Ragged Claws Network

Click images to enlarge, as usual:

BONUS LINK:

Mr. Door Tree Presents: Jeff Jones: A Group of His Early Paintings, 1968 – 1980

These are all pen and ink on 8.5 x 11 inch sketchbook paper; they are undated but are likely from the 1990s or later:

The first time I saw the following hand-written letter, it was for sale on ebay. Although I was sorely tempted, having been an admirer of Jones’s ongoing self-education and steady development as an artist since the early 1980s, when in my late teens I purchased in quick succession the three Dragon’s Dream books, The Studio, Yesterday’s Lily, and Idyl, I could not afford at the time to bid for it — or, at least, I didn’t feel like I could justify the expense to my wife — so I let it slip through my fingers. However, as a compensation of sorts, I saved the JPEG from the auction listing, so I could re-read it later for inspiration, because the fact is that I DID, for various personal and professional reasons I won’t go into here, find it tremendously inspiring. But then, somehow, I misplaced the JPEG when I moved all my e-stuff to a new computer, this computer, and the fact is, I thought at that point I would never get to read it again. And I was okay with that. I shrugged and moved on. It wasn’t that big a deal. But today is my lucky day, because here it is:

I think the line that really gets me is this: “With the Lampoon for instance I am free to do whatever I want with my page.” A single page of unconstrained artistic freedom every month: that’s the modest but essential standard by which Jeffrey Jones judged proposed projects in 1973, five hectic years into his career in commercial art.

Small things, even ill-favoured things, are treasure when they are truly one’s own.

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Thanks to Rob Pistella for inviting me to use scans from his CAF gallery on this blog. Rob has a terrific and growing collection of artwork (and ephemera!) by Jeffrey Jones, and I am delighted to be in a position to highlight some of those items here.

Another landscape painting created en plein air by you-know-who:

Click here to view more landscapes by the same artist.

If you’re a fan of Jeffrey Jones’s art, and you’d love a lovely print to hang on your wall, Todd Adams of Glimmer Graphics has a number of items that might interest you:

Although the above images — with the exception Age of Innocence and Native Son — were provided via email directly to me, RC, by publisher Todd Adams, the information provided under each photo regarding sizes, prices, dates, and so on, is NOT official and is included simply to give you a general idea of what to expect should you decide to contact Todd to place an order. In other words, any errors here are the sole responsibility of this Web site, which is in no way associated with Todd Adams or his company, Glimmer Graphics. Todd’s contact email, which I’m making available here with Todd’s permission, is neo1948@comcast.net.

And I can tell you from first-hand experience that he DOES accept payment via PayPal, which to me as a buyer is always a plus for online transactions!

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…

I don’t much care for any of these covers from 1968 and 1969, but since I have yet to break out of the collector/completist mentality — and believe me, I’ve tried — here they are, scanned and posted for your “enjoyment”:

To make up for the lacklustre art this time round, my next post will feature two covers by Jones from the early 1970s that I think are very strong, along with one that I have mixed feelings about, so stay tuned for that!

Has Muth’s early work in comics ever been reprinted? Not that I know of, and it’s a damn shame, too!

Like it? Enough to buy it? If your answers are yes, and yes, you’re in luck, because the current owner has it listed for sale at US$600. Contact information is available on this Comic Art Fans page.

Rightly or wrongly, I have long thought of Muth’s style at the beginning his career, when he drew the above stories, as “School of Jeffrey Jones.” There are, however, definite similarities between Muth’s painting style and palette and Alan Lee’s watercolour illustrations of the late 1970s* and beyond; so much so that it wouldn’t surprise me if Lee’s work was also, as much as Jeffrey Jones’s, an influence on the “look” of “Small Gifts” and, especially, “Pursuit.”

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* The first edition of Faeries by Lee, Froud, et al., appeared in 1978.

If you have been following my posts over the past few days, you’ll already know why I decided the time was right to scan and post this:

If you have not been following along, click here to jump to my post on Lucian Freud’s The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer.