Having tried my hand at digital art with Photoshop, I have to say that I really…REALLY admire the hell out of artists who work well with it.  OK..I’m no trained artist but I’m still mesmerized by the technique when someone can master it.  One of those who has truly mastered digital art is Bruce Colero.  SQP has just released Heavenly Bodies:  The Art of Bruce Colero.  It’s my first time seeing his art and I was absolutely blown away.  Digital truly requires a whole different approach than traditional artwork.  The enhancements of light, shadow, and the use of color is so integral to digital art.  Bad technique stands out like a sore thumb while masterful technique is dazzling.

This 48 page collection is full color and shows off Colero’s vast talent with the female form.  The themes range from fantasy, to Sci-Fi, to horror and to comic books, each page featuring Colero’s dynamic artwork.  One painting that strikes you right off the bat is “And Lead us into…”  This piece shows off a striking female demon, nude but with flames swirling about her body in all the strategic places.  Now you really have to pay attention to the flames here.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen flames in a piece of art look as real as they do in this painting.  The coloring, the shape…you can almost see the flames moving around her body.  It’s a brilliant piece of art!

Another magnificent example is “Rio” showing a nude blond, with her back to the viewer, wading into knee-high water on a beach as the sun sets in the background.  The coloring and shading is just unbelievable.  You look at how the sun reflects off the water’s gentle ripples and you wonder how Colero manages to be so precise and so accurate in his rendering of this paradise.  The female form has rarely looks this good, even if it is a bit exaggerated in its perfection.

Highlighting the book for me is the inclusion of several well known subjects such as Lady Death, Vampirella, Elektra, and The Black Cat.  The Black Cat is perhaps my favorite piece in the entire book.  She sits crouched upon a building’s ledge, contemplating her next move but poised for action.  This is one piece of art that would like great on your wall.  “Heavenly Bodies” is a collection that any fan of pin-up or glamour art should own.  SQP has delivered another outstanding art collection!

Few things bring me as much joy as a new collection of art from the clown princes of naughty, Fastner & Larson.  Good ol’ Sal Q has unleashed Tricks & Treats on fans of pin-up, the latest collection from the duo, all in gorgeous full color!  The cover tells the whole story here as the gorgeous hottie is passing out candy to the eager trick-or-treaters, but take a look down by her feet…it seems as if some little ghoul or goblin has decided to go in search of his own special treat under her dress.  This is what these guys do better than anyone else…hot babes laced with naughty, yet fairly harmless humor.  In this regard they are really a throwback to some of those great pinup artists of the 50’s and 60’s such as Art Frahm.

As you might gather from the title, this is a themed collection with an emphasis on monsters and horror, and of course, gorgeous women.  All of the pieces in the book are titled.  A favorite early on is “There Goes Tokyo” as a miniature Godzilla blasts a jet of fire at the read end of a schoolgirl who has bent over to pick up one of her books.  There again is the patented F & L humor on display.  “Party at Monster Beach” features the Wolf Man battling the Creature from the Black Lagoon, with the winner getting the scantily-clad girl firmly in the Wolf Man’s grip.  What happens when you eat “Too Much Candy?”  You get put over the knee of a pumpkin-headed scarecrow and get a good spanking on your backside, that’s what!  That one is just great!

Spankings and bondage are a central theme throughout the book, and the fans of Fastner & Larson wouldn’t have it any other way.  Another great spanking piece shows a tiny little sprite or pixie holding a BIG paddle and ready to deliver the punishment to the very cute, human-sized blonde.  Another favorite piece is “Clawfoot Tub” showing a woman enjoying a nice hot soak in the bathtub, oblivious to the eye and tentacle poking out of the water.  In all the book is 48 pages with cover-to-cover full color.  One of the best books yet from Fastner and Larson and SQP!

If you’ve never seen one of Insight Editions books on films you don’t know what you are missing.  These are not just books that you read, but they are the next best things to actually seeing the films.  You actually can experience the movie through words and pictures but also through the dozens of little surprises that pop out at you as you journey through the pages.  The smash Broadway hit musical Hairspray came to the big screen in July to rave reviews from both film critics and fans alike.  Newspapers and magazines such as the Boston Globe, Chicago Sun Times, Entertainment Weekly, New York Post, and Rolling Stone all gave the film a grade of an A or an A-.  It just proves that film fans still love a good musical when its done right.

In conjunction with the film, Insight Editions has released their wonderful book that brings the film home to fans in a unique way.  Beginning with a foreword by John Waters, the book explores the making of the film from the original version, to the stage, and finally this Summer’s blockbuster re-make, all in full, bold color.  The book contains literally hundreds of photos from the film as well as exclusive, behind-the-scene shots of cast and crew.   John Travolta not only plays the most unique role in his illustrious career as Mama Edna, but he supplies own thoughts on the role and why he decided to do the film.  Travolta discusses his approach to the role in trying to make Edna a believable character, from her voice right down to how she walks.  From his words, you can see that John had a great time making this movie, particularly the climactic dance number.  Besides Travolta you’ll meet the rest of the fantastic cast such as James Marsden as Corny Collins, Michelle Pfeiffer as Velma Von Tussle, Amanda Bynes as Penny Pingleton, Jerry Stiller as Mr. Pinky, Queen Latifah as Motormouth Maybelle, and Christopher Walken as Wilbur Turnblad.  (Man!  That is some cast!) But this isn’t just some dry narration on making a movie.  As you begin to negotiate the pages you start encountering some of those surprises I talked about earlier.  There are all sorts of inserts placed in the book…faux posters for TV shows that were seen in the film, postcards that have nostalgic, period designs, cling-on stickers, and envelopes that you have to open that contain other special treats.  I’m not going to play spoiler, you’ll have to get the book and open them yourself!

There’s also great articles about the films song and dance numbers and lots of trivia about the early 1960’s like the top Juke Box hits of 1962, as well as styles of clothes and hair from the era.  From cover to cover this is just a treat for the eyes and will put a smile on your face.  A great collector’s book!

Following up on last year’s The Art of Warhammer 40,000, The Black Library now gives of the logical sequel, The Art of Warhammer.  This hardcover collector’s edition contains 224 pages by some of the most noted Warhammer artists.  The art in this book has been culled from a number of sources including game supplements, rulebooks illustrations, book covers, etc…Warhammer fans are some of the most fervent fans there are, taking particular pride in not only the substance of the Warhammer world but also the style.  The visuals are as important to Warhammer fans as anything which is why they spend countless hours meticulously painting miniatures.  The graphics are what helped make Warhammer as popular as it is today with gaming items, books, miniatures, computer & video games, and more.

The roll call of artists includes the great John Blanche, David Gallagher, Adrian Smith, Karl Kopinski, Geoff Taylor, Alex Boyd, and Paul Dainton.  Each piece in the book give the name of the painting, the artist’s name, the original source, and the year.

I really love Taylor’s “Dragonslayer” from the William King Novel of the same name showing a huge red dragon breathing fire onto an airship above snow-covered mountains.  I also love the impossibly armored Engra Deathsword  by Adrian Smith, about as intimidating of a figure as you’d ever care to see.  Taylor’s Chaos Knights are also quite stunning.

Most of the book is in full color but there are some black and white illustrations as well, notably the Blanche pieces which are utterly dazzling in their incredible detail.  Blanche’s Citadel of Chaos has so much going on in it that you could spend hours gazing at it and continue to find new things you missed.  Another standout piece is Paul Dainton’s Tomb Kings, a two-page spread of skeletal warriors, some on skeletal mounts and chariots, marching forward into battle.

Games Workshop always puts out great looking books and this one is no different.  The hardcover book is printed on heavy, coated stock with dustjacket.  A gorgeous package!

The works of H.P. Lovecraft have never had great success when adapted for film, TV, or comics.  I think in failing to understand the nature of the source material…Lovecraft’s unseen, indescribable brand of terror, film directors and comic writers have always tried to too hard to bring his work into the light, instead of allowing it to fester in the shadows.  This is why we’ve seen so many truly terrible film adaptations of his work.

I’m happy to say that Graphic Classics finally has it right!  Rather than making wholesale changes, the stories stick to the source material and many of the tales in the book end up actually being illustrated stories as opposed to traditional sequential artwork.  You can’t explain Lovecraft to someone who doesn’t get it, so why try.  Graphic Classics almost stubbornly clings to the spirit and tone of the original stories and delivers the best comic adaptation yet of Lovecraft’s work.

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The Shadow is back in a new series of officially licensed, pulp-sized trade paperbacks.  These re-print editions featuring unabridged text and the original illustrations are the result of a partnership between Sanctum Productions and Nostalgia Ventures. Each volume reprints two original stories from The Shadow Magazine as well as complementary articles.  Volume six of the series features “The Shadow’s Justice” from April 15, 1933, and “The Broken Napoleons” from July 15, 1936.

“The Shadow’s Justice” is a tale straight out of 1930’s crime noir thrillers.  A wealthy, but dying old man named Houston Bostwick has arranged for his estate to either go to his son, Carter, who is returning home after a ten year absence, or to his ne’er-do-well nephew Drew Westling, should anything happen to Carter.  Just one catch, the bulk of Bostwick’s money has been carefully hidden and he’s left clues for his son or nephew to find it, if they are worthy. Westling has gotten himself into debt with a racketeer named Hub Rowley.  Hub intends to make sure that Carter never makes it home and the money passes to Westling, whom he intends to extort as much of the wealth as he can.  He sends one of his men down to Cuba to hire local thugs to kill Carter before he can get on the ship home.   Only the timely intervention of the Shadow, with the twin .45’s blazing, saves Carter.

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I’m as much a fan of comic book history as I am of comic books themselves.  The history is absolutely fascinating as one delves into just how the business started and some of the real-life unusual characters who are largely responsible for comic books as we know them today.  Ron Goulart’s “Comic Book Culture:  An Illustrated History” has just been released again by Collector’s Press and it should be required reading for comic fans, especially younger fans who are not familiar with the eight-plus year history of the business.

Most people associate the start of the comic book era with the release of Action Comics #1 in 1938 that featured the introduction of Superman in a thirteen-page story. But the fact is that comic books had been around for many years before Superman came along.  Heck, Action Comics was not even the first title put out by National Comics/National Periodical Publications, which would later become DC.  National’s first book was New Fun Comics in 1935, which would later change its name to More Fun Comics, and introduce characters such as The Spectre and Doctor Fate.

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BETTIE PAGE BY OLIVIA 

 If you thought that the pairing of the world’s premiere pin-up artist Olivia, and the most celebrated pin-up model Bettie Page, would be a match made in Heaven, you would be one-hundred percent correct. Like peanut butter and chocolate, the two were made for each other. Bettie Page by Olivia is a brand new book from Ozone Productions featuring over 50 paintings of the reclusive Ms. Page by Olivia.

Hugh Hefner provides the foreward to the book that gives Page & Olivia fans 80 pages of delectable art. Why Hefner? Well who better? Page appeared as a centerfold in the magazine in the 50’s and many of Olivia’s Page paintings first appeared in Playboy.

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The second volume is DC Comics’ Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, proves to be vastly superior to first, featuring stories culled over a period of sixty-plus years of Dark Knight history. While the stories are usually presented chronologically, this one deviates slightly in order to present the origin of the Golden Age Batman as the first story. This story was originally published in Secret Origins in 1986 and is written by Roy Thomas with art by Marshall Rogers. It’s an interesting inclusion, serving to remind modern day readers of the “other” Batman.

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