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.