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Spies, Vixens, And Masters Of Kung Fu - The Art Of Paul Gulacy
(2005 - Vanguard Productions)

I'd say this artist is best known for his graphic storytelling ability, and indeed around 15 pages of this 128-page book are primarily sequential art showing his translation of studied film techniques to those stories. 78 pages are large reproductions of his work and there are another 25 multi-image pages, all of those including a 32-page color section. The work showcased is pulled from his time on comic-titles such as Master Of Kung-Fu, Batman, Catwoman, James Bond, Vampirella, Sabre, Star Wars and Eerie, while not ignoring his efforts in other areas his muse took him. I enjoyed the covers that were presented, but even more, I appreciated the meticulously designed splash-pages and individual panels plucked out of the stories to be put on display. There's plenty of text detailing his career and we hear plenty from Gulacy himself. Everything is captioned with the source of a piece or its use, along with origination-year, size and medium. There are five examples of the work bridging the central gutter and all seem 'o.k.' that way, but not ideal. In closing, I acknowledge that there are other books focusing on particular comic artists that score higher on The List, but I wish more of them had followed the exploratory 'trails' that this one attempted to.