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Jeffrey Jones’s “four seasons” portfolio, World without End, was published by S.Q. Productions in 1980 in a signed-and-numbered limited edition of 1000. The choppy but controlled hatching style here — the antithesis of conventional comic-book rendering/feathering — was typical of Jones’s work at the time; for more examples, see “I’m Age,” the wonderful one-page strip by Jones that appeared in Heavy Metal from 1981 to 1984.
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That last, black-and-white drawing did not appear in World without End, but the design of the image suggests that it was in the mix at some point.
Two studies in red conté along with the final painting, which was published in Epic Illustrated #30:
One of the main frustrations of the various books on the art of Jeffrey Jones is the lack of documentation regarding mediums, supports (e.g., masonite, mounted canvas, stretched canvas, whatever), sizes, dates, etc. Trouble is, Jones himself never kept proper records of his work, and his publishers apparently have not had the wherewithal to locate the works in order to fill in the gaps
I believe the oil painting is called The Puritan and was one of a series of paintings by Jones that were based on Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane.
I gave readers a “Heads Up” back on 25 July 2010, and now the regular hardcover edition of Jeffrey Jones: A Life in Art (IDW Publishing, 2011) — a 256-page collection of Jones’s “personal favourites” from a long and celebrated career — is available for purchase at a bookstore near you. I haven’t received my copy yet, but it should be here soon…
I don’t have any dates for the drawings; however, the first pencil drawing below was likely a prelim for Jones’s well-known covers for Wonder Woman #199 and #200 (1972), while the second looks to me like it’s from much later in Jones’s career, perhaps around the time of the story I Bled the Sea.
This post is a sequel to a previous effort that featured two Zebra-Kensington REH covers, with art by Jeffrey Jones (as usual, click the image below to view a larger version):
“After a few years in NYC a friend of mine, a great artist, much older than me, the late Roy G. Krenkel, told me that I was the Master of the Meaningless Gesture. Well, I do this in my art because I don’t want to tell anyone anything. Also in my words, like my poem. I want the people to bring themselves to the work, based on their own experience.” — Jeffrey Jones, autobiography
Back in 2009, art collector and big-time Jeffrey Jones fan, Rob Pistella, generously invited me to use scans from his Comic Art Fans gallery on RCN. The first item I highlighted was a letter by Jeffrey Jones dated 7-20-73. The second is right here:
This past weekend, I finally located (and purchased) a copy of Gordon R. Dickson’s Wolfling, with cover by Jeffrey Jones, so now, at last, I can post this comparison of two very similar images by Jones executed in two different mediums, oil vs. ink:
The “Conan” frontispiece was published in Savage Sword of Conan in 1975, but the style and the signature suggest to me that it was created around the time of the 1969 Wolfling cover. Anyone know if the “Conan” frontispiece was published anywhere else prior to its appearance in Savage Sword?
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