Dark Horse Comics from Diamond Distributors for November 27 2013

DARK HORSE COMICS

SEP130047 1 FOR $1 ABE SAPIEN #1 $1.00
SEP130031 1 FOR $1 THE VICTORIES #1 (MR) $1.00
AUG130106 BEST OF COMIX BOOK WHEN MARVEL WENT UNDERGROUND HC $35.00
JUL130042 BPRD VAMPIRE TP $19.99
AUG130103 BROTHERS OF THE SPEAR ARCHIVES HC VOL 03 $49.99
SEP130023 CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT #5 $2.99
AUG130107 CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT ARCHIVES HC VOL 01 BATTLES THE NAZIS $49.99
MAY130083 CLASSIC MARVEL CHARACTERS X-MEN #3 MARVEL GIRL $49.95
SEP130072 CONAN PEOPLE O/T BLACK CIRCLE #2 $3.50
AUG130104 CRIME DOES NOT PAY ARCHIVES HC VOL 06 $49.99
SEP130057 CRIMINAL MACABRE EYES OF FRANKENSTEIN #3 $3.99
SEP120035 GOON #44 $3.50
AUG130110 GRENDEL OMNIBUS TP VOL 04 PRIME $24.99
JUL130080 HOUSE OF GOLD & BONES TP $14.99
SEP130059 ITTY BITTY HELLBOY #4 $2.99
MAR130076 MASS EFFECT 18 IN NORMANDY SR-2 SHIP REPLICA $299.99
SEP130068 MASS EFFECT FOUNDATION #5 $3.99
SEP130039 MASSIVE #17 $3.50
SEP130040 MIND MGMT #17 $3.99
JUL130070 MISTER X EVICTION TP $15.99
SEP130034 NEVER ENDING #1 (MR) $3.99
AUG130111 NEXUS OMNIBUS TP VOL 04 $24.99
AUG130071 POLAR CAME FROM THE COLD HC $17.99
SEP120049 ROBERT E HOWARDS SAVAGE SWORD #6 $7.99
AUG130109 SIGNAL TO NOISE HC $24.99
SEP130018 SLEDGEHAMMER 44 LIGHTNING WAR #1 $3.50
SEP130061 STAR WARS LEGACY II #9 $2.99

Review: Steven Heller's COMICS SKETCHBOOKS

COMICS SKETCHBOOKS: The Private Worlds of Today’s Most Creative Talents
THAMES & HUDSON, INC. – @thamesandhudson

AUTHOR: Steven Heller
DESIGNER: Ashley Olsson
ISBN: 978-0-500-28994-5; paperback
352pp, Color and Black and White; $44.95 U.S., $47.50 CAN

Steven Heller is co-chair of the MFA/Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program at New York’s School of Visual Arts. He is the author, editor, and co-editor of over one hundred books on design and popular culture. His works include Handwritten: Expressive Lettering in the Digital Age (with Mirko Ilic) and New Modernist Type (with Gail Anderson).

His latest book is Comics Sketchbooks: The Private Worlds of Today’s Most Creative Talents. A massive book (365 pages, 8.65 x 11.5), Comics Sketchbooks contains sketches, doodles, drawings, roughs, thumbnails, and even comics from some of the world’s most cutting edge and innovative artists and also some emerging talents. Over 80 artists open up their private sketchbooks and notebooks, from which Heller culled the hundreds drawings and samples that fill this fat (and phat) book. Even some artists who do not keep sketchbooks provided roughs and studies for this book.

Readers get a chance to see the thinking and planning and the experimentation, practice, and play behind the work and style of such artists as Charles Burns, Lilli Carré, Drew Friedman, David Mazzucchelli, Gary Panter, and Carol Tyler, to name a few. Readers can see into the sketchbooks of such legends as R. Crumb, Bill Griffith, Victor Moscoso, Bill Plympton, and Arnold Roth. Not every artist in this collection is specifically a comics artists, but according to Heller (in his introduction), all of them make comics as either their primary occupation or as part of their larger body of work.

Admirers, fans, and students of alternative comics and cartoonists will like Comics Sketchbooks. Still, some, like myself, may find this book missing things they wanted, which is a bit ungrateful. Why do I want more?

Obviously, Heller could not get every drawing that he wanted included in this book, for various reasons. One of the reasons is that some artists are self-conscious about opening their sketchbooks. Another reason is that some artists only actively sketch to prepare for upcoming projects, and may, in fact, discard such preliminary drawings and preparatory material once projects are completed.

So, the two pages of David Mazzucchelli just don’t seem like enough, although the sample of his typographical skills almost makes up for that. There are four pages of R. Crumb, but since Crumb has been publishing his sketchbooks and sketchbook material for four decades, the illustrations here won’t seem like anything new.

My minor quibbles aside, there is some spectacular material in Comics Sketchbooks from some major talents, known and little known. The six pages of sketches by Carol Tyler are a doorway into the wonderland that is the talent of this unheralded artist. The offerings from political cartoonist, Ann Telnaes, include several superb sketches of President Barack Obama caricatures. There is no way to prepare for the six pages of Joseph Lambert, which are crammed with drawings. I couldn’t help but return to his section several times.

It would be impractical for me to try to describe all the drawings in this book, all of it good, some of it even stunning, and even a few pieces that are (dare I say it) great. I will tempt some of you by saying that there are a few sketches in here that were proposals for covers for the magazine, The New Yorker, including one by the always fabulous Drew Friedman. This is a good book. Comics Sketchbooks: The Private Worlds of Today’s Most Creative Talents should be on comics fans’ wish lists. Steven Heller deserves some awards recognition, and certainly, at least, an Eisner nomination next year.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

www.thamesandhudsonusa.com

The artist and cartoonists included in Comics Sketchbooks: The Private Worlds of Today’s Most Creative Talents:

Sotos Anagnos, Chris Battle, Lou Beach, Kaye Blegvad, Peter Blegvad, Russ Braun, Steve Brodner, Charles Burns, Chris Capuozzo, Lilli Carré, Seymour Chwast, Colonel Moutarde, R. Crumb, John Cuneo, Vanessa Davis, Kim Deitch, Julie Delporte, Eric Drooker, Drew Friedman, Manuel Gomez Burns, Bill Griffith, Robert Grossman, Benoit Guillaume, Cyril Guru, David Heatley, Rian Hughes, Kevin Huizenga, Nathan Jurevicius, Ben Katchor, Denis Kitchen, Jakob Klemencic, Thomas Knowler, Matej Kocjan, Nora Krug, Olivier Kugler, Peter Kuper, Joseph Lambert, Brendan Leach, Etienne Lecroart, Matthias Lehmann, Martin Lemelman, David Libens, Sebastien Lumineau, Patrick McHale, Matt Madden, Javier Mariscal, David Mazzucchelli, Rutu Modan, Saxton Moore, Victor Moscoso, Joanna Neborsky, Josh Neufeld, Mark Newgarden, Vladan Nikolic, Gary Panter, Bill Plympton, Max De Radigues, Laren Redniss, Arnold Roth, Marcel Ruijters, Johnny Ryan, David Sandlin, Seth, Peter De Seve, Robert Sikoryak, Posy Simmonds, Mark Alan Stamaty, Jim Steranko, James Sturm, Joost Swarte, Takeshi Tadatsu, Ann Telnaes, Simon Tofield, Jeremy Traum, Carol Tyler, Andres Vera Martinez, Lauren Weinstein, Tracy White, Signe Wilkinson, Run Wrake, Derek Yaniger, and Danijel Zezelj

Review: THE COMPLETE RECORD COVER COLLECTION

THE COMPLETE RECORD COVER COLLECTION
W.W. NORTON & COMPANY

CARTOONIST: R. Crumb
ISBN: 978-0-393-08278-4; hardcover
96pp, Color, $25.95 U.S., $32.50 CAN

An American comic book artist, illustrator, and musician, R. Crumb (also known as Robert Crumb) is the famed Underground Comix creator known for his controversial work. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1943, Crumb is a founder of the Underground Comix movement and is its most prominent figure. Crumb also founded the seminal Underground Comix comic book series, Zap Comix.

Crumb is something of a satirist and social critic, and his work has frequently been called racist and sexist. But there are many sides to Crumb’s creativity and artistry, which is revealed in The Complete Record Cover Collection, a new hardcover Crumb art book from publisher, W.W. Norton & Company. Crumb is a prolific illustrator of record covers, having produced over 400 of them. Crumb apparently began drawing record covers in 1968 when Janis Joplin asked him to draw the cover for Cheap Thrills (1968), the second album from American rock band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, for which she was then the lead singer.

The publisher says that The Complete Record Cover Collection is the complete catalog of every record cover jacket Crumb has ever drawn, while also admitting that there could still be Crumb music-related art hidden away somewhere. Crumb mainly drew record covers for artists, new and forgotten, who performed jazz, country, old-time blues, roots, and Americana music of the 1920s and 30s. He also produced record cover art for his own musical act, R. Crumb and His Cheap Suit Serenaders.

The Complete Record Cover Collection also brings together other music related art from Crumb. The book reprints art for event flyers and posters, advertisements, magazine covers, silkscreen prints, and trading cards, among other things. Much of the work also reveals Crumb’s skill at lettering. I think the publisher would like reviewers to emphasize the record cover art in their reviews of The Complete Record Cover Collection, but I want to focus on something else.

What I like most about this book are the portraits of musicians – past and present. These drawings range in size from about 2.5” x 4” to a little larger. They are drawn with such power and faithfulness to the subjects that they seem larger. Crumb executed two such portraits of legendary R&B singer James Brown for The New Yorker in 2000. One depicts a young Brown that captures his likeness with a photographer’s touch. The other, a depiction of an older “hardest working man in show business,” is more of a cartoon, but it captures the spirit both of Brown’s public persona and of his stage performance. Crumb’s 1992 portrait of Frank Zappa (also for The New Yorker) is a sparkling psychedelic piece that encapsulates the eccentric Zappa.

These black and white ink drawings are rendered in such detail that Crumb’s cartoonish style has a kind of realism that is all his own. Crosshatching, fine line work, and solid brushwork bring these musicians to life in strange ways, making even what is familiar about them vibrant and new. This is exemplified in portraits of a smirking, older George Jones; a proud Bo Diddley, and a wired up Merle Haggard.

The Complete Record Cover Collection is about the record cover art of R. Crumb, and it is an excellent book in that regard. Its treasure, however, is the collection of portraits.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

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Review: THE SWEETER SIDE OF R. CRUMB

THE SWEETER SIDE OF R. CRUMB
W.W. NORTON & COMPANY

CARTOONIST: R. Crumb
ISBN: 978-0-393-33371-8; paperback
110pp, B&W, $17.95 U.S., $22.50 CAN

The Sweeter Side of R. Crumb is a 2010 paperback from W.W. Norton & Company that reprints various non-controversial works from the cartoonist and artist, R. Crumb (Robert Crumb). Crumb, the famed Underground Comix creator, has created comix and art that some describe as perverse, crude, cruel, nasty, vile, racist, misogynist, and just plain negative. While I would agree with those sentiments in some examples of his work, I think that American comic books would be worse off without the work of this genius.

Perhaps R. Crumb, a publicist, and/or his publisher decided it was time to show readers a less controversial, more artistic side of Crumb. The Sweeter Side of R. Crumb is a combination art book, portfolio, and sketchbook that offers an array of Crumb drawings that have nothing to do with the busty female revolutionaries, conniving funny animals, weird characters, and horny everyman’s that populate Crumb’s comic book and comix work. Also, the art here is in glorious black and white, the better to show off Crumb’s precision cross hatching and sumptuous, textured ink work.

The Sweeter Side of R. Crumb presents intimate portraits of Crumb’s family and friends as well as drawings of roots music figures – some obscure (Charlie Poole) and some fairly well known (B.B. King). This book offers marvelous landscapes from the French countryside and lovely still life drawings, and even eye-popping depictions of French alleyways and buildings. Many of these drawings may simply be work that Crumb did while quietly observing people or interior and exteriors scenes. There are even a few comic strip vignettes starring Robert and his daughter Sophie as a small child.

I look at The Sweeter Side of R. Crumb as a publication Norton is going to use to pad their R. Crumb catalog. Or maybe people who only know the controversial R. Crumb need a book like this. Even Crumb seems to suggest as much in his introduction to this book, an introduction that only seems partly tongue-in-cheek. As far as I’m concerned, I’m up for anything that will get more people to see R. Crumb’s comix and illustrations. If it means The Sweeter Side of R. Crumb, then, let’s have more.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

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Trina Robbins at Fantagraphics Bookstore October 8th

Underground Comix Legend Trina Robbins Presents The Brinkley Girls in Seattle

For over thirty years Nell Brinkley’s beautiful girls pirouetted, waltzed, vamped and shimmied their way through the pages of William Randolph Hearst’s newspapers, captivating the American public with their innocent sexuality. Accomplished cartoonist and women’s comix “herstorian” Trina Robbins examines the work of this unjustly forgotten artist in The Brinkley Girls, The Best of Nell Brinkley’s Cartoons 1913 – 1940. Robbins will present the work of this remarkable illustrator with an exhibition, slide talk and book signing at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Saturday, October 8 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM.

A brash Nell Brinkley arrived in New York in 1907 at the tender age of 22. Within a year, her work began to appear newspapers illustrating her high society gossip column. Her cartoon serials popularized the bobbed hairstyle and flapper fashions of the era, while reflecting period art nouveau and deco aesthetics. Such was her influence that the Ziegfeld Follies costumed their dancers as “Brinkley Girls.” Pop music heralded her creations and a line of hair products carried her name. As the war years approached, her comic strip serials evolved from naive romantic themes like “Billy and Betty and Their Love Through the Ages” to presenting women in less traditional roles like “Heroines of Today.” Championing the cause of better pay and conditions for workingwomen, Brinkley became an early archetype of the contemporary American woman.

Trina Robbins has long championed the work of women cartoonists. Her early underground work appeared in the groundbreaking Wimmen’s Comix anthology. In 1969 she co-created the character Vampirella for Forrest Ackerman and later collaborated with Colleen Doran on a provocative Wonder Woman series. She has written several volumes on the role of women in comix including From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of Women’s Comics from Teens to Zines. Robbins co-founded Friends of Lulu in 1994, a nonprofit organization promoting women’s readership of comics and increasing profile in the comix profession. In addition to her appearance at Fantagraphics Bookstore, Robbins will be a guest at Geek Girl Con held at the Seattle Center October 8 and 9.

The “Brinkley Girls” exhibition includes a dozen Brinkley comics pages, as well as Brinkley-illustrated sheet music, hair accessories, photographs, and related ephemera. Robbins will discuss Nell Brinkley’s fascinating career followed by an informal reception and book signing from 6:00 to 9:00 PM on Saturday, October 8 at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, 1201 S. Vale St., Seattle. Phone 206.658.0110.

This event coincides with the lively Georgetown Art Attack featuring visual and performing arts presentations throughout the historic neighborhood.

The Evolution of Sophie Crumb

I read Sophie Crumb: Evolution of a Crazy Artist

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps).

R. Crumb's Sweet Side

I read The Sweeter Side of R. Crumb

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has those FREE smart phone apps).  This is a slim collection of drawings and illustrations from the great comix creator.

Underground Comics Art Show in NYC

NYC Underground Comix Art Show "Time Capsules" Opening Party July 15th

Hour Wizdom Galleries
90 Ludlow Street (between Broome and Delancey), 4th Floor
New York City, NY 10002
Contact: hourwizdomproductions@gmail.com
212-731-9793

Opening Night Party: Thursday, July 15th, 8 PM-Midnight.
Exhibit Hours: July 16-August 1st, Wednesdays-Sundays 12-6 PM

The Hour Wizdom Gallery, Bonzai Ltd., and Jay Rogers are proud to present "Time Capsules: Original Underground Art of the 60's, 70's and Beyond...", an exhibition and sale of rare Underground Comix Original Art. The show will span an amazing range of work from many celebrated cartoonists from the Sixties to the Eighties, including: R. Crumb, Vaughn and Mark Bode, Rick Griffin, Jay Lynch, Victor Moscoso, Skip Williamson, Kim and Simon Deitch, Robert Williams, S. Clay Wilson, Trina Robbins, Justin Green, Dori Seda, Bill Griffith, Howard Cruse, Roberta Gregory, Guy Colwell, and Dan O'Neill, Shary Flenniken, Bobby London, and Gary Hallgren from The Air Pirates Studios. The gallery and exhibition open with a party on Thursday, July 15th, from 8PM until Midnight. Refreshments will be served.

Jay Rogers has been a collector and promoter of Underground Comix and art since the early Seventies. He was one of the first people to see the value and potential of Underground Art as a serious medium outside of the comics industry, and was instrumental in placing Robert Crumb's work squarely into the New York Gallery scene. His expansive collection has been used as a reference for numerous art shows and films, he has worked as a consultant for Sotheby's and Christie's Auctions, and has provided art and books to Heritage Auctions.

Supplement to "Fogel's Underground Comix Price Guide" Now Available

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