Dynamite comics art & cover collections
   The Art Of Dejah Thoris And The Worlds Of Mars
   The Art Of Vampirella - The Warren Years
   The Art Of Vampirella
   The Dynamite Art Of Alex Ross
   The Art Of Painted Comics
                                             (2010-2016 - Dynamite)

Various gatherings of the art produced over the years, ranked here with the best presentation first to least so on the bottom.

The Art Of Dejah Thoris And The Worlds Of Mars (2013) Wow, my criteria currently recommends this artbook above all others, but it does have some annoying aspects that I can't score numerically, but would place it down a peg or two. Let's talk about presentation of the female form - Dynamite produced a number of Burroughs'-related Mars series, with each issue of them needing a cover, not to mention that the variant-cover phenomenon became strongly embraced by the company. A significant portion of Dynamite's variants were aimed at more mature markets, where any prohibition against nudity could be considered 'relaxed'. Now then, in Burroughs' Mars universe, Dejah Thoris and other human female characters have always been portrayed in a more fleshy style - for decades, sporting the sheers, gauzes & metal breastplates found in fantasy illustration. Things became even more daring as the breastplates shrunk to mere 'pasties' covering the female nipples & areolas. So, here are 181 full-page art pieces reproduced that could be said to be appropriate for polite company and then there's another 61 that artistically choose (for the above mentioned more mature markets) that the really topless, or nude, female form is the best presentation for our heroines. So far so good, but then I have to report that 33 of the tame covers related above are reproduced yet again without the covering materials, as if the book's perusers wouldn't be satisfied without being shown more bare breasts. The positioning of those next to, or on the next page from, the original version, just makes the exercise seem sophomoric, coarse & exploitive. Anyway, all those 275 images (with another 20-or-so duplicates through the text and interstitial pages and ten paintings turned sideways) makes for a package that's only a bit larger (unwieldy) than optimal. I'd say that about half of the book captures those exciting points of interrupted drama, conflict and action, while the rest are Dejah Thoris poses (heroic, regal, mild-suggestiveness & pin-up) that give the book a bit of an air of 'sameness', even with the diversity of all the different artists. The artists featured all get 'well-presented', namely: Arthur Adams (8), Jay Anacleto (20)**, Lui Antonio (14), Patrick Berkenkotter (7), J. Scott Campbell (4), Sean Chen (3), Sergio Fernandez Davila, Milton Estevam (2), Francesco Francavilla (5), Alé Garza (46), Walter Geovani (6), Joe Jusko (48), José Malaga (8), Fabiano Neves (2), Lucio Parrillo (30), Brandon Peterson (3), Carlos Rafael (2), Cesar Razek (9), Wagner Reis (5), Paul Renaud (28), Pow Rodrix (3), Alex Ross, Mel Rubi (6), Stephen Sadowski (13), Stephen Segovia. Within the book's gallery, all works are captioned with the artists' names and the specific comic title and issue number associated with it, but know that those captions are run sideways, up the center black strip. Also, the book has no index to the artists' appearances and there aren't any page numbers anyway.

** - Note that Anacleto's 'well-presented' pieces here cannot additionally be found so in his own collection on The List.

The Art Of Vampirella - The Warren Years (2014) If you remember the decades that Warren created and published VAMPIRELLA and its kin, this is a fun book to have. 95 art pieces that were used as covers for the more-mature-oriented horror-comic/magazine are presented gloriously at this 9-by-12-inches size, in full-bleed. If the cover used the art in an interesting designed border/background scheme, that scheme is re-created as well, everything in the wonderful saturated colors that made the original magazines seem to 'pop' off the newsstands. Each art piece is matched on the facing page with a smaller reproduction of the cover itself and some healthy commentary (by David Roach) about the cover, the artist, or the doings in the issue itself, altogether making for an interesting history of this magazine, if not of the larger company itself. Interestingly, this dual presentation reveals sometimes how the original art was flipped, or otherwise doctored before its ultimate use. The proceedings are preceded by an extensive written overview of the forces that lead up to Vampirella's creation and the twists and turns that marked this early part of her career. Enrich, the most represented artist here by far, pens a personal perception of his lengthy run. There are also four pages of color ads for other Dynamite publications. Know that Vampi is on the majority of the covers for the magazine that bore her name, but you will find here 33 without her. Not to say that there is some great lack of diversity in her depictions, as she can be found here in the milieus of Barbarism, Mysticism, Eygpt, The Middle-Ages, the Old West, The Orient, gothic fogs, in graveyards & swamps, on alien planets, among the stars and under the waves. The artists are: Aslan, Vaughn Bode (2), Luis Dominguez, Enrich (57), Frank Frazetta (7)*, José Gonzalez (4), Paul Gulacy*, Steve Harris, Martin Hoffman, Bill Hughes (2), Jeffrey Catherine Jones*, Ken Kelly (6), Bob Larkin (2), Terrance Lindall, Jordi Longaron, Estaban Maroto, Kim McQuaite (2), Noly Panaligan, Jordi Penalva, Albert Pujolar, Llíus Ribas, Josep Marti Ripoli, Sanjulian (13), Dave Stevens, Larry Todd and Boris Vallejo**.

* - Note that all of Frazetta's and Gulacy's 'well-presented' pieces here can additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

** - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by Jones, and Vallejo, cannot additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

The Art Of Vampirella (2010) This volume, though published earlier, focuses on a later part of what one might term the 'career' of Vampirella. In the post-Warren, Harris Publications comics, the covers bearing VAMPIRELLA in the title, almost completely feature our scantily-clad vampire, perhaps reflecting the loss of the loose horror anthology format of the original. 184 of this book's 232 pages have dominant large reproductions with a whopping 169 of those being full-bleed. There are another 32 pages with multiple art images. Five of the six double-page spreads work nicely. There is one entire 6-page color comic story by Bruce Timm & Ty Templeton and the text pages are an overview of the title's publication history and words from, and about, some of the recent creators and a couple of the artists. The well-presented artists are: Jason Alexander, Mike Bair (2), Eric Basaldua, Mark Beachum (2), Julie Bell*, John Bolton (2), Dan Brereton (6), J. Scott Campbell (3), Joe Chiodo (4), Mike Choi, Matthew Clark, Dorian Cleavenger, Amanda Conner (13), Alan Davis, Nelson DeCastro (2), David Finch (5), Tom Fleming, Gary Frank (2), Frank Frazetta*, Jenny Frison, Simone Gabrielli, Manuel Garcia (2), Michael Golden (2), José Gonzalez, Matt Haley, Tony Harris (2), Greg Hildebrandt**, Alex Horley (2), Greg Horn*, Adam Hughes (12), Joe Jusko (22), Tyler Kirkham, Ray Lago, Kevin Lau (2), Jae Lee (5), Mike Lilly, Joseph Linsner (2)**, David Mack (2), Mike Mayhew (12), Mike Mignola, Rudy Nebres, Phil Noto, Joe Quesada (2), Al Rio (2), Tim Sale (2), Stephen Segovia (5), Christopher Shy, Bill Sienkiewicz, Jim Silke (7), Louis Small, Jr. (8), Brian Stelfreeze, Dave Stevens (2)*, Arthur Suydam (5), Mark Texeira (7), Bruce Timm (2), J.H. Williams III and Patrick Zircher.

* - Note that Bell's, Frazetta's, Horn's & Stevens' 'well-presented' pieces here can additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

** Note that none of Hildebrandt's, nor Linsner's, 'well-presented' pieces here can additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

The Dynamite Art of Alex Ross (2011) At 327 pages, this book is a bit larger than optimal, but page after page of striking work is kind of hard to be critical of. 194 pages feature single large reproductions, with an amazing 85% of those allowed to bleed to the outer edges. Then, another 96 pages either collect multiple images together, or less attractively, clutter some dominant art-piece with less impressive photos or model-sheet features. All that does then leave a good number of pages that feature sequential sequences, sketchy thumbnails or layout details. There are five pieces that lie across the central gutter, some more successfully than others. Each of the chapters focuses on particular projects that Ross participated in (sometimes led) and they all start with a healthy explanation of what was being aimed at. Within them as well, the artist's voice is heard quite a bit, as he discusses the details of his designs. That grouping of works by project, while logical, unfortunately has to have the effect of pulling together pieces with the same prevalent characters, rather than the increased diversity and perceived variety had by mixing it all up. The projects all utilize the new excitement inherent in Ross' painted style to re-envision some of today's comic characters, or re-energize many many old ones that have been long since left for dead along this genre's road. Note that throughout there are no page numbers displayed. This book would be significantly recommended by us before Ross' collection entitled MYTHOLOGY, but that volume has no repeats from here, so you will want both, if you like the man's work. Since this book focuses on a single artist, though grouped with the others here, it has also been given a duplicate entry on its own separate page.

The Art Of Painted Comics (2016) (by Chris Lawrence) A beautiful book, but twice as thick/heavy as would be optimal by our lights. It's stated somewhere here that a major goal of this book was to disillusion those who have believed that painted images in comics is only a new phenomenon. In tracking back the history, sidetrails are taken through pulps, paperbacks, magazines and art card-sets. I appreciate all the varied art examples then pulled into the book to illuminate those, but the 40-odd pages dedicated to these sidebars certainly contribute to making this volume bigger than I would like. Anyway, there are 392 pages in all, with 185 of those featuring large art reproductions (half of them as full-bleed) and another 106 pages with multiple images being gathered together. There are three large pieces that are presented across the gutter that are aligned extremely well in my copy, keeping them still acceptable. Another 26 pages are exhibiting painted sequential-art and know that most of the remaining pages, dominated by text, also sport more images. There are many covers throughout presented with all the titles, logos and typography in place, but the vast majority of the art is presented as the original paintings. Everything is well captioned, with each piece's title, artist and creation-year, but with the huge volume of information being presented, some errors have crept in. Many, many artists are on display, but not everyone gets a 'well-presented' example, but those that do are: Chris Achilleos, Daniel Acuna (2), Neal Adams (3), Dan Adkins, Kaare Andrews, James Bama**, Ken Barr (2), Walter M. Baumhofer, C.C. Beck, David Michael Beck, Doug Beekman, Simone Bianchi, Enki Bilal, Simon Bisley (2), Laurel Blechman, Frank Bolle, John Bolton (2), Dan Brereton (2), C. Calvert, Jo Chen, Mark Chiarello, Joe Chiodo (3), Richard Corben (2), Clayton Crain, Reed Crandall, Olivia DeBerardinis, Gabriele Dell'Otto, Rafael DeSoto*, Marko Djurdjevic (2), Dave Dorman, Mort Drucker, Will Elder (2), Enrich (2), Glenn Fabry, Steve Fastner (2), Duncan Fegredo (2), Tom Fleming, Frank Frazetta (4)*, Jenny Frison (2), Basil Gogos (2), Adi Granov (4), Phil Hale, Scott Hampton (2), Tony Harris, Russ Heath, Greg & Tim Hildebrandt (3)**, Mitchell Hooks, Adam Hughes (2), Al Jaffee, James Jean, Dave Johnson, J.G. Jones, Jeffrey Catherine Jones (2)*, Joe Jusko (5), Michael Kaluta (3), Igor Kordey, Teddy Kristiansen, Ray Lago, Bob Larkin, Rich Larson (2), Joseph Michael Linsner (2)*, David Mack, Mike Mahew, Alex Maleev, Dave McKean (3), Tara McPherson (2), Rudolfo Migliari (2), Norman Mingo (3), Christopher Moeller (2), Jon J. Muth (2), Earl Norem, Ben Oliver, Glen Orbik, John Parker, Lucio Parrillo, Frank R. Paul, George Pratt, Bruno Premiani, Esad Ribic, Jack Rickard, Eduardo Risso, Paolo Rivera, Andrew Robinson, John Romita, Alex Ross (15), George Rozen, Steve Rude, Mark Saenz (2), Norman Saunders (5), Stjepan Šejic, Joe Shuster (2), Bill Sienkiewicz (2), Jim Starlin (2), Jim Steranko (2), Arthur Suydam (5), Ben Templesmith (2), Mark Texeira, Jill Thompson, Boris Vallejo**, Charles Vess, Matt Wagner, Kent Williams (4), Richard Williams (2), George Wilson (3), Barry Windsor-Smith, Ashley Wood, Bernie Wrightson (2), and UNKNOWN.

* - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by Jeff Jones, DeSoto, Frazetta, and Linsner, can all additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

** - Note that'well-presented' pieces here by the Hildebrandt's, Bama, and Vallejo's cannot additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

other comic cover & art collections

Fantagraphics Los Bros Hernandez books