The Paintings Of J. Allen St. John - Grand Master Of Fantasy
(2008 - Vanguard Productions)

(by Stephen D. Korshak with J. David Spurlock and other contributors). This book is frequently listed as having 168 pages, but it has only 160. 107 of those are dominated by the art - 91 of them featuring a large reproduction. A majority of these large paintings are either full-bleed or 'framed' with cream color. The play of bold colors and subtle ones is impressive and the quality reproduction seems to really bring that out. As this illustrator was not as well known as the celebrated artists in that field (many of which he influenced), the text focuses on relating the course of his life. The chapters are - the Introduction, A Talent For The Ages, Early Life (The Fork In The Road), Fin-de-sičcle (The Era), Portrait Of A Young Man (The Bohemian & The Businessman), The Road Traveled (The Return To Europe & Fine Art), Tarzan - Lord Of The Jungle (Painting Burroughs' Noble Savage), The Painted Desert (Westward Bound), Burroughs' Weird Worlds (Mars, Pellucidar & Beyond), Growing Up With J. Allen St. John, St. John & Golden Blood, The Pulps (Low Brow - High Adventure), The Academic (Artist, Teacher & Later Years). For the most part, the presentations are captioned well, but the locating of those captions may leave a little to be desired. There are instances of some being collected a significant number of pages before or after the appearance of the art (at least once with other art in between being captioned immediately . . .). With a few exceptions, the illustrations gathered here are of stories of high-adventure, primarily in the fantastic vein. Note that the Deluxe edition of this book has 16 more pages, presumably containing more art.