The Art of Jeffrey Jones

Jeff Jones is an artist that I wasn't too familiar with but I became curious about his work when I saw the amount of really cool paperback covers that the he had painted in the late 60's and early 70's (check many of them out at the excellent Groovy Age of Horror blog). This hardcover coffe table sized book is the first collection of his work in such a format. His stuff had previously been only available in limited edition prints or portfolios. At first, one may dismiss Jones as one of the many Frazetta clones out there, mostly in his very early work where the influence is most obvious, but closer inspection reveals that he has a style and visual language all his own.
Jeff Jones started as a commercal artist doing covers for sf, fantasy and horror paperbacks and in the book he minces no words when he says that he plain didn't like it. Jeff Jones is an artiste, you see, who scorns anything that comes between him and his vision. OK, maybe I'm being bit sarcastic in describing Mr Jones, but it's true that he always felt uncomfortable in doing work for others, prefering instead his personal projects, many of which are loosely fantasy based, by this I mean they touch upon the mythic, likes visions of ancient warriors, prehistoric vistas and jungle heroes who may or may not be Tarzan.

An interesting part is where he briefly talks about the legendary "The Studio". A project that was comprised of Berni Wrightson, Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor Smith and Jeff Jones himself. This gathering of four of the greats of illustration has grown to become the suff of legend, mostly on the strenght of a book published by the equally legendary Dragon's Dream press. Jones states that some people thought the four of them were like The Beatles of illustration and that somehow the synergy of coming together was a because of lofty creative ambitions by the four of them. Nothing so lofty, says Jones. They simply needed a place to work and chose to pay the rent for the loft between the four of them, as simple as that. When they "broke up" three years later, was it because of internal fighting? different artistic directions? jealousy? No, the lease was up. There you have it.
In closing, this is really a very well put together book that showcases Jones' work with great full page high quality reproductions. By no means a complete catalog of his art, but an excellent overview.

Draw Comics With Dick Giordano

There are many "how to draw comics" out there, and I admit that the main reason I bought this one was because it's by comics legend Dick Giordano who has been associated with DC comics for most of his career. It's a shame that absolutley NO DC ART is featured in the book, probably because of copyright issues. It seems to me that DC should have cut Dick some slack and let him use samples of his own work using DC characters. On the plus side, it means that almost all the great art featured is previously unpublished work drawn by Dick for this book.
The book is aimed, not on those who want to learn how to draw, but those that want to learn how to draw comics, and in this Dick goes into great detail and gives you his tips and tricks from decades of experience.
His chapter on inking, called "The Art of Inking, is one of the best studies done of this dissapearing and misunderstood part of comic art. Indeed, Dick is mainly known as one of the best inkers in the business, having inked many comic classics and over the pencils of Great Ones like Neal Adams, Geore Pérez, Jose Luis García López and many others.
His (grossly underrated) pencilling is fantastic also, reminiscent of the aforementioned Neal Adams and García López but with a unique clean classic style all his own.
The sections on figure drawing offer many examples of different body and character types, showing that comic book drawing is not all super heroes. I do wish he would have gone into greater detail on the anatomy of the human figure since he hardly discusses muscle groups or skeletal structure, in this respect, a certain degree of previous drawing experience is a must.
Lastly, the sections on visual storytelleing and composition round things out quite nicely, and I daresay many of todays comic artists could benefit from the advice given in this chapter. There's even a part where Dick gives aspiring artists real advice on how to presents your portfolio and try to break into the businness, beyond the usual "practice, practice, practice".
If you don't know how to draw at all, this book may not be for you, though you will surely learn from it. If you're someone interested in drawing comics, this is invaluable and even as a Dick Giordano sketchbook it is a great example of one of the modern master of comic art.