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.

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.

The Art of Rudy Nebres

In case you haven't heard of him, Rudy Nebres is one of the many Filipino artists that were employed in the American Comics industry during the 60's and 70's. I came to know him from his work in Warren's Vampirella and was immediately drawn to his fluid and expressive line and mastery of the "feathered brush" inking technique.
This book is not an overview of his work in Warren, Marvel or DC, but rather a collection of black and white pinups that showcase his unique style. Some are pencil drawings while others are inked with only the cover and back cover having color. This is really not that bad since Rudy's art works better in black and white. The subject matter is mainly fantasy with many drawings of Conan, Red Sonja, Tarzan and a variety of scantily clad women with a bit of nudity here and there, but not much.

Children of Hurin for Christmas

Received The Children of Hurin for Christmas. Will start reading it as soon as I finish Rogue Angel - Destiny. Also, I just finished reading The Thirteenth Tale on december 24th.

A Song of Ice and Fire

Unless you're new to the world of fantasy fiction you will no doubt have heard of and more than likely even read George R.R. Martin's epic series A Song of Ice and Fire. And when I say "epic" I'm not kidding, each of the 4 tomes published to date is well into the "doorstopper" category as has come to be the norm in the fantasy genre.
Instead of writing a review of the series, I'd like to discuss the many things that set this series apart from others. No spoilers ahead.
1) Martin takes it seriously. Though the tale is set in the usual imaginary medieval setting, there is very realistic feel to the series, it almost reads like historical fiction with plenty of political intrigue and warfare.
2) No quest for a magic object. Perhaps the most overused of all the fantasy clichés, the search for some magic sword/amulet/you-name-it, that will solve all the world's problems once it's found. I really can't believe authors are still (mis)using this tired old plot device.
3) Magic is used sparingly. There is magic in the series, but it doesn't take center stage. In this way when it does make an appearance, it's impact is even greater than it would be if characters were casting spells left and right.
4) No farm boy that becomes a great wizard/warrior. Though there are characters that start out small and then go out do heroic things, this really is not what this story is about.
5) Realistic characters. Perhaps the single most praised aspect of this series is the incredible cast of characters that Martin has assembled to populate his epic. At the top of most everyones list of favorites is Tyrion Lannister, the prince with a small body but a giant mind. There are no clear cut heroes and villains here, just shades of grey like in real life.
For those few who have not read the series I of course reccomend it highly, but be warned, the series is not even close to being finished. The series was originally planned for six books but the fourth novel - A Feast for Crows was deemed too long and was cut in half for publication, so there will now be seven and maybe more books in total. Mr. Martin is also in no hurry to finish them so we're all in for a long wait.

Daughter of the Blood

I just finished reading Anne Bishop's Daughter of the Blood, book 1 of the Black Jewels Trilogy and found it a somewhat interesting read though not exactly my cup of tea.
This debut novel by Anne Bishop is quite popular and paved the way for the rest of the series which is comprised not only of the initial trilogy but additional novels and stories set in the Black Jewels world.
For a debut novel Bishop avoids most if not all of the fantasy clichés like the magic sword/ring/whatever and the quest for said magical object. Also mising are elves, trolls or goblins leaving the story centered around more or less human characters, which in this case is a good thing, believe me.
The story centers around a 12 year old girl who shows signs of becoming the most powerful witch ever and the power struggles of those around her as they strive to sway her one way or another knowing what she will be when she grows up.
The one big problem I had with this book is that it reads too much like a romance novel with prose that tries to evoke a lot of ardous longing and sensous feelings as is the case (I suppose, since I've never read a romance novel) in romanctic fiction. The very fact that this book is praised highly over at Romantic SF & Fantasy Novels should prove my point.
Many have described this novel as dark fantasy or even fantasy horror, but quite frankly I don't see it. Sure, there a couple of grisly scenes here and there but I found it quite tame as a whole. Also, three of the main characters are called Saetan, Daemon and Lucivar (I kid you not), though they are nowhere near as evil as their namesakes.
The book is quite well written as a whole and I suppose if you like a lot of romance mixed in with your fantasy this may be the book for you.
The edition I read was the mass market paperback version (cover shown above) but a newer trade paperback version was published this year with a much cooler cover (at right).