Roy G. Krenkel: Father Of Heroic Fantasy - A Centennial Celebration
(2019 - IDW)

314 pages (plus different images on the end-leaves) in a 9-by-13-inch tome that is bit unwieldy being about twice as thick as what would be optimally 'manageable'. 223 of those pages each feature some large reproduction. Know that several handfuls of those images are longish-pieces, held to a single page, whose remaining negative space allowed for another image, same size or slightly smaller, to be displayed as well. Also *another* 34 of these majority pages are used to display 17 large images spreading over the central gutter (almost all as full double-page-spreads) of which five fail to negotiate the distortion there. Then there's another 68 pages that gather together two or more smaller images, leaving the remaining pages to photographs, sequential-art, letters and testimonials to his awesomeness. The art is pulled together in 11 sections entitled Ancient Worlds, Early Inspiration, E R Burroughs, Roy-&-His-Friends, Sirens-&-Sibyls, Paleo Wonders, Robert E Howard, Enchantments, Pulps-&-Machines, Warren-&-Others, and Into The Wild. Some of the pieces are in color, but most would be characterized as drawings or tonal renderings. At this point, definition gets tough - many of these are known to be preliminaries for more refined versions (whether actually realized or not), but in so many cases, Krenkel's preliminaries are indistinguishable from his finals, and that's certainly the situation when his more 'sketchy/gauzey' style is at play in them. This book trumpets its own reproduction in letting you see the fainter, lower-level limning employed in these delicate drawings and many, many, times this means preserving the appearance of the surfaces drawn on that are non-white (or in some cases, paper that is no longer white at a half-century's remove). I've seen it commented that that devotion to original presentation (sometimes keeping visible artifacts like errant tape & tears) was a mis-step, diminishing the impact of the artistic intention of these renderings, when some kind of easy digital 'cleaning' & enhancement could have been brought to bear for improvement, even at the cost of some loss to the total ethereal depiction. For me, the jury is still out, or perhaps, the most optimal presentation is somewhere in the middle of the two outlying camps - I've seen examples elsewhere of some of these vague pencil-pieces here, where forcing them 'up' to clearly defined black lines on white backgrounds had given them a so-much-more 'finished' appearance that was certainly a step in the right direction, in my eyes, and yet other images, similarly handled, just devolved to black, smudgy-looking, nothings. Anyway, many images here are accompanied by brief identification & commentary, but a good number simply have to speak for themselves, with no captioning (this artist was renowned for producing so much for just his own pleasure which cannot be readily associated with any particular inspiration). This book lags behind the best Krenkel-dedicated collection, Vanguard's RGK, but with all the additional material on hand here, there's no reason not to have this book too. Know that the artistic fun of some of his 'fellow-travelers', at his good-natured expense, are also exhibited here, with 'well-presented' examples from Al Williamson (2), and George Woodbridge.