Bits & Pieces of Interest

In the interest of maintaining a reasonably regular contribution to this blog, here is another "general interest" instalment.

When Mike Mignola first came to my attention, it was his spot illustrations and occasional covers, for the old Comic Book Reader fanzine and much in this style:

Looking at this drawing now, which is dated 1982 and appeared in the pages of The Adventuress fanzine, number eleven, it strikes me that there is a feeling of Frank Frazetta as drawn by Vaughn Bode, about it.

Whatever it was and as much as I admired and bought his later Hellboy stories, for me, this is the stuff that he did that still makes my heart sing!

But then, I have been told, many times, that I am odd.

Gene Day was on the cusp of greatness, when he was struck down in the prime of his life and I always wonder, how would his Batman have turned out? 

This page is from his fantastic run on Marvel Comics, 

Master of Kung-Fu and shows the level he had attained.

Robert McGinnis,

who is an extraordinary artist, with a long and illustrious career,

was spot lighted, in 2008, in a DVD documentary entitled

The Last Rose of Summer.

It stands a a rarity, being not only the only documentary about McGinnis, as far as I know but also 

because it is as rare as hen's teeth.

So, I was intrigued to discover that Stuart Ng,

book dealer extraordinary,

has one up for sale, at the moment,

for $250 US!

I feel that it is only fair to say, that having seen the film, it is a little bit lacking.  On the plus side, it is the only one of it's kind but on the flip side, it is long on scenery and short on any real insight into McGinnis' working methods.

Caveat emptor!

One of the few comic book series that I continue to buy, as they are released, is the Resident Alien stories, by Peter Hogan 

and Steve Parkhouse.

I have been a fan of Steve Parkhouse's artwork, since discovering it in the pages of the old British fanzine, Orpheus and probably, arond the same time, in Dez Skinn's reprint zine, Warrior.

(Not to be confused with the later version of Warrior, that spawned the British comic book artist and writer Invasion of the 1980's)

They are well crafted stories and I thoroughly recommend them.

Finally and just because I have always had a soft spot for his artwork and because, like Gene Day, he died way to young and way too soon, the late great Jim Holdaway, drawing Modesty Blaise.