Jorge Zaffino - Savage Sword of Conan

Jorge Zaffino - stands as my most recent apocalyptic, mind-altering, artistic discovery -

http://www.jorgezaffino.com/

Ken Riley - Illustrator Western Painter 4

This wraps it up with that Ken Riley Reader's Digest job  There are a few more spot illos that I left out... Speaking of Queen Elizabeth, I read Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida - Freaky - We get into the dark, tragic phase of Shakespeare's plays - His father died, Queen Elizabeth died, maybe his wife had an affair - did this affect his plays? It's all conjecture but this one's ending is pretty weird and dark - it's about the Trojan War and is sort of a take on Homer's Odyssey, yet he didn't base it on Homer, but on the medieval Trojan War compilations and additions - 

Revue Lire, France - Hugo Pratt special

http://www.lire.fr/enquete.asp/idC=51245/idR=200 Hugo Pratt gets a cover feature in a French literary magazine currently on the stands. He's basically my role model for what a cartoonist can achieve. I've read a lot of his stuff, they have them all at the library, but it was all in a bit of two-month burst, so the stories are now all one big blur. I do remember feeling that this was more of a literary experience, the stories had a more literate, erudite, mature bent. I got into Robert Louis Stevenson because of Pratt... All I remember is that he lifted Harvey Kurtzman's 'Jivaro Death' in Two-Fisted Tales directly into one of his Ann of the Jungle stories... Corto Maltese in Siberia, which takes place during the China-Russian war, and features Rasputin (not the historical Rasputin) stands out as a favorite. Fort Wheeling is another favorite, story-wise.

Ken Riley - Illustrator Western Painter 3

This was quite a big Ken Riley job - lots of illustrations in this story - dig the pastel colors...

Ken Riley - Illustrator Western Painter 2

Some more Ken Riley and more flamboyant colors - normally he has a fairly earthy and rugged color palette -

Ken Riley - Illustrator Western Painter 1

  

 Ken Riley - he studied with Harvey Dunn - 

p.s. -better known tas a cowboy artist -

http://www.caamuseum.com/members/emeritus/Kenneth-Riley

http://www.greenwichworkshop.com/studio/studio_artist.asp?artistid=55

Frank Cho - Inking samples Liberty Meadows

Frank Cho - that's some cool inking - great line - he knows when to go thick and when to go thin - the lines really flow with all kinds of subtle changes of thickness and tapering - he knows when to go tight and slick and when to keep it loose and sketchy - he knows when to throw in some black, he can go realistic or cartoony - he keeps it clean and clear but his line still has warmth and character; and he keeps it dynamic lively - so yeah that's some cool inking -done with Micron Pigma pens (size 02, 05, and 08) .

Welles' Othello (1952) and David and Goliath (1960)

comparing Welles with (uncredited) Welles. I think there's a similarity in the way certain column scenes were handled in Welles' Othello (1952) and David and Goliath (1960) - (Thanks to Tony for pointing this out on a message board.)

Fritz Lang's Kriemhild's Revenge (1924) and Orson Welles's Touch of Evil (1958)

this one's a more direct comparison between Welles and German Expressionism - we have a shot from Fritz Lang's Kriemhild's Revenge (1924) and Orson Welles's Touch of Evil (1958) - both shots superimpose a character over a horned beast in overt symbolic connotations (on the top, that's Attila the Hun, behind some monster statue, the horns aren't coming out of his head...)

David and Goliath (1961)- Fritz Lang's Siegfried (1924)

The top one is a shot from David and Goliath (1961)- the bottom is Fritz Lang's Siegfried (1924) - Again this is part of my rather oblique Orson Welles and German Expressionism influence theory - In this case there's a memoir form Welles' personal assistant on David and Goliath which confirms that he was quite involved in directing and writing on that film...