from books in my own collection:

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Not that it matters, but I have to say 1) that Who’s in Rabbit’s House? is one of my favourite children’s books of all time, and 2) that my enduring affection for the book is entirely due to the Dillon’s expressive character designs and sly, energetic, innovative staging of the story.

To view all of the covers with art by Leo and Diane Dillon that I’ve posted so far here at RCN, click here.

BONUS IMAGE:

From an online auction, here’s a scan of Leo and Diane Dillon’s original art for the cover of John Brunner’s The Traveler in Black:

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Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Illustration Art · Leo and Diane Dillon · Look Here

Look Here: Four Ace SF Specials, with cover art by Leo & Diane Dillon

25 August 201011 August 2016 RCLeave a comment

More scans from the library of you-know-who:

leo-diane-dillon_the-silent-multitude_ny-ace-1969 — **ABOVE:** D. G. Compton, *The Silent Multitude* (New York: Ace, 1969), with cover art by Leo & Diane Dillon.

leo-diane-dillon_the-jagged-orbit_ny-ace-1969 — **ABOVE:** John Brunner, *The Jagged Orbit* (New York: Ace, 1969), with cover art by Leo & Diane Dillon.

leo-diane-dillon_the-island-under-the-earth_ny-ace-1969 — **ABOVE:** Avram Davidson, *The Island under the Earth* (New York: Ace, 1969), with cover art by Leo & Diane Dillon.

leo-diane-dillon_and-chaos-died_ny-ace-1970 — **ABOVE:** Joanna Russ, *And Chaos Died* (New York: Ace, 1970), with cover art by Leo & Diane Dillon.

To view all of the scans of covers by Leo and Diane Dillon that I’ve posted so far, click here.

Book/Magazine Covers (All) · Book/Magazine Covers (Jones) · Illustration Art · Jeffrey "Jeff" Catherine Jones · Look Here · Samuel R. Delany

Look Here: Ten more paperback covers by Jeffrey Jones

5 February 201011 August 2016 RC4 Comments

The original reproduction on many of the following covers by Jeffrey Jones, all from the library of yours truly, was very poor, so my scans are sometimes not the best here. One exception is the last cover, Twilight of the Serpent, which actually showcases Jones’s artwork in more detail and with more lively colour than does the rather dour reproduction on the back cover of publisher Underwood-Miller’s lavish hardcover, The Art of Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** Robert Silverberg, ed., *Earthmen & Strangers* (New York: Dell, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** A. E. Van Vogt, *The Book of Ptath* (New York: Paperback Library, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** Samuel R. Delany, *The Jewels of Aptor* (New York: Ace, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, *The Incomplete Enchanter* (New York: Pyramid, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** Peter Saxon, *The Curse of Rathlaw* (New York: Prestige Books, 1968), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** Richard Meade, *The Sword of Morning Star* (New York: Signet, 1969), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** Frank Brunner, *Bedlam Planet* (New York: Ace, n.d.), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

**ABOVE:** Peter Valentine Timlett, *Twilight of the Serpent* (New York: Bantam Books, 1977), with cover by Jeffrey Jones.

My favourites this time around are the covers for The Curse of Rathlaw (1968), an early effort in which Jones’s attractive design for the vignette is nicely reinforced by the typography, and Twilight of the Serpent (1977), a later cover which displays Jones’s hard-won skills as a draftsman (or draughtsman, if you prefer), mastery of lost-and-found edges in oil painting, and increasing willingness in the 1970s and early 1980s to produce images that went against the grain of traditional heroic fantasy.

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

Look Here: Four more covers by Paul Lehr

21 January 201011 August 2016 RC2 Comments

**ABOVE:** Arthur C. Clarke, *The Deep Range* (New York: Signet, 1964), with cover by Paul Lehr.

**ABOVE:** Keith Laumer and Gorden R. Dickson, *Planet Run* (New York: Berkley, 1967), with cover by Paul Lehr.

**ABOVE:** John Brunner, *More Things in Heaven* (New York: Dell, 1973), with cover by Paul Lehr.

**ABOVE:** Keith Laumer, *Night of Delusions* (New York: Berkley, 1974), with cover by Paul Lehr.

The 1964 edition of The Deep Range by Arthur C. Clarke with the cover by Paul Lehr is a pretty cool find, I think. It’s a pity the artwork is obscured by the title, etc., but the book is in excellent condition, so it scanned fairly nicely, and of course, it is instructive to compare it with Lehr’s later covers, which, unlike The Deep Range, typically combine highly saturated colours with a strict adherence to traditional colour schemes.