Jeff Jones & Vaughn Bode

Following on, from my last post, 

we come to the cover of Warren's Vamirella, issue four and 

another stunning collaboration but this time, 

Vaughn combined his talent with Jeff Jones.

The image above, shows the colour scheme of the printed cover, the one that I fell in love with, way back in the early Seventies, when I first saw it.

This, is the actual painting!

Which is also lovely but it was quite a shock to discover that, at least a part of the painting that I had fallen in love with, never existed and was a function of someone in the Warren Empire's Graphics department!

The wonderful thing about the Internet, at least for me, is the amazing dissemination of information, which allows GEEKS like me, to indulge their curiosity, to the MAX!

Larry Todd & Vaughn Bode

I was reminded, the other day, of the artistic collaborations of 

Larry Todd & Vaughn Bode 

and how much I had loved that artwork!

This was used by Jim Warren, as the front cover for his Vampirella magazine, issue number three and it 

still lightens my heart, every time I look at it.

Interestingly, this photograph, of Larry and Vaughn, was taken at about the same time that they painted the cover, which would make it around 1969 or 1970.

Larry and Vaughn combined their talents quite a few times and the results were always colourful and interesting.  Here are a few of their efforts:

Vaughn also collaborated on paintings with Jeff Jones but that is a subject for another posting.

Larry Todd went on, later in life, to be a carnival hoarding painter and in 2012, he was briefly interviewed about his occupation:

larry todd carnival painter

and this is how he looked then

at the age of 64.

As far as I can tell, in searching the Web, Larry is a still alive and kicking but whether or not, he is still a working artist, is open to question.

Larry Todd is now 71 years old and had Vaughn managed to escape his fate and survive the "experiment" that ended his life, in 1975, he would be 78!

Sometimes I like to wonder and imagine, all that has been lost.

Time Changes Everything

I have waffled around the subject many times, as I have bored my all but non-existent readership with my my blather but the truth is that after almost fifty years, as a dyed in the wool comic book collector, I think it might just be time to accept that I no longer feel the passion for comic books that I once did.

It is a sad moment for me 

because for most of my life, my relationship with comic books and the collecting mania they spawned, 

defined my life... and now it doesn't!

With this being the forty third anniversary of 

The Silver Snail, 

it has brought into sharp focus for me, 

the fact that I haven't actually been a regular visitor to the store, in almost a quarter of a century!

What was once a dire necessity, that burning desire for the latest batch of comic books, on New Comic Book Day, has faded into an almost once a month, wander through Toronto and the few remaining second hand book shops.

The comic books don't speak to me anymore.

The stories that they tell and the motivations of the characters within them, are all alien to me and where I once haunted the shelves, looking for comics that would catch my interest, these days I barely glance at them!

It is, I have to concede, time that I left it to the younger crowd and concentrated my efforts on remembering the old days and documenting them for anyone who might be interested.

So far, my interest in cartooning and the art of making comic strips and comic books, continues to be a passion.

So, there is the subject matter that I will try to write about, hopefully in a manner that enlightens and entertains.

Edwards Books of Toronto

Once upon a time, 

when Queen Street West, here in Toronto, 

was a great place, chock full of book stores 

and I loved it!

Edwards Books, had a great art book section and I spent many a happy hour there, in the mid-Eighties.

Then, everything began to change and Edwards Books closed, along with a lot of other book stores on the strip.

So, this is my "Thank You" to Edwards Books, as I recently found one of their bookmarks, tucked in between the pages of a book.

George Barr and the days of my youth

Forty years ago, when I was a much younger and much more impressionable, I fell under the spell of the magical art of 

George Barr.

Within a couple of years, I also got a chance to see the wonderfully camp, Flesh Gordon, probably at the Nova Con of 1977 but I cannot be certain!

There were four artists, in the Fantasy and SF fanzines of the time, that I really took to and George was one of them.  The others were Alicia Austin, Stephen Fabian and the amazing Tim Kirk.

In the years since 1977, I have been fortunate enough to meet George Barr and by an illustration from him, when he attended the Winnipeg WorldCon, in 1994.

I also met Alicia Austin, at the Boston WorldCon, in 1980.

Stephen Fabian... well he was just a casual e-mail acquaintance and we only wrote to each other once. But I did manage to tell him, how much his artwork had meant to me.

The central theme, of my addiction to the art of the fantastic and the cartooning of comic books, has always been the almost sensual effect that those works have had upon me.

I LOVE them and they have have always been there for me, like the best of friends, ready to help me cope with the everyday problems and disappointments, that the world drops on us all... from time to time.

Although his work was introduced to me, in a slightly different way but still, through the association I had with Dave Holmes and 

The Andromeda Bookshop,

Vaughn Bode and his smart assed, foul mouthed character, 

CHEECH WIZARD

were an integral part of the mix too.

Last but most assuredly, not least, was the stunning artwork of the amazing Richard Corben and his wonderful underground comic book, Fantagor.

There are many, many more artists, that have left an impression on me and I will write about them all, given enough time and motivation.

The Nuts and Bolts of Drawing Cartoons and Comic Books

I have been a collector of comic books, art books and just about any books that professed to be able to make me into the Cartoonist, that I always wanted to be.

As you might imagine, over the course of the last fifty years, I have amassed a rather large collection and these days, when I go looking for items, that I know I own, I spend a lot of time just trying to find them.

There was a sense of guilt, even after I retired, in spending time, unproductively and it has taken me five years to get over it.

These days, with an eye to my own mortality, knowing that there are fewer years ahead of me, than there are behind me, I have had an epiphany... if I don't enjoy the collection and actively pursue rereading the books that I own, 

THEN WHAT IS THE POINT IN OWNING THEM?

A good case in point, would be the volumes written by 

Scott McCloud:

Understanding Comics and Making Comics.

I bought my copy of Understanding Comics, when it was first published, way back in 1993 and I was rather disappointed in it, at the time, because it didn't give me what I was looking for... the quick and easy secrets to being able to draw comic books, like the cartoonists that I admired.

It has taken me 25 years to realize, that all of the information, that I have laboriously dug up for myself, by dissecting comic book techniques, was already given to me, right here in this book and I was just too blind, back then, to see it!

Making Comics, for some reason, perhaps my disappointment over Understanding Comics, was a much later addition to my collection but once again, the insightful Scott McCloud has been miles ahead of me, at every point and has already answered questions that have only just occurred to me.

There are many more, similar volumes, in my collection and one of the earliest of them was

Alan McKenzie's, How to Draw and Sell Comic Strips...

which has been a steady companion, ever since I found it, on the shelves of the now, long gone, World's Biggest Bookstore, here in Toronto.

One of the best parts about the book, was that much of the art, done for demonstration purposes, was executed by the very talented Steve Parkhouse.

I can heartily recommend all three books, to any aspiring comic book cartoonist and I wish you all well, on your own quests to draw like a professional.

R C Harvey & Zero Hero, Part Two

I promised this material, quite a while ago and I kept on failing to get around to it...

Procrastination, is my biggest sin!

Zero Hero the Second Strip

Zero Hero the Third Strip

Zero Hero in RBCC 150th Issue

And there you have it!

R C Harvey was a great cartoonist and I wish he was still making them but those are the breaks and after years of plugging away, one day, he just decided that he had enough and went into writing full time.

Thank you R C for all you gave us.