Stuart Immonen Draws a Comic Book Panel

 One of my personal recommendations, to any aspiring Comic Book artist, is that along with studying the old masters of the form, like Joe Kubert, Alex Toth and Will Eisner, it would also be beneficial, to study the work of Stuart Immonen.

Stuart managed to alienate me, a couple of years ago, with a very unnerving and brusque response to something I said to him but that doesn't stop me from admiring his skills as a graphic storyteller.

This example, in a step by step mode, I discovered, posted by someone else, just the other day but the good stuff, deserves to be re posted and this is definitely, good stuff.

Stuart has been a solid comic book professional, for around thirty odd years and the fact the ha has "stepped back" from the drawing table, in the last couple of years, is a shame.

I really enjoyed his short series, written by Mark Millar, Empress but it was over too soon.

The last book that Stuart worked on, was Plunge, written by Joe Hill.  Horror styled stories, while I have enjoyed a few, are not really my thing and while I bought the series and read it, I was less than overawed by it.

I wait, with anticipation, to see what he will do next.

Gino D'Achille and Yvonne De Carlo

 When I was around 17 years old, I read a slew of the Gor books, written by John Norman.

Back then, I don't remember if he was already a target, of the Women's Liberation movement and truthfully, I wouldn't have cared but when I tried to reread one of the books, a couple of years ago, I was appalled at my younger self's acceptance of some of the sexist subject matter.

When I was 17 and still a virgin, the idea of being a dominant macho man, manhandling beautiful women, had a certain appeal but as an older man, who has lived in the world, I found the explicit idea, that women were like paper tissues, to be used and discarded, to be repugnant and I just about threw the book across the room! LOL

That being said, John Norman was Lucky enough to have his book covers illustrated by some very fine artists and they made the books look fantastic and readable.

One of those artists, was the late Gino D'Achille and he painted this cover.  Which only goes to prove that good works of art, start with good reference images!

Which, as I discovered, was based on one of the movie stills, used to advertise the British Movie, of 1951, Hotel Sahara and showed off the fantastic body of the young Yvonne De Carlo.

A few years later on, Yvonne would become better known for her role of Lily Munster, on the TV show "The Munsters".

Jeff Jones and his Iguana

 I remember this cover of Nightmare and I always thought that the "attitude" or pose, of the flying Dragon/Lizard, was a bit off 

What I didn't know, was that Jeff Jones had an Iguana, for at least, long enough to use it as a reference, when he painted this cover.

The Internet, is a boon to a comic book/Illustration geek, like me!

Michael Golden aka The Reclusive One, Talking About Comic Book Making

 In the back pages, of three out of the four, Image Comics issues of Michael Golden's, SpartanX, the man himself put these pages, about  his approach to making comic books.

Starting with SpartanX Issue #2

Then SpartanX, Issue 3

And finally, SpartanX, issue 4

Truthfully, I was, upon searching the Net for any trace of these pages, surprised that they were nowhere to be found...hopefully, this will be a help to any students of the art form.

And also, hopefully, the Master, Mister Golden, will not be displeased by this post.