Welcome to another post on books about comics art…where I hone in on a small section of my shelves…select a few titles…and take a closer look…and as I have previously stated, the books are not shelved according to normal library rules…but by size rather than subject…however, they generally all have something to do with animation or comics art.
In this instance, despite the solid presence of a trio of books from the Marvel universe…I am going to start at the opposite end of the shelf with the two unjacketed books by Ronald Searle…MERRY ENGLAND ETC. and SOULS IN TORMENT . These books were bought second-hand from a dealer at a local market…and both had lost their jackets. Despite my unorthodox shelving policy…these books by an English artist happen to be shelved next to a title from another English author/artist…TAMARA DREWE by Posy Simmonds. The juxtapositional positions of the titles on the shelves throw up other amusing aspects…Posy Simmonds sitting next to Robert Crumb’s THE BOOK OF MR. NATURAL …Ronald Searle side by side with JACK COLE AND PLASTIC MAN …and Fletcher Hanks’ YOU SHALL DIE BY YOUR OWN EVIL CREATION near Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s DOCTOR STRANGE VOL.1. In the midst of these there is a journal on comics art titled COMIC ART, or comic art is… as it reads on the spine.… and at one end we have HOUDINI by Jason Lutes and Nick Bertozzi…whilst at the other end there are THE X-MEN and UNCANNY X-MEN tomes, both first volumes in a longer series…and there is another Fletcher Hanks title I SHALL DESTROY ALL THE CIVILIZED PLANETS! in the middle of it all with both of the Hanks titles introduced by Paul Karasik…but let’s return to the starting end of the row with a Ronald Searle. (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)
Ronald Searle delivers some cruel snippets of English life in his books Merry England, etc. (from 1956) and Souls In Torment …both of which feature collections of his single panel satirical cartoons…these are deftly rendered in pen and ink and left floating on the page without frames or borders. Whilst it is amusing his cartooning can be cruel. (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics) Also of English origin is a graphic novel on the countryside chronicles of rural based romantic relationships…these are displayed in Tamara Drewe …written and drawn by Posy Simmonds…whose treatment of the subject is markedly softer and less satirical than Searle’s but telling, nonetheless. (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics) In contrast to TAMARA DREWE and the English countryside I also have tales from outer space and the jungle…these by the American auteur Fletcher Hanks, mostly from the 1940s. This collection of 7 or 8 page comic strips titled YOU SHALL DIE BY YOUR OWN EVIL CREATION! is a collection of short stories…with titles Space Smith In The Battle Of The Earth Against The Martian Ogres …The Super Wizard Stardust…Whirlwind Carter Of The Interplanetary Secret Service … and Fantomah: Mystery Woman Of The Jungle , as pictured above on the cover of the book. (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics) Also of North American origin is this first volume of the collected X-MEN comics…Nos. 1-31, from 1963-67…with the creator credits Written by Stan Lee and Drawn (or designed or illustrated or layouts) by Jack Kirby. It seems from the credits that Stan was always involved but from Issue No.20 he moved away from the writing to the editing with Roy Thomas taking over the scripting. Kirby, although involved up to and including Issue No.17, had some help here and there with the pencilling, inking and lettering. (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics) Next on display are Jack Cole’s humorous and stylistic talents in JACK COLE AND PLASTIC MAN …written and celebrated by Art Spiegelman and Chip Kidd. It documents Cole’s work on the comic and some of his contributions to Playboy magazine as a staff cartoonist. The principal character, Plastic Man, was an incredibly flexible and stretchable figure in Cole’s hands…able to stretch his neck up five times the length of his body to peer over the landscape’s horizon! This ability was referred to in the comic as “polymorphously perverse plasticity.” (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics) Finally to Robert Crumb’s MR. NATURAL: Profane Tales Of That Old Mystic Madcap from Fantagraphics Books…more American work in this post, although Crumb did eventually move to France to live in 1990…so it can possibly be referred to as American comics art made in France. Essentially though it dates from the late 1960s…with comics art about the Hippy philosopher and his down-to-earth lifestyle. (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics) To complete this post is a visual reference to an issue of a high quality journal…(possibly the absolutely highest quality visually produced journal on comics art that I have ever seen)…from that big country north of Mexico, titled COMIC ART . This journal, an annual from Buenaventura Press, has been sumptuously produced in full colour on quality gloss paper. It is issue No.9 Fall 2007. Sadly, it is apparently no longer published. This issue has stunning reproductions of extracts from comic strips and informative articles about the creators and their work…and some rare historical material on the work of George Clark by Donald Phelps…the latter whom I met a a comics conference in the U.S.). I would love to find further issues of this publication! (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics) My COMICS ART posts form part of my graphic based material…this includes the fields of drawing, painting, printmaking and cartooning…including artwork for my comic and graphic novel BLOTTING PAPER: The Recollected Graphical Impressions of Doctor Comics.
(All text, photos and artwork-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).
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