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The Illustrated History Of Warren Magazines - Illustrators Special #14
(2023 - The Book Palace)

(by Peter Richardson) Note that my volume of this publication is marked "Revised And Expanded Edition!" (apparently including eight additional pages of art exhibits, in addition to the refreshed layout). This is a very professional overview of Jim Warren's magazine 'empire', its successes, as well as its trials & tribulations. Without being too effusive or too critical, there is a feeling of being 'backstage' amid the operation, while also providing an analysis of the industry-influence coming into being. Anecdotes are many, but from additional publications, I've certainly read still more, indicating that, with such volume, Richardson had to be selective about what all to include. Without dividing the proceedings into chapters, or aligning everything to a rigid timeline, the material comes at you as one long stream of consciousness, which adds to the inability to put the book down until you've read it all. What with all the exhibits, around which the text is packed, one gets the perception of a very dense & profuse meal. With it all coming through the portal of the ILLUSTRATORS magazine operation, you'd be surprised if the main focus-of-attention *wasn't* upon the artists. Along with a bit of original art, most of those displays are of the covers or interiors themselves. Most everything is captioned with an artist identification, but in the flurry of information, a couple of such look to have gotten missed (especially in covering examples of competitors' output). Out of 152 pages, 39 are large reproductions of their subjects, while 77 more pull together multiple images (9 pages are lost to photos or sequential art, and the one large image that expands across the book's gutter does not do so successfully--but half of the text-dominant pages also have smaller illustrations). The 'well-presented' artists here are: Reed Crandall, Jack Davis, Will Eisner, Will Elder, Enrich (2), Frank Frazetta (12)***, Basil Gogos, José Gonzalez, Larry Ivie, Ken Kelly (4)***, Jim Laurier, Alex Niño (3), José Ortiz, Kirk Reinart, Sanjulian (2)**, Stephen Segovia, Wally Wood, and Bernie Wrightson (4).

** - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by Sanjulian cannot additionally be found so in his own collections on The List.

*** - Note that in regards to the 'well-presented' pieces here by Frazetta (two of them being ads), and Kelly, for each of them, some, but not all, can additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.