Todd Klein's Blog, page 203

More American Illustrators at the Delaware Art Museum

Images from the collection of the Delaware Art Museum.

After enjoying the Howard Pyle galleries, Ellen and I continued to the American Illustration galleries. The museum seems to have a large collection in this area, which is only fitting since many of the top American Illustrators studied in Wilmington, Delaware, the home of Howard Pyle’s illustration school. I don’t know that Frank Leyendecker was one of them, but this is a charming cover for “The Country Gentleman” magazine from 1918 of a soldier writing home and the spirit of his mother embracing him.

Andrew Loomis is another giant in the field who did not study with Pyle. This illustrates a story by Jessamyn West from “The Ladies’ Home Journal” of March, 1946.

Frank Schoonover did study with Pyle, and this dramatic cover of Macbeth and Banquo’s ghost for the book “Tales from Shakespeare” by Charles and Mary Lamb shows his influence.

Another Schoonover, this one appeared on the covers of two different books issued a year apart, an unusual event. The first was “The Wolf, The Cat and The Nightingale” by Stanley Hart Cauffman, the second was Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The White Company.”

This “Harper’s Bazar” cover from 1913 did not particularly impress me until I looked closely at the lettering…

…and found it was painted on the canvas with white paint! A remarkable achievement, the publisher info at right is pretty small. You can see areas where tiny parts have dropped off. Incidentally, the spelling of the magazine’s name later changed to “Bazaar.”

Probably my favorite American illustrator after Maxfield Parrish is N.C. Wyeth, another student of Howard Pyle. There’s an entire museum devoted to the work of Wyeth and his family, the Brandywine River Museum of Art. We’ve been there several times, including last year, but the pictures in the Delaware Art Museum were new to me. This one illustrates the story, “The Medicine Ship” by James B. Connelly in “Scribners Magazine,” December 1915.

Here’s a detailed look at two of those great faces.

Another Wyeth is one of the paintings for “Drums” by James W. Boyd, the fifteenth book illustrated by Wyeth for the Scribners Illustrated Classics series, published in 1928.

There are also some N.C. Wyeth murals at the museum, but we missed them, unfortunately, by not going upstairs to the second level. We’ll have to go back!

Next time, some of the Delaware Art Museum’s extensive collection of Pre-Raphaelite art.

Howard Pyle at the Delaware Art Museum

Images from the Delaware Art Museum collections.

For my birthday this year, Ellen and I went to the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, Delaware and enjoyed an impressive collection of art that’s right in my centers of interest. I have lots of pictures, so I’m going to spread them over three posts, beginning with the work of Howard Pyle (1853-1911).

Pyle was a native of Wilmington with a long career as a painter, magazine illustrator, author and teacher. The museum has a large and excellent display of his illustrations and paintings, several with a pirate theme, as above attack on a spanish galleon.

Whether working in color or black and white, as was usually required for interior magazine illustrations, Pyle’s mastery of lighting, action and storytelling is clear.

Details of the burning ship painting above. Pyle worked precisely and often at sizes not a lot larger than the work would be printed.

Pirates exhorting tribute from the citizens of a town. Pyle often painted in color even when he knew the image would be reproduced in black and white, in order to have a more appealing painting to sell. He needed a good eye for value to make this work.

Detail from the painting above.

In this pirate painting, “Marooned,” you can see the deft use of composition to emphasize the feeling of isolation, and the impressive use of color. Pyle’s “School of Illustration Art” trained many of the best American Illustrators that followed him, including N.C. Wyeth, and you can see Pyle’s influence in many of Wyeth’s own paintings, including those for “Treasure Island.” The long list of Pyle students who went on to illustration careers of their own includes Frank Schoonover, Harvey Dunn and Jessie Willcox Smith.

Another pirate plunder image making good use of a limited palette of colors.

Pirates dividing their loot on a sandy shore, with back lighting for added drama.

Pyle’s “The Buccaneer.” An interesting thing I learned from the exhibit was that Pyle had little to go on as far as what the pirates wore, so he invented these costumes for them. His ideas were imitated by Wyeth and other illustrators, then adopted by Hollywood, where they are still in use today in films like “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

Pyle’s “The Coming Tide,” from a story by James Branch Cabell, an author I like, though I haven’t read this one. In his long career Pyle illustrated all kinds of subjects and genres.

Unlike many illustrators, Pyle also wrote stories for magazines himself, like “The Salem Wolf,” illustrated here.

Pyle also wrote and illustrated a number of books for young readers, including a four-volume retelling of the King Arthur legends. An example of his line illustrations for those is shown here and it suggests possible inspiration for Hal Foster’s “Prince Valiant” comic strip. Other books written and illustrated by Pyle include “The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood,” “Otto of the Silver Hand,” and “Men of Iron.”

One of Pyle’s illustrations for his own book, “The Garden Behind the Moon.” It’s a book I haven’t read, and I bought an inexpensive reprint at the museum that I’ll be getting to one day. There are ten illustrations for the book on display, and it looks like an entertaining fantasy, though with a dark side.

Next time, more American Illustrators on display at the Delaware Art Museum.

And Then I Read: SURVIVORS’ CLUB 4

Image © Beukes, Halvorsen and Kelly.

The story lines of the first three issues are set aside to allow the exploration of the very odd Muskagee House, which has been talked about earlier as both an actual haunted house and the setting of a horror film series. We explore the actual house (I think) in the company of one of its ghosts, and meet several others, as well as the husband and wife team of religious ghost-busters who are the living inhabitants. It’s a trippy tale that makes it hard to tell what’s supposed to be real and what’s coming from the imagination of the ghosts, or even the horror films. It has some chilling moments, but in all the tone did not convince me or draw me in. Rather it kept me puzzled and unsure what to think about the purpose of this diversion. There have been some creepy haunted houses in comics, but this does not come across to me as one of them when all is said and done, and it raised more questions than it answered.

Mildly recommended.

A Milestone

Image © DC Comics.

For those of you who don’t follow me on Facebook, I have a series of posts and photo albums there called “Logo of the Day.” Above is the one I posted today, with this comment:

Logo of the Day #1310: TRIUMPH designed by Todd Klein for the first issue dated June 1995. Photocopy of original logo from my files, image © DC Comics. I consider it a minor triumph to have reached age 65 today while still doing the work in comics I enjoy!

It does seem odd to me that I’ve managed to find a career in comics, or even in art at all, when that seemed so unlikely to me when I was growing up. It wasn’t even on my radar, to be honest. As a kid I loved to read, draw, play music, and lots of other things. If I looked ahead to a career back then, I thought I might possibly become a writer, but couldn’t foresee that as a secure living. In grade school, a vocational test decided I should become a forest ranger. I thought that sounded okay, I loved the outdoors. In grade school I did well in math and science, but less well in high school with more competition. I didn’t head in the Art direction until senior year when I finally realized art class was my favorite, and had been all four years. I went to art school for two years, then ran out of money and had to get a mundane job to support myself. I worked at several paperwork jobs, and at one was able to use some of my art training to design air conditioner user manuals.

In 1977, on a whim, I put together an art portfolio and applied for jobs at Marvel and DC. The Marvel job was for Art Director in the magazine division, and I wasn’t close to being qualified for it. At DC, my portfolio was looked at by Vince Colletta, who told me I didn’t have the skills to draw comics, but he must have seen something in those air conditioner manual paste-ups. He introduced me to the Production Manager, Jack Adler. Jack liked my portfolio, and he needed someone to fill in for a vacationing production staffer for two weeks. I was thrilled to accept! I took those two weeks as vacation from my current job, and had a wonderful time working at DC with people like John Workman, Bob LeRose and Bob Rozakis. At the end of the two weeks, the vacationing employee gave notice, he’d taken another job, so I was offered the position. I took it, and have been in comics ever since.

And here I am at 65, and still doing it! What a strange and wonderful thing.

1945 DC Party Photo UPDATE

From 1945 party photo

About a week ago I posted a long article about a recently surfaced photo from DC Comics’ 1945 holiday party. You can read that HERE. A few corrections and updates have been added since it was posted, which I’ll summarize.

I’ve been waiting to hear from Diane Ostrander-Kaye on this person, who I thought was Marion Kaye, the wife of artist Stan Kaye. Marion is still with us, and Diane had promised to show her the photo as soon as possible. Diane told me Marion’s short-term memory is not good, but her long-term memory is still really good. Yesterday she told me:

Had lunch with Marion today and showed her the pic. She says it is not her. She doesn’t remember even going but agrees that it is Stan (near this person in the picture). Marion said she would have been about four months pregnant with their first child, so maybe she remained home. She is sure she would remember if she was there.

So, that crosses off one person in my “Probably Identified” category, and her identity remains a mystery, like many others.

Here’s a photo of Marion, Stan and their children from a few years later, courtesy of Diane Ostrander-Kaye.

From 1945 party photo

Also in my “Probably Identified” category was this woman, who I think is Gussie Donenfeld, Harry’s wife. I have one photo of her from their wedding in 1918, from the book “Men of Tomorrow” by Gerard Jones, but it’s too small to reproduce here, and the faces are hard to make out. I had another photo I thought was of Harry and Gussie from the wedding of Bernard Kashdan in 1952:

But Bennett Kashdan, who gave me the photo, contacted me to tell me the woman behind Harry is actually Jack Liebowitz’s wife Rose, not Gussie. I still think the well-dressed woman in the party photo might be Gussie Donenfeld, but I’ve moved her entry to the “Possibly Identified” category.

From 1945 party photo

On the plus side, my former boss at DC, Bob Rozakis, told me he’d identified this person, writing: “I’m almost 100% certain that #39 is Dave Vern / David V Reed.” Bob knew Reed in the 1970s when he returned to scripting comics for DC, so I’m happy to accept this identification. Born David Levine in 1924, he wrote for all kinds of markets and genres. As far as I know he began writing comics for National/DC as David V. Reed around 1949, so I’m not sure why he would be at this party, unless he actually began years earlier, but he is on Milt Snapinn’s hand-written guest list.

All these changes have already been incorporated into the main article, thought I’d put them in a new post too, since many readers of the original article aren’t likely to reread it.

 

 

And Then I Read: SWAMP THING 1

Image © DC Comics

Len Wein, creator of Swamp Thing, and Kelley Jones had the hit of the recent Convergence crossover event with their version of Swamp Thing, and have been rewarded with a new ongoing series. In many ways it’s a throwback to comics of the past, but at the same time is great fun to read, so I’m all for it. Len’s opening captions take us back to the feel of the original series he did with artist Bernie Wrightson, and Kelley’s art is clearly strongly influenced by Wrightson, though Jones has is own distinct style. It’s not an homage, but it feels retro. Swamp Thing seems to be on his own in the Louisiana bayou swamps, no sign of a supporting cast. His first opponent is a very large crocodile. The story moves in a straightforward way to a rescue, and then a request for help against black magic. The muck monster seems secure in his own vegetable skin, and not full of worries and fears, as has often been the case in recent series. His abilities are certainly informed by what Alan Moore and others did with the character, and Jones has a great time depicting them. So far the story line is uncomplicated and the cast small, but that’s kind of refreshing. I can’t see any reason not to read and enjoy this comic for what it is, rather than hold it up against what other creators have put forth, and that’s what I plan to do. I suggest you do the same.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: UNFOLLOW 3

Image © Williams & Dowling

The plot thickens, and the thickening is well handled in this issue. For the 140 “winners” of the shares of the dying Mr. “Billionaire” Ferrell’s fortune, it seems like a wonderful windfall. Now they’re all gathering on his private island, and a more diverse collection of characters it would be hard to imagine. The stalking cat on the cover is a nice symbol for what’s likely to come next, as the 140 find out more about Ferrell and his bequest, and what they might have to do to get their hands on his fortune. Let’s just say, it’s not all pie and cake, but it should make for great reading.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: JUSTICE LEAGUE 47

Image © DC Comics

I have to say, Geoff Johns does evil psychotic characters well. There are lots of them in this story, either heroes made temporarily so through circumstance, or those with evil intent giving their madness free rein. Then there are a few, like Wonder Woman, who are islands of sanity trying to keep it together and fight the good fight without unnecessary cruelty. Even help others if she can. It does make for good drama (or melodrama if you like), and the visuals by Jason Fabok are fab, too. I’m getting tired of the Darkseid War, but still enjoyed reading this.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: THE MARVELS by Brian Selznick

Images © Brian Selznick

As with his first book, and I presume the second (haven’t read it yet), Brian Selznick brings a surprising and wonderful combination of storytelling types and mediums to his third book. About half is text and about half is wordless pencil drawings of considerable skill (almost 400 pages of them), each filling a two-page spread edge to edge like this:

And neither my scan nor the size I can show it here does the work justice. The long art-only section which opens the book is mostly wordless except for a few printed signs and newspaper articles, and details the life and adventures of a boy, Billy Marvel, on a ship at sea in 1766, his shipwreck and eventual return to London where he finds a new life working at the Royal Theatre. We then follow several generations of the Marvel family in that theatre, most actors, until the narrative abruptly ends and the prose story begins.

The prose story, about equally long in this 670-page book, begins in 1990 with another boy, Joseph Jervis, who is running away from his boarding school, where he didn’t fit in, to London in hopes that his uncle Albert Nightingale, who he’s never met, will take him in. Joseph has lots of trouble even finding his uncle, and when he does, that uncle doesn’t want him to stay…at least, not for long. Joseph gradually befriends his uncle after all, and does get to stay, but finds the house they’re in full of mysteries and stories. Those stories include the ones we’ve seen in the drawn story.

Brian Selznick is just as clever and complex a storyteller as he is an artist, and before this very long book is through, many revelations about what is really going on and how the stories and the people in them connect come forth. Some of the plot went in places I would never have expected in a book for younger readers, but that’s not a bad thing, and it’s carefully handled. I can’t say I liked this book as much as Selznick’s first, “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” but it’s still quite excellent and well worth reading. The production values on the hardcover edition I was given for Christmas are also remarkable and impressive. This is one book you want to have a physical copy of, not a digital one.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERN 48

Image © DC Comics

Hal Jordan is back on Earth, but he’s a stranger in a strange land. A terrorist attack in Coast City engineered by his old enemy Sonar has left people injured despite what he could do, and when Hal goes to Gotham City for help, he finds a lot has changed there, too. Hal heads for Sonar’s home, the small country of Modora, which now seems a lot like the Middle East. How can Hal’s powers deal with people ready to kill themselves for their convictions? Not a bad issue by writer Robert Venditti and artists Martin Coccolo andf Billy Tan.

Recommended.