ARTIST OF THE WEEK

Sanjulian part 2.

COMIC COVERS OF THE WEEK

While I really dig Sanjulian's covers for Vampirella I posted last week, I think he did his best work for Warren Publishing's other mags, CREEPY and EERIE.

So much good stuff I could probably to a part 3.

HORROR BABE OF THE WEEK

 One of the original Queens of horror movies, classic beauty Hazel Court.

Hazel's long career in horror movies began in 1952 with GHOST SHIP, followed by 1954's DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS (which is more Sci-Fi, but I'm including it anyway.) In 1957 she starred in the film most horror fans know her for, Hammer's THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. She also starred in Hammer's THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH in 1959, 1961's DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN,  '62's THE PREMATURE BURIAL, '63's THE RAVEN, '64's THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, and an uncredited role in 1981's OMEN III: THE FINAL CONFLICT.

MOVIE POSTERS OF THE WEEK

Hazel's movies...

DR. BLOOD"S COFFIN

Continuing with Vampirella...

ARTIST OF THE WEEK

This week features another cover artist, this time one of my all time favorites, (Manuel Perez Clemente) Sanjulian.

Sanjulian was born in Barcelona, Spain in 1941, and began his career in advertising. By 1961 he was working for 20th Century Fox in Spain, then after 18 months of military service he started doing illustrations for the comics sections in Spain, Germany, and many Scandinvian countries.

His popularity increased when he began working for British publishers like Futura, Harrow, and Fontana. (I haven't been able to dig up any of his work during this period.)

In 1970, Sanjulian hit the U.S. market, providing covers for Warren Publishing's CREEPY, EERIE, 1984, FAMOUS MONSTERS, and of course, VAMPIRELLA. Over the years, he did a total of 59 covers for Warren, and there's not a bad one in the bunch.

He also provided covers for just about every major U.S. book publisher. Including covers for the works of Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and numerous other Sci-Fi and Fantasy authors.

There's been two collections of his work that I know of, SANJULIAN published by Norma Editorial in 1984, which I can't find anywhere, and SANJULIAN MASTER VISIONARY published by SQP in 2001. Beautiful stuff.

Like Enrich last week, it was a bitch picking and choosing what images to post, I just might have to do a Sanjulian Part two...

Let's start it off with a Vampi sketch.

Various non-Vampi sketches and paintings. (Sketches my ass....)

COVERS OF THE WEEK

Some of Sanjulian's Vampirella covers.

Vampi #12, his first Vampi cover.

Vampi #36

His last cover for Vampi. #113.

HORROR BABE OF THE WEEK

This week, the star of the VAMPIRELLA film that did get made, Talisa Soto. From everything I've heard, we might have been better off if the 1996 film had not been made, a real stinker I'm told, but the star sure is pretty to look at.

Talisa also starred in 2000's ISLAND OF THE DEAD.

MOVIE POSTERS OF THE WEEK

Talisa's two horror films.

Lots of pictures, very little typing this week.

Continuing with the VAMPIRELLA theme...

ARTIST OF THE WEEK / COMIC COVERS OF THE WEEK

I'm combining the two this week because this weeks artist only did covers or illustrations, no interior comic pages as far as I can find out.

This week, Enrich (Torres), primarily known for his cover paintings for Warren Magazines, and in particularly, his covers for Vampirella. (Like last weeks Jose Gonzalez on interiors, many people consider Enrich the definitive cover artist for Vampi.)

Finding info on Enrich has proven very difficult. The only things I've been able to dig up is, he was born in 1939 in Barcelona, Spain. He painted 61 covers for Warren's various magazines, 52 for Vampirella alone. He also did a few covers for Heavy Metal, and now concentrates on fine art illustrations.

It was also a complete bitch choosing which covers to show...they're all good!

Vampirella Covers:

The cover to DRACULA #5

Sketch.

Preliminary for Vampirella #91

Astrological Calendar illustration from 1981.

1977 cover to Roger Zelazney's Sign of the Unicorn.

That's some good stuff.

THE (almost) HORROR BABE OF THE WEEK

Sticking with the Vampirella theme, this weeks babe is the lovely Barbara Leigh.

She is "almost" a horror babe because she was signed to star in the first Vampirella film announced in 1975, a co production between Warren Publishing and Hammer Films. Sadly, the film never got made due to Hammer's finacial problems at the time. Who can say if the movie would have been any good, but any film set to co-star Peter Cushing wouldn't have been all bad.

Miss Leigh hasn't starred in any horror movies, but she gets a pass due to her Vampi involvement.

MOVIE POSTERS OF THE WEEK

Since the Vampi film didn't get made, there's no movie posters this week.

But here's a couple Vampirella covers featuring Miss Leigh.

ARTIST OF THE WEEK

Just to make Daniel Lundie happy , this week and the next couple weeks (I think), I'm going to spotlight artists who did a lot of work for Warren Magazine's VAMPIRELLA. One thing's for sure, with the line up of talented artists that worked on the series, there's no shortage of material.

This week will feature the gentleman many people consider the definitive VAMPIRELLA artist, Jose (Pepe) Gonzalez.

Like many of the artists associated with the Spanish Invasion, information is scarce, and sometimes conflicting. In Jose's case, his first comic was either the western DOC HOLLIDAY for the French market, or ROSAS BLANCAS in Spain. He was born in 1939, or 1941...pick one.

Jose went on to specialize in romantic comics for the British market, drawing strips for publications such as VALENTINE, ROXI, and MARILYN, as well as drawing an adaptation of the 1960's TV show THE AVENGERS. I tried find pics from all of these, but my Goggle-fu has failed me. Anybody have some pics, hook me up please.

Jose's first work in the States appeared in 1970 for the humor magazine CARTOON LAUGHS, followed one year later with his debut in VAMPIRELLA #12. He went on to draw 58 strips for Warren, including strips in 1984 and COMICS INTERNATIONAL, becoming one of their most prolific artists.

From what info I've been able to dig up, the Warren strips were his only major work for the US market. In the 80's he returned to working in Spain with strips for Norma Publishing's CHANTAL and MAMBA, and now spends his time concentrating on fine art and illustration.

If the pics below get you interested in seeing more of Jose's work, get yourself a copy of  VAMPIRELLA: CRIMSON CHRONICLES VOLUME 3, which I just picked up. It's pretty much an all Jose Gonzalez collection and worth every penny.

Not  sure of which issues these two appeared in, but who cares, just look at them.

From Vampirella 29 page 9.

Vampirella 34 Splash page.

Vampirella 39

Vampirella 41

Vampirella 43

And to give you a taste of his non-Vampi work, here's a CHANTAL page for your viewing pleasure.

COMIC COVERS OF THE WEEK

Here's the four covers Jose did for Vampirella.

HORROR BABE OF THE WEEK

This weeks beauty, Tippi Hedren. I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

Tippi's most well known horror film would have to be Alfred Hitchcock's  THE BIRDS from 1963, one of my favorites which I still need to get on DVD. She also starred in Hitchcock's 1964 MARNIE, which I haven't seen.

She also had roles in the (I'm assuming) direct to DVD/Video films, MIND LIES in 2000,  SEARCHING FOR HAIZMANN and DARKWOLF, both in 2003. I also haven't seen these three. Anybody seen them, any good?

MOVIE POSTERS OF THE WEEK

I haven't been able to locate posters for Tippi's last three horror films, which is why I'm assuming the direct to DVD, but I do have some pretty cool ones for The Birds and Marnie.

Not much typing going on this week for a couple of reasons. One, the Artist of the Week this time around I really know jack-shit about (other than I dig his work,) Two, it's been a long ass week at work, and Three, I've been drinking. So forgive any typos, I'll edit when I'm sober.

ARTIST OF THE WEEK

ER Cruz.

Like I said above, I don't know much about the man, and apparently nobody else does either judging from the internet and the reference materials I have on hand. What I can tell you is: he is from the Phillippines, and was part of "The Phillippine Invasion" of comic artists that took place in the 70's. The majority of his work was for DC, mainly their anthology titles like SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE, THE WITCHING HOUR, GHOSTS, and THE UNEXPECTED, along with illustrating stories for GI COMBAT, and DC's version of THE SHADOW. He also produced stories Warren Magazines various titles (EERIE and 1984/1994.)

He's also the guy that drew the first page of original art I ever purchased, page 44 of GI COMBAT # 246. If my scanner was working, I'd happily share some of 27 pages that Cruz did that are now in my collection, which includes a complete 12 page story that he did for GI COMBAT #279. But it isn't, so I can't, which sucks, because you really need to see this man's pages originally size to fully appreciate his detailed brushwork.

It's just some beautiful stuff.

Although I really should hate the man. I've never been much of a back issue hunter, but buying some of his originals sent me on spending sprees for DC's old anthology titles the likes of which my wallet hopes to never see again. (Not to mention finding the time to...y'know, read the damn things!)

ER's Stuff:

A couple of pages from GHOSTS #26.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY #257

THE WITCHING HOUR #46

HOUSE OF MYSTERY #278

COMIC COVERS OF THE WEEK

I've usually posted covers by the Artist of the Week, but since ER Cruz didn't do many covers, at least none that I could find, we'll do something different this week. Covers I dig from comics that had Cruz doing work on the interior.

THE UNEXPECTED #175, October 1976 by Luis Dominguez.

GHOSTS #33 December 1974 by Nick Cardy.

EERIE #117 December 1980 by Enrich.

EERIE #132 July 1982 by Sanjulian.

1994 #11 February 1980 by Alex Nino.

HORROR BABE OF THE WEEK

Let's go old school this week. The one, the only, the original Bride of Frankenstein, Elsa Lanchester. (Talk about a bitch, try finding non Frankenstein pictures of her....)

Elsa starred in three horror movies as far as I can tell. The classic 1935 BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, which is one of my all time favorites, and two that I don't recall seeing, 1946's THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE  and 1973's  TERROR IN THE WAX MUSEUM..

MOVIE POSTERS OF THE WEEK

Some of the posters for the movies starring Elsa.

There are a ton of movie posters for "Bride" out there, the majority of them are really cool, here's just a few of them.

The Spiral Staircase also had some great designs.

On the other hand, I only found one variation of the "Terror..."

ARTIST OF THE WEEK

This week, the late Tom Sutton.

Tom Sutton's underrated career in the comic industry began after a stint in the military, where he produced the strips F.E.A.H. DRAGON and JOHNNY CRAIG for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. In 1967 his first story appeared in Warren Magazines EERIE #11, and with that, Sutton became a regular contributor to Jim Warren's company. Producing a total of 61 stories over the years, including VAMPIRELLA's first appearance in strip form in Vampirella #1 published in September 1969.

During his career spanning five decades, Sutton worked for just about every publisher under the sun, including DC, Marvel, Skywald, Charlton, Eclipse, and First to name a few.

My first taste of Sutton's work came in August 1981 when I purchased Marvel Premiere #61 featuring Star Lord. I still remember copying his drawings from that issue, and if I had the extra grand, I'd buy the artwork for the entire issue, which I found for sale when searching for pics for this and you can see HERE. (Don't worry if you're too lazy to click on the link, a couple of the pages are shown below.)

Unfortunately, with the exceptions of a few of the Warren mags, his run on DC's Star Trek, and his run on Grimjack for First Comics, I don't have a lot of his work in my collection. A good portion of his horror work, and from what I hear his most inspired horror work due to the artistic freedom given at the company, was from Charlton Comics. I might have picked these up, but Charlton comics were not available in my area (the only time I saw one was on a vacation in Virginia.... it was pretty terrible!)

Another series he's known for, and I don't have, is the Future Chronicles series that ran in Marvel's B&W magazine Planet of the Apes during the 70's. I've seen some of the pages for this, there's one posted below, and the detail is just stunning. I would love to own one of the originals, but I'll have to settle for tracking down the issues his stories appeared in.

He also produced porn comics for Fantagraphic's Eros line towards the end of his career under the name of Dementia. (No, I don't have any of those either.)

Sadly, Tom Sutton passed away of a heart attack while at his drawing board in May 2002.

How about some pics!

From Eerie #45

From Planet of the Apes

From Marvel's Werewolf By Night #9

From Marvel Premiere #61

COMIC COVERS OF THE WEEK

Some more Tom Sutton.

Ghostly Haunts #'s 38 and 41 from Charlton

Eerie #18

Creepy #'s 22 and 23

HORROR BABE OF THE WEEK

Okay, maybe non-horror babe of the week this time, but this one was requested, so this one's for you Dewayne.

Besides, who's going to bitch about looking at pictures of Raquel Welch?!

Lovely Raquel didn't star in any horror movies, she did star in Hammer's ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. in 1966, and FANTASTIC VOYAGE the same year. That's close enough for me.( I should have noted who made Fantastic Voyage, but I was busy looking at pictures.)

MOVIE POSTERS OF THE WEEK

The posters for the two Raquel movies mention above. (Surprisingly, there aren't a lot of variations of the One Million Years B.C. poster out there, or at least I couldn't find them...)

ARTIST OF THE WEEK

Stephen R. Bissette. This guy's work with Alan Moore and John Totleben on the DC Comics title Swamp Thing is what got me into horror comics. I'd been a horror fan since I can remember and a comics fan since I was twelve, but for some reason I never combined the two. Until the day I picked up Swamp Thing #23 "Another Green World". Completely knocked my socks off.

For me, Bissette is the best storyteller I've seen in horror comics.  His panel arrangements, his page designs, were a major influence on me in my few attempts at drawing comics. The man knew how to tell a horror story with his pictures.

Later on, the man proved he knew how to tell a story with words and pictures, creating the most ...disturbing story I've ever read, "Cottonmouth" published in the horror anthology Taboo #1, which Bissette edited and published through his own Spider Baby Graphix. After Taboo ended with Volume 9, he followed up with his most critically acclaimed work to date, Tyrant. The painstakingly researched and developed story chronicling the life of a Tyrannosaurus Rex from birth to death. Sadly, due to the collapse of the direct market, Tyrant ceased publication with issue 4 (I still miss it,) and in 1999, fed up with the industry he worked his magic in for 25 years, Bissette retired.

You can catch up with Steve at his entertaining blog, Myrant.

You can also pick up his Swamp Thing run collected in trade paperbacks at Amazon, or your local comic shop.

Enough rambling, time for some pics.

Swamp Thing pages. Pencils by Bisstte, inks by John Totleben.

Words by Alan Moore.

Tyrant pages, pencils and inks by Bissette.

COMIC COVER(S) OF THE WEEK

More Bisstte. With Totleben.

With Rick Veitch, adaptation of Steven Spielberg's 1979 film 1941.

Bissette's cover to Tyrant #1.

HORROR BABE OF THE WEEK

No Hammer babe this week. Instead we have the star of Universal's 1954 Creature from the Black Lagoon, the lovely Julia/Julie Adams.

Now if Julia had only starred in Creature from the Black Lagoon, I'd be content. It is one of my all time faves, and so is she. But she also starred in two other horror films, both of which I haven't seen. 1975's Psychic Killer and 1988's Black Roses.

Anybody seen these? Any good?

MOVIE POSTERS OF THE WEEK

As usual, the posters for the films starring the horror babe of the week. (Hey it makes digging this stuff up easier!)

ARTIST OF THE WEEK

This week, I'm taking a little break from the horror art to shine some light on an artist that many people, including me, consider one of the best science fiction artists of all time, Wally Wood.

The first I ever heard of  Wallace Wood was a press release about his suicide back in 1981. At the time, I'd actually never seen any of his work, and wouldn't see any of his work until years later, while tracking down work from another SF great named Al Williamson, I came across his stuff in The Complete Weird Science Library edition. You talk about love at first sight!

Williamson no longer mattered, well he did, and still does, but Wood really captured my imagination, so naturally, I had to track down more of his work. Unfortunately for my wallet, Wood was a very prolific artist. Not only prolific, but extremely versatile, producing page after page of comic masterpieces for every genre EC Comics published. Romance, war, western, SF, horror, comedy... you name it, Wood could draw it, and draw it well.

So after much time spent searching, and many large dents inflicted upon my bank account, I ended up with this...

The prize of my collection, and worth every moment and every dime spent acquiring them.

Now if I could just become filthy rich so I could own a Wally Wood original page...

You can find out more about Wally's history at this link.. Plus, there's quite a few books about Wally and his work available for your reading and viewing pleasure on the market. Do yourself a favor by doing a book search at Amazon.com and ordering up some Wood for your entertainment.

A page from EC's Weird Science #20, published in 1952.

Some illustrations from Galaxy magazine, which I had never seen before and what inspired me to do this spotlight on Wally.

September 1957

November 1957

June 1960

Now if you need to see some HorrorWood, go check out the complete adaptation of THE MUMMY starring Boris Karloff.

COVER OF THE WEEK

Sounds like a good excuse to post more Wood! Matter of fact, let's make it a triple shot of covers from EC Comics.

HORROR BABE OF THE WEEK

I've been on a Hammer Films binge of late, so as long as nobody minds, for the third time running, this will spotlight a beauty from the British studio. This time, the lovely Veronica Carlson.

Beautiful and talented. Not only is she one of the most well regarded actresses that worked for Hammer, she's also a very talented portrait artist. Here's an example, her portrait of the late Peter Cushing.

Veronica starred in three films for Hammer: Dracula Has Risen From The Grave in 1968, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed in 1969, and 1970's The Horror of Frankenstein , which I haven't seen, but will be getting sooner or later. She also co-starred with Hammer mainstay Peter Cushing in the 1975 Tyburn Film production The Ghoul (AKA Night of the Ghoul,) which isn't readily available.

So, did anybody mind the lovely Veronica?

MOVIE POSTERS OF THE WEEK

Again, in honor of the Horror Babe of the Week, here's the posters for her four horror films.

I just wish a had a way to find out who the designers and artists were for these movie posters. Some of these posters rock, and I loved to list credits if I could.

"Imagine The Outlaw Josey Wales riding into 'Salem's Lot."

That was the promotional line for the first volume of Todd Livingston, Robert Tinnell, and Neil Vokes' The Wicked West, and a good one at that. A gritty graphic novel mixing the western and horror genres that the Washington Times called "an 82 page beauty", and was picked as Scoop's 2004 Comic Trade Paperback of the year. Well deserved, it was one of my favorites of the year.

Check out The Wicked West Homepage for additional information, including an online trailer, and this link for a review/preview of the first book.

I don't know what the promotional line for THE WICKED WEST 2: ABOMINATION & OTHER TALES is, what I do know is the 144 page book is tententivly set for a September debut from Image Comics, features a 52 page lead story (Abomination by Bob Tinnell and Neil Vokes,) plus a ton of short stories by an all star line up of comic creators. (More info on whom when the time comes.)

I also have a bunch of Preview pages for your viewing pleasure.

First up, one of my favorites, Neil Vokes:

Now some preview pages for a few of the short stories.

Adrian Salmon (I'll have to do a spotlight on this guy, the work he did on his first graphic novel blew me away.)

David Michael Beck

Micah Farritor

Scott Keating

Now that's something to look forward to September for, don't you think?

By the way, if anybody's in the Pittsburgh area, Bob Tinnell, Neil Vokes, and at least one of the artists doing a short story for the book will be at this years' Pittsburgh Comicon, stop in and say hello to two of the nicest guys in comics. While you're there, get a sketch or original page from Neil, they're worth every penny.

ARTIST FOR THE DAY

A little spotlight on Spain's Esteban Maroto.

I've heard his work was criticized at the time for lack of storytelling skills, and the critics may have a point. But man, he sure did draw purty. Nice pen and ink work, and while I'm not sure if Maroto did the color work himself, that's the other thing I really like about the work.

COMIC COVER OF THE DAY

Since I mention CREEPY #51, I might as well show Sanjulian's fantastic cover to the magazine.

More on Sanjulian later, he deserves his own little spotlight.

HORROR BABE OF THE DAY

Yvonne Monlaur. Star of Hammer Films BRIDES OF DRACULA, Terror of the Tongs (which isn't readily available on DVD or video for some reason,) and Lynx Films Ltd./AIP's CIRCUS OF HORRORS.

She also voiced a character in The Black Forest Radio Play, which is a promotion for the graphic novel The Black Forest by my friends Bob Tinnell, Todd Livingston, and Neil Vokes. Go check it out.

MOVIE POSTERS OF THE DAY

Again, in honor of  the horror babe of the day: