Mermaids [Vol.1]
(2000 - SQP (Sal Quartuccio Publications))

A 64-page collection of black-and-white drawings depicting the beauties of the deep. There's a wraparound painting for the cover and one of the inside covers gets a drawing too. What's really nice is that 40 of the pieces are displayed as if they did not have borders, most bleeding their details to the page-edges. All the drawings are captioned with their creators' names. There is unfortunately one work turned sideways because of its length. There is a single double-page spread inside that deftly encompasses the book's gutter. Several of the depictions have a 'lightness' that I associate with pure pencil pieces. There's an incredible diversity to the book, as the artists take different paths regarding the atmosphere they wanted to create. I do keep it put away from children, as there's at least one piece showing that, despite their obvious shortcoming, they can still participate in adult themes. The well-presented artists are: Alonso (2), Amadeu (2), Sebastià Boada (5), Mitch Byrd (5), Capdevila (2), Joe Chiodo, Pedro Cuevas (2), Isaac DelRivero (2), Tomas Giorello (8), Josep Gual (2), Mike Hoffman (5), Llopis (2), Anibal Maraschi (3), J.L. Marin, Ruben Meriggi (3), Daniel Pascarelli (5), Joan Pelaez (5)*, Luciano Quintabani (3), James Ryman (4) and Jose Torres (2).