Solson's Gary & Al books
   Gary & Al Present: How To Draw Erotic Art
   Gary & Al Present: How To Draw Fetish Art [BELOW THE LINE]
   Gary & Al-How To Draw Sexy Women-The Comic 1 [BELOW THE LINE]

Solson Publications was a comic-book publisher originating in the 1980s, through the efforts of Gary Brodsky & Albert Occhino. The operation evolved to focus on producing drawing instructionals, sometimes *as* comics and sometimes in a more substantial magazine-format with glossy card-stock covers (the "Solson Entertainment" styling is seen more in the later years). The company's books appear in the 'marketplace' in a very hodge-podge fashion, so some links only trigger a current ebay-search. What volumes we come across are ranked here with the best presentation first, to the least so on the bottom,

Gary & Al Present: How To Draw Erotic Art (1998) Not appropriate for minors or adolescents. A 79-page square-bound volume, 7-by-9-inches. Let's start with 12 full-page 'finished' drawings that result from 33 pages of prepatory sketchwork, exercising stick-figures, simple-shapes, center-lines, joints, tightening, shading and laying-in features (one of these 'sets' is turned sideways to accomdate its longer width). Sprinkled lightly on these pages are terse explanatory comments. In a gallery sense, there is another page with a trio of images, along with 30 more full-page drawings (three of those are variously excerpted mid-section & legs). The sprinkled comments continue on these pages, now pointing out what features are erotic. It would appear that they feel things erotic include heels, leather, lace, lingerie, showering, dancing & strip-tease. The subjects are all women and almost all are topless, whether solo or with a partner (it is in the last instance that some of the playfulness slightly crosses a line, drawing the no-children admonition). While one of the finished drawings is colored and laid onto the cover, they couldn't put any additional art on the back or inner covers. All the exhibted drawings seem to have been produced for this volume, rather than pulled from other sources - no artist is identified. So far, this is the best Solson product yet encountered. I imagine that it couldn't really be thought more instructive than some civic drawing class (though it is admittedly spicier).

Gary & Al Present: How To Draw Fetish Art [-BELOW THE LINE-] (1999) Not appropriate for minors or adolescents. While it does have somewhat sturdier card-stock covers, this publication, subtitled The Ultimate In Sensuality, is of magazine-format, 13 sheets folded-in-half and stapled together on the fold. I don't think you'll get what you're expecting with this book. Other than the title page, there is no text in this volume whatsoever, instructional or otherwise. So, it then can only stand as a gallery of drawn images tied to the 'fetish art' indicated in the title. No artist identification is attempted, but I see a number of images pulled from the Italian work of Franco Saudelli and the cover is signed by Rick Buckler Jr and I suspect he contributed a significant amount of the other interior displays that are similar. Unfortunately, 15 of the images are turned sideways and two more are either slightly sequential in nature or just tight excerpts of feet. That leaves you with two pages with multiple-images and 31 full-page pieces. They couldn't put any art on the back or inner covers. Fetishes exercised are bondage, leather, lingerie, feet and to an even milder degree, sadism, toys, piercing, feathers, wax and a french-maid. Extensive bondage-situations always trigger me to put such a book away and this one is no different, but I have to admit the package here, taken as a whole, is otherwise relatively . . . what's the best word . . . juvenile?

Gary & Al - How To Draw Sexy Women - The Comic 1 [-BELOW THE LINE-] (1998) Do not confuse this with How To Draw Sexy Women, the first so-titled book that itself seems to start by collecting the comic-book here and its follow-up issue (which seems to be the entire series...). Alright, this comic-book has 4 full-page 'finished' drawings from different artists (of which only Buzz and Mike Lilly can be identified), with then a total of 16 preliminary pages for them, showing the steps leading up the finished versions, sprinkled with comments, presumably from these featured individuals. Additionally, a Naser Subashi full-page pin-up drawing is displayed, along with two other full-page examples and the cover (all unidentified). One more example is turned sideways. Add to that, six more multi-image illustrated rudimentary exhibits about form, figure & heads, and you've got the whole package. The back cover and the inner cover-leaves are all blank. Looking at the possibly helpful tidbit comments from the artists, I can't really characterize this as having no value, but it is certainly a meager meal.