While I am working on my post for Black Tight Killers thought I would share these incredible Jim Steranko covers he did for some of Marvel’s horror themed comics. He actually redid his own covers here*. The pen and ink covers at the bottom came first for Supernatural Thrillers. Later when Marvel released a line of b/w titles under Curtis Publishing he reworked the covers in a more painterly fashion for the short lived Masters of Terror. Thought it would be nice to lay the covers out side by side and let you compare them. The design and layout stays basically the same with some slight changes from the pen and ink works to the painted covers. I really miss this style of rendering. I am not knocking the comic books artists of today who have fantastic technical prowess. The contemporary stuff I see can be as awesome in many cases and yet it lacks some  simple magic that a man like Steranko possessed. Great works from one of the true legends of comic book history.

*IMPORTANT UPDATE: Tony from thedrawingsofsteranko.com cleared up the fact that the two magazines covers at the top were not in fact painted by Steranko but most likely by either Gray Marrow or Dan Adkins. I made the assumption they were drawn by Jim Steranko and I was wrong. Thanks Tony. They are still great covers as are the original comic books at the bottom that inspired them.

Found this beautiful story drawn by Bill Everett at Pappy’s Golden Age Blogzine. I was never a big fan of the Sub Mariner comics but collected them anyway as I loved anything Marvel as a young man. I liked the run when Gene Colan was drawing them and of course loved anytime Bill Everett made a guest appearance. Everett drew many of the early Sub Mariner stories and his finely detailed and painstakingly detailed pen and ink work set him off into a class by himself when everyone else was copying Jack Kirby. I sort of new something of Namora – Aquaria Nautica Neptunia – Prince Namor’s cousin and yet do not recall ever seeing one of her stories. Her own comic book only lasted three issues – way back in the late 40′s – and her character was killed off even in Sub Mariner # 50 of June 1972. I would have still been collecting almost every issue of Marvel comics that was being produced at the time, including Sub Mariner, and probably owned this at one time but do not really remember it. But anythng is possible in the Marvel Universe and namora was ‘resurrected’ as part of the Agents of Atlas and you get the info on that at this Wiki page (thanks to my old buddy Tony who I knew when we were both living  in Seattle – a Phd. in comic book lore -  for clearing up this issue). Here are some superb samples and a link to the entire story at Pappy’s Blogzine.

Anyone who has seen any assortment of paperback or men’s magazine covers from the 40’s to 60’s has most certainly gawked in wonder at more than a few that were painted by one of the kings of the genre, Norman Saunders. Saunders was a prolific illustrator who was known for turning out high quality paintings within tight deadlines. He is most remembered for his lurid crime scene type paintings with gun totting tough guys and even tougher gals in dramatically lit poses. But he was able to handle most any design themes the magazine field including combat, westerns, science fiction and even sports illustrations. He also painted a famous series of trading cards for Topps in 1962 called Mars Attacks whose images later inspired Tim Burton to create his film of the same name. He was born Normand Blaine Sanders (he signed a lot of his work Blaine that he did outside his main job at Fawcett) in 1907. He would later drop the ‘d’ from Normand. At the age of three he suffered an accident that left him blind for six months. Luckily his sight was restored after several surgeries and he soon began drawing everything he saw, no doubt in appreciation for his restored vision. He was hired by Fawcett Publications and as the story goes he unknowingly hitched a ride with a couple bank robbers from North Dakota who had the young Saunders keep lookout for cops from the back of their Model-T. He was a hard working artist whose work did not seem to suffer from their rushed qualities. The colors are bright and lurid and the content is consistently exciting and dangerously erotic. It is the because of the work of men like Saunders that the artwork from the pulps now are treasured by collectors over what was produced in the ‘slicks’ of the same period. I could never tire of looking at stuff like this.

MORE OF THE AMAZING ARTWORK OF NORMAN SAUNDERS HERE >>

I thought I would balance my recent post on Dave Sheridan’s Tales from the Leather  Nun with another remarkable underground comic from the early 70’s, Rick Griffin’s Tales From the Tube. Griffin is maybe best known for his Grateful Dead postsers and album covers as well as his posters for many San Francisco area music and surfing events. He helped to launch the underground comic movement with his contributions to ZAP. His style was highly detailed and a discernable cut above most of his underground peer’s work. Rick was a surfer himself and Tales from the Tube his intricately drawn tribute to the surfing world. The book is drawn with all the strange mystical symbols that most all of his work contained. Some parts of the book reflect Griffin’s recent conversion to Christianity. Like Leather Nun I once owned the original comic book for Tales from the Tube and it was an awesome thing to hold in your hand once in while and flip through. I would like to be able to find a complete version of the comic book online as well as his illustrations for The Book of John project for Marantha! Music from 1970. Truly one of the greats from the period.

MORE TALES FROM THE TUBE BY RICK GRIFFIN HERE >>

Tales from the Leather Nun, along with Dealer McDope, is the comic book effort the late Dave Sheridan is best remembered for. I picked up a copy way back in 1978 or so while working at a sort of counter culture shop in Lexington Ky, around the University area. I had stopped buying Marvel and DC comics and the Warren titles were losing steam. This was my William S. Burroughs and High Times magazine period in life and it only seemed natural to start buying underground comics. Of course I loved the stuff by Robert Crumb and I picked up Tales from the Leather Nun chiefly because it featured a short four page story by Crumb in it. Sheridan did the excellent cover and the first story. All the stories were well drawn and a little over the top really even for me at the time. But it was one of the treasures of my old comic book collection and I am happy to present a few sample pages. I picked up a copy in a batch download of underground titles and really did not expect to get something like this in the assortment of titles. The stories are irreverent but in that sort of satirical, almost inoffensive 70’s style. Hope you enjoy this glimpse into one really unique and perverted comic book.

MORE TALES FROM THE LEATHER NUN HERE >>

As a follow up to my last post I did find a file at Megalupload for the new Robert Crumb comic book called The Book of Genesis Illustrated. I broke the file up into three parts and put it up at my Rapidshare site. Those links are posted below and you can see some sample pages if you open the ‘More’ tag. I did not do the scans and left the credit page for Jojo the scanner. The book is a wonder to behold and anyone a little familiar with the Book of Genesis will see that Crumb kept pretty true to the story though he did take some graphic liberties with the illustrations. Not that that offends me. I am not a Christian but I do not loathe or detest the religion and find there to be many beautiful metaphors and ideas in the Bible. Of course there are some carnal and violent moments in the book as well and Crumb does not winch in his depictions of these events. A great comic book and the links are here. Of course if I were in the states I would go out and buy the book and recommend that you buy it as well. But it is impossible to get the book in China and I cannot afford the murderously high import shipping and handling charges China latches on places like Amazon. The S&H would probably be double the price of the book and the chances of it being stolen along the way are fairly high. So I snagged it for free and unless you are afraid of the wrath of Jehovah then you can do the same.  However you do it just check out this artistic marvel that took four years to complete  from the truly gifted Robert Crumb.

GET RAPIDSHARE LINKS AND VIEW 12 SAMPLE PAGES FROM ROBERT CRUMB’S BOOK OF GENESIS HERE >>

Most people are probably more aware of the excellent 1995 Robert Crumb documentary by Crumb’s friend and bandmate Terry Zwigoff. That is a film and I was lucky enough to get to see it in one of Seattle’s little art house cinema’s back when I lived there. Less well known but easier to watch than Zwigoff’s often depressing exploration of Crumb’s dissatisfaction with American culture (he is moving to France with wife Aline Kominsky in the film which he considers a nation “slightly less evil than America”) is the one hour documentary produced by the BBC’s Arena Films. Crumb wrote the script for Confessions and the film is full of historical footage and cynical insights but is also a lighter look at the cartoon legend. Like Zwigoff’s film Confessions explores Crumb’s dubious acceptance of his role as a comic book icon and looks at some of the minutiae of his daily life with Aline on a farm. If you’re a fan of the guy’s work then this is a documentary you will want to see. After I moved away from buying and reading the super hero stuff by Marvel decades ago it was the natural progression of events to get into the stuff by Crumb and his peers. I cannot go on enough about how the guy’s work thrills me in terms of his technique and his writing style. His most recent contribution to illustrated stories is a verse for verse comic book rendering of the book of Genesis which is causing a stir amongst religious fundamentalists for its adult themed interpretation of the Biblical book. He spent four years on the project and I have yet to see it but am trying to find a version of it online.  A fascinating personality and talented artist.

SEE THE COMPLETE BBC CONFESSIONS OF ROBERT CRUMB HERE >>