We've got creature art, hyper realism, classic comics work, pulp art, and a rupture in the fabric of space and time. A pretty well rounded batch, is what I'm saying.
You'll see that I'll try to include a little order code with most items (ex:FEB211476). Show some love to your retailer and use those codes when you can, it saves a lot of time on the data entry end of things.
MARK SCHULTZ CARBON SC VOL 04
(W) Mark Schultz (A/CA) Mark Schultz
Mark Schultz unleashed! Inspired by the otherworldly pulp stories of his childhood in the 1950s and '60s, Schultz continues to draw inspiration from the adventure, fantasy and science-fiction genres of that imaginative period. With its visions of romanticized space exploration, this time continues to be a primary influence on his artwork and in this new collection, where the focus is on life on other worlds. While many of these new visions were created purely for his own satisfaction, Carbon 4 also features Schultz's most recent commissions and commercial illustrations. As always, Xenozoic's Jack and Hannah are featured prominently.
MAR211309
Why this caught my eye:
I love Shultz's art and creature design work and already have a couple of the Carbon books, so it's hard for me to pass on a new on.
MONGOLIAN WIND ART OF LU MING HC
(W) Lu Ming (A/CA) Lu Ming
Few artists are as complete as Lu Ming. Known for his hyper-realistic comics and his universe inspired by both medieval (Chinese and European) and music (he is also a professional guitarist and drummer), this collection is a look at his paintings, advertising illustrations (for which he won a Palme d'or at the Cannes Lion festival in 2008), storyboard and conceptual design work for feature films (including the legendary Tsui Hark's Flying Sabers), and his sculptures (including the monumental "Desert Grade" presented at the Burning Man festival in Nevada).
MAR211431
Why this caught my eye:
Magnetic Press also published Lu Ming's Hard Melody book, so they're all about spotlighting his work these days.
AL WILLIAMSON STRANGE WORLD ADVENTURES SC
(W) John Flesk (A/CA) Al Williamson
In 1948 Al Williamson accepted his first commercial assignment - an issue of Famous Funnies comics - which launched his career as a professional in the field. Developing an elegant and illustrative style, he soon gained prominence in the highly influential EC Comics line of the 1950s. By the end of his career in the early 2000s, he had become one of the most highly regarded comic and strip artists in the industry, especially noted for the graceful ink line that he spent a lifetime pursuing. This compendium is the perfect introduction to Al Williamson's work. You will find samples that span his fifty-year career along with anecdotes and historical details salted throughout. Cover art, interior pages, drawings and sketches, plus photographs of Al and his friends posing as reference for his sequential art, are included. For the first time, readers will be able to view the artist's most-cherished works and witness Williamson's development as an artist.
MAR211308
Why this caught my eye:
Flesk Publishing does great work with their art books, and they're also decently priced for how much they give you so this is probably a pretty meaty collection worth taking a look at.
ART OF PULP FICTION ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF VINTAGE PAPER
Judge these books by their covers! Get immersed in the definitive visual history of pulp fiction paperbacks from 1940 to 1970.
The Art of Pulp Fiction: An Illustrated History of Vintage Paperbacks chronicles the history of pocket-sized paperbound books designed for mass-market consumption, specifically concentrating on the period from 1940 to 1970. These three decades saw paperbacks eclipse cheap pulp magazines and expensive clothbound books as the most popular delivery vehicle for escapist fiction. To catch the eyes of potential buyers they were adorned with covers that were invariably vibrant, frequently garish, and occasionally lurid. Today the early paperbacks-like the earlier pulps, inexpensively produced and considered disposable by casual readers-are treasured collector's items.
Award-winning editor Ed Hulse (The Art of the Pulps and The Blood 'n' Thunder Guide to Pulp Fiction) comprehensively covers the pulp-fiction paperback's heyday. Hulse writes the individual chapter introductions and the captions, while a team of genre specialists and art aficionados contribute the special features included in each chapter. These focus on particularly important authors, artists, publishers, and sub-genres.
Illustrated with more than 500 memorable covers and original cover paintings. Hulse's extensive captions, meanwhile, offer a running commentary on this significant genre, and also contain many obscure but entertaining factoids. Images used in The Art of Pulp Fiction have been sourced from the largest American paperback collections in private hands, and have been curated with rarity in mind, as well as graphic appeal. Consequently, many covers are reproduced here for the first time since the books were first issued. With an overall Introduction by Richard A. Lupoff, novelist, essayist, pop-culture historian, and author of The Great American Paperback (2001).
APR210623
Why this caught my eye:
I'm just a sucker for nice collections of pulp art. I probably don't need another one, but.....
STERANKO NICK FURY AGENT OF SHIELD ARTISAN ED
(W) Jim Steranko (A/CA) Jim Steranko
Previously presented in the much-acclaimed Artist's Edition format, and winner of an Eisner Award, now you can appreciate this historic run of comics in the new Artisan Edition format.
In the mid-1960s, Jim Steranko burst into the Marvel Age of comics in a BIG way, and the innovative, cinematic techniques he introduced in his brief tenure at The House of Ideas stand to this day as a high-water mark in the history of graphic storytelling. More than any other series, Steranko is most associated with Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This Artisan Edition collects the first 12 stories of Steranko's run, from Strange Tales #151-162, as well as his covers from these issues. Additionally, there will be a select number of extras presented. And, as usual, nearly all the pages have been scanned from the original art, from Steranko's private archives.
Story and art by Jim Steranko with additional script by Stan Lee and Roy Thomas. Additional Layouts by Jack Kirby.
APR210664
Why this caught my eye:
I'm generally confused about this book because we had a customer pre-order the big version of it years ago, but then it was delayed for over a year, and then it was cancelled, but then the cancellation got delayed, and the delay of the cancelation got cancelled until it was delayed, and then the very fabric of space and time got cancelled. And then there's an Artist's Edition and an Artisan Edition, and I didn't even think the Artist's Edition was released but then I don't fully grasp the passage of time anymore anyway.
Whatever. It's Steranko, just buy it.
That's it for this round, next time we'll hit some miscellaneous items that would probably give me a seizure if I tried to assign them to a genre.