Continuing our celebration of Wonder Woman for the next few posts — no matter when the new film finally releases.
As noted previously, I’m a passionate admirer of Alphonse Much and the Art Nouveau period of the late 19thand early 20th century.
Aaron Lopresti captures the style flawlessly with his print “Warrior Nouveau,” — Wonder Woman as if developed during the Nouveau period.
In addition to the print, Aaron is using the graphic on his personalized convention banner as well. (I wonder — only half-kidding — if he will sell it to me when he’s done with it.)
Not much to add here other than I’m certainly glad I happened upon the original when I did. It’s one of those pieces that typically disappears deep into a collection, not to be seen again for a long time, if ever.
A work in progress: Rough and finished pencils.
Alphonse Mucha’s renderings are astonishing, even if his ladies are less battle ready than Wonder Woman.
Conan celebrates its
50th anniversary in comics this year, and we celebrate the anniversary with
three Conan-themed posts this week.
Barry Winsdor-Smith was not the first choice to draw Conan. Legend has it that Roy Thomas knew that John Buscema was the idea artist for the job. But Publisher Martin Goodman nixed the idea, citing budget and schedule, and told Stan/Roy to find someone less expensive.
The solution? The young British-born Smith, who had been a
fill-in artist on a handful of super-hero titles with an unmistakable Kirby
influenced style, and who was both cheap — and available.
And so Barry drew Conan for 21 of the first 24 issues — and the comic book world promptly grew up.
Smith, one of the many “young guns” of similar age, and breaking in at around the same time, (Chaykin, Kaluta, Simonson, Wrightson among the many others) ultimately developed an inimitable style. Yes the Kirby influence was there, especially early on. But so is Steranko. And Alphonse Mucha, the best-known stylist of the Art Nouveau period (late 19th – early 20th century), provides much of the inspiration for the intricate designs and beautiful women that populate those early Conan stories.
Smith’s run on Conan is unlike any other in professional comics at that time. And Baby Boomers, who had grown up on the simple stories of DC, and had segued into the cosmic soap operas of Stan and Jack, were primed for these comics. The Boomers were growing older, and now, the comics were growing up with them.
Smith’s style developed rapidly over his three year run on Conan, culminating in the extraordinary “Red Nails” that first appeared in 1973/1974 in Savage Tales. And of course, the work was always best when Smith was inking himself, but both Sal Buscema and Dan Adkins did excellent work, and interestingly, both are credited on this issue. Sal is credited on this specific page, but without all 20 original pages together, it’s difficult to tell.
Either way, it’s a stunning page, and only a small harbinger of things to come.
Conan launches in comic books and the more “mature” Marvel magazines.
And early try-out story by Smith and Thomas features “Starr the Slayer,” published just a few months prior to Conan in Chamber of Darkness #4. Smith also developed a Kull Black and White proposal for a paperback graphic novel. (Similar to Gil Kane’s Blackmark) that ultimately was published (unfinished) much later in Savage Sword of Conan #3. Both prototypes look nearly identical to Smith’s Conan.
Smith’s early Marvel work on Avengers is pretty much straight from the Jack Kirby handbook — except for the wild Vision splash page (Avengers #66) which adds some Steranko and Alphonse Mucha into the mix; a sign of things to come.
Print, Star Wars Celebration IV and Star Wars Celebration Europe, 2007
Continuing our multi-part countdown to Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker, opening December 20, and concluding, apparently, the Skywalker saga.
This print, limited to 250, and now selling for as much as a nice page of original art, checks three great boxes for me:
Adam Hughes. Star Wars. Art Nouveau via the master, Alphonse Mucha.
(And a fourth actually — a wry sense of humor not seen often enough in Star Wars related content)
Stellar artist Hughes is supposedly keeping his original art for this giclee. Who can blame him? For an artist who generally sells all his originals, that probably tells you all you need to know.
Some great prints by the Nouveau Jedi Master, Alphonse Mucha.Adam also tackled “Slave Leia” earlier in this reprint of the Return of The Jedi adaptation.
