The Art Of Painted Comics
                                             (2016 - Dynamite)  

     (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, Stanley Maxwell, 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, 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 all of Frazetta's & Linsner's pieces here appear 'well-presented' in their own collections further up The List.

** - Note that none of the Hildebrandt's 'well-presented' pieces here can be found so in their own collections on The List.


** - Note that Vallejo's piece here cannot be found 'well-presented' in his own collections up on The List.


other Dynamite releases

  The Art Of Dejah Thoris And The Worlds Of Mars

  The Art Of Vampirella

  The Dynamite Art Of Alex Ross



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