Comments on: Look Here: Ten More Paperback Covers by Jeffrey Jones http://www.raggedclaws.com/home/2010/02/05/look-here-ten-more-paperback-covers-by-jeffrey-jones/ "This day's experience, set in order, none of it left ragged or lying about, all of it gathered in like treasure and finished with, set aside." --Alice Munroe, "What is Remembered" Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:24:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Chris A http://www.raggedclaws.com/home/2010/02/05/look-here-ten-more-paperback-covers-by-jeffrey-jones/comment-page-1/#comment-119 Chris A Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:02:25 +0000 http://www.raggedclaws.com/home/?p=1391#comment-119 Jones' best comics work is nothing less than poetry on paper, be it the one page "Idyl" strip (1972-75) in NATIONAL LAMPOON, or his short stories: "Spirit of '76" for SPASM #1 in 1973, "Dead Run" and "Harry" for VAMPIRELLA #32 in 1974, or "A Night to Remember" for PATHWAYS TO FANTASY #1 in 1983, for example. These are as much a work of art as the very top comics work EVER produced for the medium. Genuine art, not kitsch, not fanboy fodder, but real art found between panel borders in both story and drawing. If picture strips are ever to be regarded as a legitimate art form, then Jones' work needs to be seen and studied by the present and upcoming generation. Jones’ best comics work is nothing less than poetry on paper, be it the one page “Idyl” strip (1972-75) in NATIONAL LAMPOON, or his short stories: “Spirit of ’76″ for SPASM #1 in 1973, “Dead Run” and “Harry” for VAMPIRELLA #32 in 1974, or “A Night to Remember” for PATHWAYS TO FANTASY #1 in 1983, for example. These are as much a work of art as the very top comics work EVER produced for the medium. Genuine art, not kitsch, not fanboy fodder, but real art found between panel borders in both story and drawing. If picture strips are ever to be regarded as a legitimate art form, then Jones’ work needs to be seen and studied by the present and upcoming generation.

]]> By: RC http://www.raggedclaws.com/home/2010/02/05/look-here-ten-more-paperback-covers-by-jeffrey-jones/comment-page-1/#comment-118 RC Sun, 07 Feb 2010 02:27:50 +0000 http://www.raggedclaws.com/home/?p=1391#comment-118 "There really needs to be a monograph of Jeffrey Jones’ paintings, as well as a single volume of his comics work." I think that <em>Age of Innocence: The Romantic Art of Jeffrey Jones</em> and the <em>Jeffrey Jones Sketchbook</em> are now out of print -- though prices haven't gone through the roof yet -- but <em>The Art of Jeffrey Jones</em> is still available at amazon.com and elsewhere, and it's about as comprehensive a look back as most fantasy artists not named Frazetta get these days. Of course, the fans always want more, but what we've already received is nothing to sneeze at. With regard to your suggestion for a single volume of Jones's comics work, my response is quite simple: HELL YES! In fact, I've been calling for the same thing since I started posting Jones's work on this blog. IDW, Fantagraphics, D&Q -- one of you, please, get this done! “There really needs to be a monograph of Jeffrey Jones’ paintings, as well as a single volume of his comics work.”

I think that Age of Innocence: The Romantic Art of Jeffrey Jones and the Jeffrey Jones Sketchbook are now out of print — though prices haven’t gone through the roof yet — but The Art of Jeffrey Jones is still available at amazon.com and elsewhere, and it’s about as comprehensive a look back as most fantasy artists not named Frazetta get these days. Of course, the fans always want more, but what we’ve already received is nothing to sneeze at.

With regard to your suggestion for a single volume of Jones’s comics work, my response is quite simple: HELL YES! In fact, I’ve been calling for the same thing since I started posting Jones’s work on this blog. IDW, Fantagraphics, D&Q — one of you, please, get this done!

]]> By: RC http://www.raggedclaws.com/home/2010/02/05/look-here-ten-more-paperback-covers-by-jeffrey-jones/comment-page-1/#comment-117 RC Sun, 07 Feb 2010 02:07:03 +0000 http://www.raggedclaws.com/home/?p=1391#comment-117 The basic difference between <em>A Princess of Mars</em> and <em>Twilight of the Serpent</em> is that whereas Frazetta in <em>A Princess of Mars</em> distills to its simple but powerful essence a longstanding cliché of heroic fantasy art -- the hero simultaneously celebrates his triumph over the foe and claims the voluptuous princess as his prize -- Jones in <em>Twilight of the Serpent</em> uses a more naturalistic technique combined with unexpected, but subtle, elisions, contrasts, reversals, and so on, to subvert the cliché, replacing dead certainty with a lively, poetic ambiguity. The basic difference between A Princess of Mars and Twilight of the Serpent is that whereas Frazetta in A Princess of Mars distills to its simple but powerful essence a longstanding cliché of heroic fantasy art — the hero simultaneously celebrates his triumph over the foe and claims the voluptuous princess as his prize — Jones in Twilight of the Serpent uses a more naturalistic technique combined with unexpected, but subtle, elisions, contrasts, reversals, and so on, to subvert the cliché, replacing dead certainty with a lively, poetic ambiguity.

]]> By: Chris A http://www.raggedclaws.com/home/2010/02/05/look-here-ten-more-paperback-covers-by-jeffrey-jones/comment-page-1/#comment-116 Chris A Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:23:39 +0000 http://www.raggedclaws.com/home/?p=1391#comment-116 Lots here in the Frazetta mould, particularly the last one which reminds me of F.F.'s A PRINCESS OF MARS cover from 1976, but all with the Jones touch. There really needs to be a monograph of Jeffrey Jones' paintings, as well as a single volume of his comics work. Lots here in the Frazetta mould, particularly the last one which reminds me of F.F.’s A PRINCESS OF MARS cover from 1976, but all with the Jones touch. There really needs to be a monograph of Jeffrey Jones’ paintings, as well as a single volume of his comics work.

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