James Bama - American Realist
                                             (2006 - Flesk)  

     (by Brian M. Kane)    There are a few books published that celebrate James Bama's artistry, but all focus specifically on his transition to practitioner in the fine art market . . . except this very welcome one.  160 pages that, after passages by Harlan Ellison & Len Leone, present seven 'portfolios':  Portrait Of An Illustrator, Men's Adventure, Science Fiction & Horror, Pop Culture, Doc Savage, Westward Ho!, and American Realist.  So, there are 135 pages where his art could be said to dominate or hold its own.  51 of those are presentations of multiple smaller images, mostly plastic-model, paperback & magazine covers, with another 84 large reproductions of his paintings (half of those full-bleed).  Note that also 14 of those pages are allowing seven pieces to expand over the book's central-gutter, but all remain acceptable like that.  A number of the remaining pages are photographs of Bama or models posing for his compositions.  The text includes a breezy biography and quoted comments, mostly from the artist himself, but also quite a few other creators.  The paintings are captioned with the title, size, medium, and commercial use (if one).  A 'must have' for fans of his genre work.

other Flesk releases

  William Stout:  New Dinosaur Discoveries A-Z

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