miércoles, 27 de mayo de 2009

Sanjulian - art book

Manuel Pérez Clemente, better known by his artistic name of Sanjulian, is known by most for his incredible covers of Warren comics in the 1970's, and like José González, was one of many latin artists employed by Warren at the time. His covers for Vampirella were his most famous and have become almost iconic. Unfortunately none of these covers are reproduced here. Equally unfortunate is that the format of this small book is woefully inadequate to appreciate the work of this great master of the fantastic. The book, almost a pamphlet really, is barely 8.5 inches tall by 5.5 inches wide. The good news is that it's full color throughout (except for the black and white drawings, of course) and it's printed on heavy stock.
But enough complaining, let's see what we do get. 32 pages, 23 color pieces and 10 black and white drawings from a very wide variety of themes. From the usual sword and sorcery to comic book pinups and even some Star Wars. As far as I know, Sanjulian was never an interior comic artist so the drawings included are probably commission pieces. Vampirella fans will be glad to know that she is represented with two excelent drawings,both of which I have scanned and present here, click for larger versions.The rest of the art shows Sanjulian's work from various book covers and some advertising work. I can only assume that is the case because there is no text at all that tells us anything about the art. Not a caption, nothing. What's worse is that most of the art is not presented in full page format but instead has a rather large colored border around it making the art smaller than the already small format of the book. I have presented the scans without the useless border here of course, as it should be. Why they chose to do this is beyond me. Big Wow publishing, who published this book, really dropped the ball here. I'm still waiting for a large format hardcover edition of Sanjulian's work like the previously reviewed Art of Jeffrey Jones, that will really do justice to this amazing and underappreciated artist. An edition which showcases his Warren covers as well as his more personal works. We'll have to wait and see if any publisher is up to the task. There are a couple of other Sanjulian artbooks which I will review later on, but these are also not up to the standard that this artist deserves.

lunes, 18 de mayo de 2009

Femmes de Rêve - José González

This long out of print French publication from 1978 is, I believe, the ONLY compilation of the late great José González's work, and please somebody correct me if I'm wrong since I would love to know that there is another book out there.
José "Pepe" González, as many of you may know, sadly passed away earlier this year (2009) at the age of 70. He is best known by comic book fans as one of the best (or THE best in my opinion) artists for Warren's Vampirella comic magazine that was published during the late 60's, all through the 70's and the early 80's. José's knack for drawing beautiful women came in handy while drawing the scantily clad Vampirella but always with a touch of class that is sadly lacking in many of today's hack artists who couldn't draw a well proportioned woman if they're life depended on it, but I digress.
Femmes de Rêve (Dream Women) is not by any means a definite overview of the spanish artist, but it does a good job of giving us a bit of everything that was the art of José González. It starts with 4 page "Women in Jail" story with a SF twist at the end called Trop, C'est Assez which may or may not be a reprint from a Warren comics story (it has a certain 1984-ish feel to it, though it may be from Creepy, Eerie or even a backup story from Vampirella comics).
It continues with a series of sexy/humorous one panel drawings with pretty girls and then a Warren Vampirella reprint - Rêve Attristant (Sad Dream), the whole 10 page story where we see José at the top of his game - great stuff. Then a portfolio section with an interesting cross section of art from various genres.
The next full story is the longest in the book - Herma a full length color comic where the titular character, Herma, gets herself into a series of situations where she frequently has to disrobe. In fact there are naked ladies in just about every page of this story. I've never heard of this comic or this character, but like most of this book it probably appeared originally somewhere else. Here's a panel from the story:
The book ends in a grand fashion with the absolutely stunning 6 page romance tale Au-Delà de l'Aube (Beyond the Dawn), a black and white story with the some of the best art I've seen from José. The story is incredibly simple but that's not important, the thing here is the mood that the artist creates with his drawings. José González inking style is one that I've always admired, and I'm almost certain that he ALWAYS inked his own stuff. His incredibly controlled, yet fluid line and his mastery of light and shadow is something to behold. Feast your eyes on the splash page and an interior page and see why José González is a legend, click for larger versions.
If you want to read a very interesting article about José González's Vampirella art, check out these links at the excellent Groovy Age of Horror blog here and here.