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.

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.

Modern Masters Vol. 5: José Luis García López

I just finished reading the book Modern Masters Vol. 5: J.L. García López which is basically one long interview with the legendary artist where he talks of his carrer as a comic book artist in Argentina and at DC Comics - highly reccomended.
Anyway, when he talks of superhero comics he's not exactly too excited and admits he was "uncomfortable" with the genre (!). This coming from the man who's sinonimous with DC Comics heroes and who literally defined the way they looked with the fabled DC Style Guides (man, I wish I had one of those).

But which title does he remember most fondly? DC Comics Presents? Batman? No, its: Atari Force.
Go figure.
But for those of us who consider García-López one of the best if not THE best comic book artist ever (at least at DC) this colume is invaluable. As far as I know this is the ONLY collection of work by García-López, get it while you can.

The Art of Arantza

There are scores of artists working in the field of erotic fantasy but Arantza (a woman by the way) stands head and shoulders above most of the hacks by infusing her drawings of beautiful women with life. Here is an artist that knows how to draw and knows what a woman actually looks like. This may seem like a redundant statement, but believe me, it's not. Most artists working today have little or no sense of proportion, anatomy or composition. I will not name names, but they know who they are. By using pencil tones and a brilliant use of light/dark these drawings come off almost as paintings since these are not just a collection of sketches but fully realised works. Normally I don't include images from the interior artwork of a book, but here I'll make an exception so you can see what I mean.
The Illustrations lean heavily towards the dark erotic fantasy with many drawings of nude or scantily clad vampires, witches and gothic locales.
To me, Arantza follows in the same tradition as other Spanish artists like José González, Sanjulián, Esteban Maroto, Fernando Fernandez and Enrich, all of whom were true masters of the medium. Get this one while it's still in print!

Mark Schultz: Various Drawings Vol. 1

I first became aware of Mark Schultz with a couple of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs graphic novels I bought in the 90's and was immediatly impressed with his old-school style reminiscent of Frazetta and Alex Raymond, especially in the inks. Schultz often uses an inking technique called dry brush which really lift the drawings to another level by giving them more depth and tonal variety. Included are many character sketches from Cadillacs and Dinosaurs as well as some Conan pieces and various other works. It's all in black and white but believe me, it's much better this way since one can better appreciate Schultz' skill and beautiful fluid inking. Great stuff!

The Star Wars poster book

If you're a Star Wars fan, a student of film history or just a lover of great art, this book will appeal to you. With an oversized coffe-table hardcover format, the posters are reproduced large enough to really appreciate the detail and artistry of the pieces. A very informative text accompanies the pictures and gives a detailed overview of the evolution of the movie poster as a promotional tool for the movies. However, not just movie posters are included, from both the original trilogy and prequels, also those made to promote the various tie-ins like toys, snacks and other merchandise as well as those made for special events like the Star Wars Celebration. I remember that I owned a copy of the famous Hildebrandt poster (with Leia showing a lot of leg) for Star Wars, episode IV, and thinking it was the coolest poster ever!