A century of illustrative and cover art. - by Tocky
zacharias on 30/4/2021 at 14:02
Loving this thread, Tocky! Those EC comic covers are insane :D
I also love me some Frazetta although I didn't even know about him till later.
Around the time period 89-91 my life was school and the usual nonsense, with the weekends being church (boo!) then football on sunday afternoons. But Saturday was d&d time. So most weekends my best friend and I would be at either house, doing rpg stuff (ad&d, chill, rifts), computer games (My mate had an Atari ST which everyone at school took the piss out of, I was a megadrive man) or discussing dragonlance books etc. What a full nerd eh, but those were good times.
I was also loving the illustrations and getting into all the art of books; in those days the TSR art staff was very very good: Parkinson, Easley, Elmore, Caldwell etc. They did most of the TSR covers and interiors and a lot of the covers for Dragon magazine. They all loved Frazetta. Me: what's Frazetta? So that was one to research. I'm not saying they were as good as Frazetta mind you, although Parkinson was a very good artist imo. (He sadly died way too young.) Easley was very good too.
Sometimes I would go into Plymouth with the old man on saturdays (he was a workaholic) and I'd be searching for a few copies of Dragon magazine, some cast rpg figures of perhaps a new rpg book. Dragon had some awesome covers, check out this link:
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https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiS3MTgzqXwAhUPzTgGHRQ4B9EQFjAAegQICxAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Findex.rpg.net%2Fdisplay-search.phtml%3Fkey%3Dmagazine%26value%3DDragon%26type%3Dpictures&usg=AOvVaw3jhn0RNPMr-mxHsIvrvQsv) https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiS3MTgzqXwAhUPzTgGHRQ4B9EQFjAAegQICxAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Findex.rpg.net%2Fdisplay-search.phtml%3Fkey%3Dmagazine%26value%3DDragon%26type%3Dpictures&usg=AOvVaw3jhn0RNPMr-mxHsIvrvQsv
Issue 143 and 146 I remember very well, killer stuff.
Inline Image:
https://www.rpg.net/pictures/show-pic.phtml?picid=7098 Dragon 143 Cover By Denis Beauvais
Inline Image:
https://www.rpg.net/pictures/show-pic.phtml?picid=8418Dragon 146 Cover by Keith Parkinson
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Hammer Horror brings back memories too. We used to videotape them at Gran's house for watching the next morning. They were on at 11pm or midnight, and too scary for a kid to watch at that hour. Good times :cool:
Tocky on 1/5/2021 at 03:49
Quote Posted by zacharias
Sometimes I would go into Plymouth with the old man on saturdays (he was a workaholic) and I’d be searching for a few copies of Dragon magazine, some cast rpg figures of perhaps a new rpg book. Dragon had some awesome covers,
This brought back a memory to me. I was having a conversation with someone on the Warren Facebook page a few years back when I mentioned going to the drug store in Oxford to read comics and buy some as a kid but I didn't buy many Vampirella because the covers were so racy I was afraid someone would think that was the reason I had bought them. They said that was a shame and talked about how a sneeze could turn into an exposed nipple really quick in that skimpy outfit and then they talked about the early comicons and seemed to know a lot of the big names at Warren and a lot of detail. We talked for a long while about various things. Then someone else interrupted with "OMG that IS Vampirella!" I hadn't noticed the persons sex even. I told them they were crazy. Vampirella is a fictional character. No. That is Barbara Leigh, the original Vampirella model, Steve McQueens woman, the one on the photo covers of Vampi. Wow. Of course that killed the conversation but it was pretty cool to know and I guess she enjoyed talking about those days with someone who obviously didn't know who he was talking to.
Inline Image:
https://i0.wp.com/reprobatepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/vampirella107.jpg?fit=600%2C800&ssl=1I hadn't actually hung with the comic that long. To me this is the quintessential Vampirella- decidedly NOT real.
Inline Image:
https://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/5496489.jpg
zacharias on 1/5/2021 at 07:13
Hehe, that's great Tocky.
We had a year in the states around 83-84. A fantastic experience. Again the old man's doing. I was very young so it's all a bit hazy but in that period we bought and read quite a few comics. Some favourites were Spider Man drawn by Romita I think. They were the old comics from the late 60's I believe but still readily available. I remember a great one where a circus master hypnotises spidey and he has to fight daredevil, who eventually saves the day. I've since bought a lot of these on comiXology and they're still very enjoyable for me. They really hit that nostalgia sweet spot for me.
Edit: It was amazing Spider Man 16, drawn by Steve Ditko.
Inline Image:
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/a/uploads/scale_large/0/4/6689-2127-7301-1-amazing-spider-man-.jpgAnother comic I never bought a lot of but have very fond memories of, is ‘Savage Sword of Conan'. Printed a little oversize, and had enough monsters, babes and grisly deaths to keep any young boy happy :D
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http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/savage-sword-of-conan) http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/savage-sword-of-conan
Art by John Buscema and loads of other greats (and not so greats), covers by Boris Vallejo and others.
Inline Image:
http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/savage-sword-of-conan/95-1.jpgI have fond memories of issue 95. A rat cult kidnaps the damsel and Conan saves the day. Not because of any altruism though. He wants the reward :p
Harvester on 1/5/2021 at 08:30
Yeah, I knew a couple of guys who were into Storm and have read one or two of the books myself. Not just the covers but also the art inside was beautiful to look at.