Ragged Claws Network

In the comments section of a previous post here at RCN, frequent commenter on this blog, Chris A, writes:

Just happened to see that someone posted scans of Jones’ “Harry” in glorious black and white! It originally ran in VAMPIRELLA #32 in 1974 with garish colors by Rich Corben (whose work I quite like, but this was a bad pairing), and was reprinted in a later VAMPIRELLA in black and white (which these scans came from). Enjoy!

http://atomic-surgery.blogspot.com/2009/10/harry-by-jeff-jones.html

Thanks for the link, Chris. No doubt about it: stripped of Corben’s day-glo colours, “Harry” is a real stunner!

For easy comparison, here is the colour version, which (as Chris A notes) appeared in Vampirella #32 (April 1974):

Anyone prefer the colour version?

From the pages of Devilina, volume 1, number 1 (January 1975), here’s the unfortunately named, but expertly illustrated, “Lay of the Sea,” with story by Gabe Levy and art by Leo Duranona (1938-):

From the pages of Comix International #4 (Warren, 1976), here’s “The Believer,” with story by Budd Lewis and art by Richard Corben:

You can view the printed version, with the title stripped in, here; it’s third from the top.

As advertised on the Corben Studios Web site, Odds and Ends is to be a 32-page, black-and-white collection of unfinished, cancelled, and abandoned projects as well as works in progress, including the second chapter of From the Pit, book and CD covers, and more. No specific release date has been announced, but if this little project does eventually come to fruition, it will be the first publication from Corben’s own Fantagor Press that we’ve seen in a long time.

From The Witching Hour #14 (April-May 1971), with art by Jeffrey Jones and script by Gerry Conway:

The last panel on the last page wasn’t drawn by Jeffrey Jones, obviously.

From Creepy #16 (August 1967), pages 21 to 26, with script by Archie Goodwin and art by Jeffrey Jones:

From Vampirella #5 (June 1970), a story written and drawn by Jeffrey Jones:

A while ago, I posted a modest selection of “Jones Touch” comic strips by Jeffrey Jones. Well, today Mr. Door Tree over at the “Golden Age Comic Book Stories” blog has done us all a favour by posting a slightly more generous selection of “Jones Touch” strips that features larger and better quality scans that I was able to offer here. (I posted five strips altogether; Mr. Door Tree has posted that same five along with seven others you will no doubt want to see, although keep in mind that they’re defintely NSFW, i.e., not safe for work.) Click here to jump to Mr. Door Tree’s post at “Golden Age Comic Book Stories”, (And while you’re there, be sure to check out all the other work by Jeff Jones that Mr. Door Tree has posted since he started blogging. It’s an impressive collection!)

Yesterday evening, I succumbed to temptation and bought another piece of Mad Magazine art by George Woodbridge (1930-2004). So now here, for your delectation, is a scan of the artwork, along with a scan of the feature of which it was originally a part:

What I especially like about this piece, other than the fact that it is expertly drawn, is that the bracingly cynical satirical message shines through even though it doesn’t include any of the typeset text written by Tom Koch to accompany the illustration.

Miscellaneous info: The “Ain’t It Great!!” feature appeared in Mad #251 (Dec 1984). The image area of our piece of the main, as it were, is 7.5 x 6 inches. And the cost, shipping included, was US$45.95.

So now we have a grand total of three pieces of original art by the talented Mr Woodbridge in our collection.

Click here to see the last piece we purchased (which is still my favourite).

Here are three “Jones Touch” strips, all dated 1972, that were originally published in Swank Magazine:

Fantagraphics published a comic-book collection of “Jones Touch” strips in 1993 under their Eros imprint, but the book is long out of print. So if anyone has a copy they would be willing to sell me for a decent price, just let me know, because although I don’t own it, I would very much like to.

———-

UPDATE:

Turns out, I’ve been barking up the wrong trees, looking for the Eros “Jones Touch” collection in old back-issue bins and on ebay.ca, abebooks.com, etc., because Eros still lists the book in their Web catalogue. I was prompted to check the Eros catalogue by a recent post on the Fantagraphics blog, which — thank you very much — includes a link to RCN. I have placed an order, and will report back when the, ahem, booty arrives.

I do believe these are from the “Jones Touch” series of strips that was published in Swank Magazine:

What a difference good paper makes to the quality of the scans!

My apologies in advance for the poor quality of the scans in this post. It’s not easy to get decent results from thin, yellowing newsprint. But if you’re like me, you don’t want scans. You want a hardcover omnibus of every comic Jeffrey Jones has produced!

Published by Last Gasp in 1973 (36 years ago!), Spasm! collects the following short stories, all written and drawn by Jones, solo, for various pro and fan publications: “Co-Incidence” (2 pages), “Spirit of ‘76″ (4 pages), “Saved” (2 pages), “The Enemy” (5 pages), “Luce” (2 pages), “Deja-Vu” (4 pages), “The Bridge” (3 pages), “Guarantee” (4 pages), and “Death” (5 pages).

Notice that Jones’s distinctive J-cartouche on the back cover is upside down. That’s no mistake on my part; rather, it’s the way the piece was printed. In fact, the identical motif of the woman cradling and kissing the skull also appears, with the same orientation, in a painting and a drawing I posted earlier. Then again, the back cover of Spasm! is reprinted, with the J-cartouche right-side up, in The Art of Jeffrey Jones (Underwood Books, 2002). So…