BudArtBooks.com — Bud's Blog

2011-07-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

For Immediate Release:

Bud Plant to Retire--
Offers Catalog & Internet Business of 41 Years for Sale

It's been a great run of 41 years since I started this business—in the bedroom of my parent's house in 1970. In 1988, I sold what had become the nation’s third largest new comics distribution company to Diamond Comic Distributors. At the same time I sold the single largest chain of (seven) comic stores in the U.S., Comics & Comix. From there I concentrated on rebuilding and growing my catalog/mail-order business, which had taken a back seat to those other operations. Now Bud Plant Comic Art is the premiere source for mail-order specialty books in both the comics industry and in the book world.

I am offering Bud Plant Comic Art, also known as Bud's Art Books, for sale. I'm sending this message out to everyone I know in the comic book industry and the book world. I’m hopeful the synergy between my long-established business, and another retailer or publisher, will be evident to the right person.

We produce 15 full-color catalogs each year: Twelve 48-page Bud's Art Books catalogs of specialty books, and three "Incorrigible" catalogs of erotica, pin-up and more adult material. We are located in Grass Valley, a small town in the Sierra foothills of northern California. Our location allows us to maintain low overhead and salary costs. Most of my experienced and outstanding employees have been with me for more than 10 years—several more than 20 years—including my general manager, Dave Cowie. They know the business backwards and forwards and have built long-term relationships with customers as well as publishers, allowing me to step back from day-to-day operations over the past several years.

I've built a business where customer satisfaction is paramount. As a result, many of our customers have stayed with us for many years, sometimes decades. The Bud Plant organization is widely known for exceptionally careful packing and shipping; informed and helpful customer service; an outstanding selection of unusual and hard-to-find books with new material being added virtually every day; and our informative catalog descriptions and personal recommendations. We have an outstanding, secure e-commerce site with even more information, multiple pictures of each book, longer descriptions and customer reviews.

We count among our current customers tens of thousands throughout the world, from well-known artists and illustrators, to teachers, students, collectors and fans of the many genres of material we offer. We've also expanded the business in recent years—prompting the name change to Bud's Art Books—to address the growing interest in nostalgia and pop-culture material. Over the years we have developed strong ties and highly desirable terms with hundreds of publishers. We design and produce all of our catalogs in-house, which are printed and mailed for maximum efficiency by carefully selected printers and mailing houses.

More specific information is available to serious inquiries. I want this to be a smooth transition that ultimately benefits our existing customers as well as the right company who understands the value of owning what may be the most trusted name in the comics and specialty bookselling field.

All the best,

Bud Plant

bplant@budplant.com

Bud's Art Books
PO Box 1689
Grass Valley, CA 95945
530-273-2066 Extension 1
Mon-Fri 8am-3:00pm

2011-06-30T15:04:00.000-07:00

Some excellent comic book and fantasy related items this time, going into our next monthly catalog.

The Alex Toth book--Genius Isolated--this is the first actual biography every done on him, unlike previous collections of just art or comic stories. It's filled with original art, complete stories, the inside scoop on the eccentric genius of comics story-telling.

The Archie Archives Vol 1 features the very first Archie stories from the early 1940s, from Pep Comics, Top Notch and Archie #1 and 2. The first Archie comic book is one of those "key" comics that has shot up in price in the past year or two. All this material is ultra-rare and has rarely if ever been reprinted before. Wild to see the earliest versions the Riverdale crew, they're quite different than what was to come.

Mickey Mouse "Race to Death Valley" has the first MM strips from 1930-32 by Floyd Gottfredson, considered the finest of all the MM artists and much collected. Several complete episodes and a wonderful 68-page section devoted to essays, early Mickey artwork and special features. I'm eager to sit down and digest it all myself.

Karen Haber's Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art is an outstanding collection. Not just another Spectrum or Ballistic Press boo,k it looks in depth at 28 artists, with interviews, drawing techniques, and lots of samples over several pages devoted to each. She is a well known columnist/reviewer for Locus Magazine and married to SF writer Bob Silverberg.

-Bud

Your Bud Plant catalog goes monthly in 2011

2011-01-27T15:19:00.000-08:00

Our big news for 2011 is that we've reworked our catalog production schedule. Previously we have been sending you a combination of "big" catalogs and smaller 48-page catalogs that have new and best-of items. If you were also getting our Incorrigible Catalog, that meant you'd see a new catalog once every 6 weeks or so.

Beginning in 2011, with the catalog we just mailed, you will now get 48-page catalogs at the beginning of every month. We're not doing the "big" catalog any more, but will get you smaller catalogs FASTER and MORE FREQUENTLY on a very regular schedule. Including the Incorrigible Catalogs you'll receive 15 catalogs in 2011 (well, as long as you order every so often so you are not dropped from our active customer list!)

This means no one catalog will have our entire stock listed. We'll vary the "backlist" items included from one to another.

If you are looking for a particular item and don't find it in the new 48-pagers, you can go on our website and look it up. Or you can call us. If you call Monday to Friday between 8am and 4pm, you will generally get one of my staff here in Grass Valley--LaDonna, Alberta and Diane take most of our calls. After hours, your call is forwarded to very nice folks in Oregon. They can take your order and tell you if something is in stock, but they can't answer any more general questions like our staff here in the warehouse can.

This new schedule means we can get new items listed for you faster. The fastest way to see new items, however, is to subscribe to our free weekly email.

This means we won't be listing "coming" items as often as we have. We will wait until they are in our hands before listing them in a catalog. There are always publishers who are overly optimistic on their predicted ship dates--then we have to ask you to wait when a new item is delayed.

If you are wondering if we will be handling something that is coming up, or you hear of a new item not yet in the catalog or on the website, call us during those weekday hours. We're glad to tell you everything we know about what's coming up and when.

Thanks,

Bud

PS: I really like the new Simon and Kirby Superheroes book.
This is almost twice the size of a Marvel Masterworks or DC Archives at 480 pages. All in color. Lots of cool Golden Age and Silver Age work, including some unpublished Stuntman and other stories from the glory days of the early 1950s.

Best wishes,

Bud

New interview and biography of Bud; upcoming shows; comics artist Howard O'Donnell

2010-09-29T15:53:00.000-07:00

Americana Exchange is a informational site in the used and rare book field. I was recently interviewed by a reporter and here's a link to the full article published there. I talk about my start in comics and books, about exhibiting at antiquarian (used and rare) book shows as well as the comic book shows like San Diego Comic-Con. And more. Lots of links and pictures. Enjoy!

Upcoming shows: We're off to Seattle Book Fair next week, then later this Fall we'll be in Houston and then Boston for the Antiquarian shows there in November. Then back home and a zip up to Portland to do my first comic show there in oodles of years, on November 21.

Buying has been good at the last shows we've done earlier this month. I was pleased with a nice batch of old comics (Dell Zane Grey's and Zorros, Terry and the Pirates and the Siegel & Shuster Funnyman #1, 1946!) that turned up at the Sacramento show. This is just an hour away for us. Plus several batches of vintage 1940s and 1950s paperbacks were there, which I also both collect and sell at book shows.

Attendance was strong in Sacramento. The promoter did 50 spots on the local NPR station. His next show will be in the Spring, March 27. Santa Monica was rather less successful, the exhibitor count was down and it may not continue in the venue, just off the beach by 2 or 3 blocks. Customer count was okay though and we sold some rather big books to make the show a success for us.

On the way home, we stopped off to visit Howard O'Donnell, who recently contacted me to help him sell two wonderful Alex Toth pages from the early 1950s romance comics, a Rip Kirby strip inscribed to him by Alex Rayond, and a nice Milton Caniff Steve Canyon original.

The two Alex Toth pages were given to Howard by Frank Frazetta in 1958! Howard was an active comic book artist for Stan Lee (about 28 Atlas/Marvel stories) and also for Lev Gleason, mostly for their romance titles, from 1956-58. He also was a studio-mate with Gray Morrow and became good friends with Al Williamson, Angelo Torres and others, when they were all living in New York City. He has some great stories about playing baseball (with Frazetta and Williamson, of course) and practicing fencing moves in Central Park. They used to have pick-up games with actors who were working on Broadway at the time.

You'll find several pictures of him sword-fighting and carrying on with Gray and others in the intro the the Gray Morrow biography, Gray Morrow Visionary, Insight Studios, 2001.

Howard also inked a story or two for Joe Orlando for EC comics.

One day Howard was visiting Frazetta in his Brooklyn apartment. Frank asked Howard if he'd like any original art. Rather than thinking Frank meant his own work, Howard chimed up with his favorite artist...Alex Toth. As luck would have it, Frank and Alex were both working for Standard Comics in the early 1950s and Frank happened to have the splash and last page of this romance story, which he gave to Howard. Howard's had it ever since, along with a thick clip file of Alex's work, who he became friends with also. Howard left comics to work in advertising and today is retired, painting fine nautical scenes and landscapes in water color.

Howard still has the original artwork to several complete stories he did for Stan Lee in the 1950s. I've contacted Jim Amash, who does all the fine interviews of comic book artists for Alter Ego Magazine. I hope that Jim will do a feature on Howard, who has a many great anecdotes from his days in comics.

Later,

Bud

Craig Yoe Talks ICON, Krazy Kat, and Whether Today’s Cartoonists Ever Get Laid Read more: Imprint | Craig Yoe Talks ICON, Krazy Kat, and Whether Toda

2010-07-08T11:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to a fun interview with publisher Craig Yoe, who I was talking about in my last blog. Here's an excerpt:

"It’s funny, I’m approaching 60, but when I was just 17 – you know what I mean – I wrote, designed, and printed fanzines about the history of comics in my basement. I’ve simply returned to my roots. And I love doing books about comics. I have such a good time it’s probably not legal. But my motivation – now I’m going to sound a bit pretentious myself – I’m on a mission to save comics!

With only a very few exceptions, current comics bore me senseless. Or worse yet, they’re freaking depressing in their style or content. Comics used to be funny, inspiring, and very beautifully drawn. For sure, they didn’t take themselves too seriously. Maybe my books will ZIP, POW the brains of some young cartoonists … show them how to make comics that are fun again."

The Golden Age of Big Little Books

2010-06-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

Collector Larry Lowery has been running the Big Little Book Club for many years and accumulating the books themselves for even longer. In 2007 he put everything he's ever learned about BLBs into a magnificent 478-page, full color volume. The Golden Age of Big Little Books is the last word on the subject. I'd compare it in importance to the Overstreet Price Guide AND Gerber's Photo-Journal to Comic Books rolled into one.

And amazingly enough, this only covers what Larry calls the Golden Age of BLBs which ends in 1938! Every BLB rates a full page entry, while all the companies other than the leader, Whitman, are closely examined and their BLBs are covered for all years of production into the late 1940s. Even if you are only modestly interested in Big Little Books, this is an incredible reference and a revealing examination of pop culture of the 1930s, with all the associated artwork and anecdotes.

We all want to see Larry do a follow-up on the Silver Age of BLBs, which would cover up through 1949, the end of the first BLB era. But he needs to see enough interest--BLB collectors are a pretty small group. His first book has only seen very limited circulation, mostly via the club and through my catalogs and website.

First off, here's an invitation to join his club:

How To Join The Club

A one-year membership in the BLB Club costs $15.00 ($18.00 for a Canadian membership and $22.00 for an overseas membership). Members receive 6 issues of The Big Little Times, the club's bimonthly newsletter. New members also receive a colorful Club Card with their name on it and a BLB-type book number that serves as their Club Number. Club Numbers are given out in consecutive order that match the production order of BLBs and related products.

If you would like to join the Club, send a check or money order made out to:

The Big Little Book Club
P.O. Box 1242
Danville, CA 94526

Or if you want to contact us (Larry) by e-mail at larry@biglittlebooks.com that's fine too!

You can check out this great book on Bud's Art Books website. Oops, it's not there as I write this because we just brought the softcover edition into stock. But it will probably be there as you read this. Just search on "Big Little Books".

It's also on Larry's own website. Larry has many other fun features on his site, including photos dozens of members and their collections. Check out a very young and slender Steve Geppi (owner of Diamond Comic Distributors), publisher Russ Cochran, and veteran fans and collectors.

I collect Big Little Books myself. I especially like the occasional odd-sized ones, like the one-and-only Krazy Kat edition which is oblong, the oversized, square Snow White with Betty Book, the fun little "Penny" books with Little Orphan Annie, Mickey Mouse and the Disney gang that sold five in a little cardboard box, the "Big Big" books which are essentially huge-sized Big Little Books.

Its' fascinating to see what was popular with kids from 1933, when the first BLB appeared, until 1949, when they expired, at least the first time around. BLBs are generally considered to have been put out of business by comic books. Although the first comic book, Famous Funnies, appeared in 1934, it was Superman in 1938 that created the deluge of titles that slowly pushed BLB's out of popularity. Before that, your favorite newspaper strips and movies were the common subjects of BLBs. There were lots and lots of titles featuring Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Dick Tracy, The Phantom, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, countless cowboy stars like Tom Mix and Tim McCoy, Tarzan and much more.

I still find BLB prices to be very reasonable, especially when put up against comic books from the same time period. Where else can you find 400 pages of story and art from the 1930s for, oh, $15 or $30? That wouldn't touch a comic from that era, even if the comic was beat to a pulp. A fine copy of a Big Little Book can be found for $25-$100 for all except the very toughest titles.

Unabashed advertisement--besides collecting myself, I buy and sell BLBs as part of my "antiquarian" book business. You can contact me at bplant@budplant.com if you have BLBs you are looking for or are looking to sell. Larry's BLB club also offers the same, with free ads to members. In fact, all the BLBs pictured here are for sale on Larry's website as I write this.

Best wishes,

Bud

San Diego 2010, The Year's Bestsellers, Funnyman, Klassic Kid's Komics, IDW Limited Printings

2010-06-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

San Diego Comic-Con
Our annual trek to the big comics show is not less than one month away. The good news is this is my 41st consecutive year of exhibiting there--since the first in 1970! The kind-of bad news is that we will have just three booths this year, down from seven last year and eleven that we'd had for many years previously.

The "demographic" has changed in San Diego...meaning more younger movie fans and less tried and true comics and nostalgia and art fans. We've found we can no longer make a profit doing the huge display there, given the incredible expenses of bringing down a staff of 10 or 11, a 50 foot semi-load of books, paying for the booths and meals and (gasp) hotels for everyone. So we'll have the same set-up we've been doing at Wonder-Con, which has worked well for us...two booths with about 500 of our best and newest titles, plus a third booth of Gold and Silver Age comic books, illustrated books, children's books and comics-related items from Bud Plant and Hutchison Books.

Comic Relief, the long-running store in Berkeley, has also traditionally had a large exhibit next to ours in San Diego. But they have stopped exhibiting at both Wonder-Con and San Diego since the death of their long-time owner, Rory Root.

We'll have several specially signed books at the show--come by for details. While they last, we'll be giving away a free copy of Norman Saunders ($39.95) with any purchase of $40 or more. This is only available at the show, as a promotion sponsored by the publisher Dan Zimmer of Illustration Magazine. Come by and score a free book (and be ready to shoulder the load, it weighs in at nearly four pounds). And they won't last...we did this at Wonder-Con and ran out of books in less than two days.

Bestsellers
One of our regular features in the catalogs, up until a couple years ago, was a listing of the bestsellers from the prior year. I always enjoyed looking at the success stories and at exactly what was tickling the fancy of our customers. As printing and postage costs have gone up, we decided we couldn't devote the space to this feature.

Recently we were looking at both our best and worst sellers, trying to help us decide how to put the catalogs together and what to feature on covers and in special placements. I thought I might share with you a few of the hottest titles we've been handling over the last 12 months. See what you and your fellow customers have voted for with their pocketbooks:

#1 Conan of Cimmeria 3 Deluxe by Robert E. Howard, illustrated by Gregory Manchess
#2 Mandy Godiva by Dean Yeagle w/signed bookplate
#3 The Art of Michael Parkes 2 w/signed bookplate
#4 The Big Book of Legs By Dian Hanson
#5 Hollywood Pin-Ups by Timothy White

#6 Yesterday and Today: Egypt illustrated by David Roberts (sale)
#7 Prince Valiant Volume 1 Hardcover 1937-38 by Hal Foster
#8 Clean Cartoonist's Dirty Drawings edited by Craig Yoe
#9 Al Williamson's Flash Gordon
#10 Sketchy Past: The Art of Peter De Seve w/signed bookplate

#11 Frank Cho's Sketches and Scribbles 5
#12 Norman Saunders by David Saunders
#13 Mystique X-Posed 2010 Calendar (sold out)
#14 Exposed: The Victorian Nude (sold out)
#15 Benny Hill DVD Set 1982-85 (sale)

#16 Figure Drawing Design and Invention by Michael Hampton
#17 Reynold Brown: A Life in Pictures By Daniel Zimmer and David Hornung
#18 Hammer Glamour: Classic Images from the Archives of Hammer Films
#19 Completely Mad Don Martin (sale)
#20 Dames, Dolls and Gun Molls: The Art of Robert McGuire by Jim Silke

It's good to see that the best still rises to the top. Great art books and classic comic strips remain among our best selling items, along with some top notch glamour and pin-up. It amazes me that #6, Yesterday and Today by David Roberts is still sizzling along with so many newer items. Roberts painted these images of Egypt in the 1840s but his is still the first and finest images, done originally for reproduction via stone lithography. Interesting, modern artist and eroticist Michael Parkes (#3) until recently also worked exclusively using stone lithography for his prints.

Siegel and Shuster's Funnyman
by Thomas Andre and Mel Gordon, Preface by Danny Fingeroth

This is a very interesting book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. At first glance it sounds like another compilation of old comic book stories, in this case of a long-forgotten 1940s title by the creators of Superman. Or at second glance it may sound like one of those scholarly examinations of some aspect of comic books (which I tend to avoid).

But this is actually a history and a fascinating look at the role of Jewish creators in humor and in the comics, particularly as application to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. After suing DC Comics and losing in 1946, and as their ten-year contract ended. Jerry and Joe were persona non grata at DC and on their own again. Their first new creation, after ten years of heading up the Superman family stories, was this odd and totally unique anti-hero--Funnyman.

As a long time comics fan myself, until recently I never looked twice at the back issues of Funnyman. I wrote it off entirely, even though I love Siegel & Shuster's work, especially the early Superman stories, as well as Dr. Occult and their pre-Superman strips.

Then last spring I was looking for old comics at the Emerald City show in Seattle and a cool cover caught my eye...the same cover the authors chose as the cover of this collection. I was surprised to find some excellent artwork inside and I decided to give it a whirl. I was pleased to discover this obscure title was actually fun to read, very well drawn, and, having read this new book, an instrumental part of Siegel & Shuster's most creative period. One of the stories here has Jerry's take on the trend into Crime and Horror Comics, another has a robot hooker to clobbers potential "Johns" and robs them. Weird stuff! The third takes Funnyman back in time to the days of King Arthur. He's seduced by a sexy, alluring femme fatale queen who's out to bump of her king and take over the kingdom. Some clear inspiration here from Hal Foster's Prince Valiant.

I was also surprised to learn a Funnyman newspaper comic strip debuted AFTER the comic book itself was cancelled! Those rare strips are also collected here.
But the main thrust of this book is placing this in the history of S&S and of Jewish humor in general--the subtitle is, after all, "The First Jewish Superhero." The authors do a fine job of keeping my interest as they detail how and why Jerry and Joe chose to do this crazy strip. They broke up their partnership after the syndicated strip was cancelled. Jerry went on to edit the Ziff-Davis comic book line for several years and ended up back at DC in the late 1950s and early 1960s, anonymously writing stories of Superman and Lois Lane. Joe's eyesite was already failing by the late 1940s--he did a little pre-code horror work in comics, then penned "Nights of Horror," the infamous S&M comics chronicled in SECRET IDENTITY: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster.

Funnyman actually reprints just three stories from the comic book run, but the stories are chosen well and are long and satisfying. There's lots of other art, some in color, as they explore their topic and nicely make their point about how and why Jerry and Joe chose to try this one-of-a-kind comic character.

THE GOLDEN COLLECTION OF KLASSIC KRAZY KOOL KIDS KOMICS
Edited by Craig Yoe (Secret Identity, Clean Cartoonists/Dirty Drawings, The Complete Milt Gross, Jetta, Comic Arf, The Best of Sexology, The Great Anti-War Cartoons, Krazy & Ignatz in Tiger Tea and The Art of Steve Ditko)

Craig's lastest collection is another big satisfying collection of full color, complete comic book stories from the 1940s and 1950s. But all are kid-friendly, with not a gun or bomb or bimbo in sight. It's a perfect introduction for younger readers that shows what kids read back then and why they read so many darned comics. With a massive list of creators included Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Carl Barks, Frank Frazetta, Walt Kelly, Wally Wood, Dr. Seuss, to name just a few, it's a treasure chest filled with delightfully obscure and wonder tales of wonder and fun.

Do a search on Craig's name on our home page for all his off-beat and excellent books. Craig's taste is eclectic (from Ditko to Milt Gross to a stoned Krazy Kat & Ignatz) and a lot of fun.

IDW Books Sell Out--Too Quickly
Several of the Yoe books mentioned above are from the excellent publisher IDW, who may be today's equivalent of the much-loved Kitchen Sink Press. IDW has produced multi-volume series with editor Dean Mullaney. Dean began and ran Eclipse Publishing until it went under in the late 1980s. Li'l Abner is the latest, Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, Rip Kirby, Secret Agent X-9, Terry and the Pirates have appeared or are still appearing now.

Here's the tip...IDW is printing just enough copies to satisfy their initial orders, and maybe a few more. This is a far cry from the average publisher, who expects to print copies to satisfy orders for many months, if not a year or two.

This forces us to place our order as if we will not have a chance to reorder. We often cannot, the book is out of print by the time we go back for more. The early Dick Tracy's quickly sold out, as did the outstanding Rip Kirby Volume One, which only made it into one of our catalogs before it was history.

On rare occasions IDW has gone back to press, as they did on the first Dick Tracy collections. But often they don't, and you are left to find a copy in the used book market once our copies are gone. [My other business Bud Plant and Hutchison Books has a couple copies of the first Rip Kirby. Call us, they're not listed online.]

So be aware...if you see a title from IDW, order it now or put it high on your list--it probably will not be available for long. Like some other publishers, they're cutting things tight in this down economy of ours. And being in the same boat ourselves, we can't afford to lay in a six month or a year supply of every book they produce. We get as many as we can and then we sadly have to watch them sell out, even while word is still getting out and people are still learning about them.

Thanks for reading. Until next time,

Bud

San Francisco WonderCon

2010-04-27T10:27:00.003-07:00

Publisher Manuel Auad posted an excellent look at the latest Wonder Con in early April, including great pictures of celebrities Joe Kubert, Mark Schultz and many others. He's even got pictures of our booth. So I'm posting a taste of it below and recommend you click to see the whole show on his website. Thanks, Manuel!

S.F. WonderCon 2010 April 13, 2010 by auadpublishing (reprinted from Manuel's blog)

The San Francisco WonderCon last April 2nd-4th started with a thunderstorm.
The fans poured in the minute the doors were opened at the Moscone Center just as hard as the rain poured down outside. Some of them still dripping wet but completely oblivious as they ran to see their favorite artists and dealers. One of the many attractive and most sought after artist was Mark Schultz who was in John Fleskes’s booth. The Flesk Publications booth is one of the most visited booths at the Con for it is well known that he always publishes quality books. Mark Schultz, who stayed in John Fleskes’s booth, spent most of the time signing copies of his many books
All in all, it was interesting to note, that no matter how hard it rained during those three days it didn’t deter the fans one bit. And why not? Who would have wanted to miss meeting Joe and Adam Kubert, Tom Yeates, Frank Cho, William Stout, Mark Schultz Tony de Zuniga, Ernie Chan, Sergio Aragones and many others?
…and now, a few shots from the WonderCon

http://auadpublishing.wordpress.com/

Norman Saunders FREE book; Arthur Szyk Exhibit in NYC

2010-03-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

Join us at Wonder Con in San Francisco April 2-4 and score a free $40 book!

We will have three booths packed with new releases and bestsellers at the Wonder Con in San Francisco this weekend. We are giving away FREE with any $25 purchase a copy of the great Norman Saunders book ($40) that was released by Illustration Magazine.

Yes, you read that right. Editor Dan Zimmer wants us to promote the book for him and gave us 160 copies to give away at the convention. Of course, we'll also have all the newest books as well as a full booth of old comics and out-of-print art and comics-related books.

So come by and say hello. ----Mention my blog and we have a second free book you can have for NO purchase.

New Arthur Szyk exhibit in April. Here's a note we just received.

Dear friends,

Greetings! On behalf of Irvin Ungar, I would like to invite you to attend the all-new exhibition

Arthur Szyk: Methods of a Master Illuminator April 13-25, 2010Tuesday to Sunday, 11:00AM - 6:00PM

Broome Street Gallery 498 Broome St, New York, NY
Opening Reception
· Tuesday, April 13, 6:00-9:00PM

Gallery Talks, presented by Irvin Ungar
· Sunday, April 18, 3:00PM: The Haggadah for All Seasons: Szyk's Passover Masterpiece
· Tuesday, April 20, 6:30PM: The Jewish State through the Art of Arthur Szyk

About the exhibition
The highlight of the show will be works from a newly discovered 1910s sketchbook, works that reveal a confident young Szyk experimenting with Art Nouveau, medieval illumination, Polish folk art, and political caricature. These early sketches and studies, which offer invaluable insight into the development of Szyk’s methods and style, will be juxtaposed with works from later phases of the artist’s career. Group tours and private art consultations are available upon request—please inquire.
http://www.wlbooks.com/cgi-bin/wlb455.cgi/index.html?id=RQ4Wyyiu

Emerald City Comic-Con report; Spectrum website feature

2010-03-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

Anne and I are currently hanging out with a friend of hers in Portland. Just did the Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle over the last 3 days. It was REALLY busy. Just had a single booth of mostly old comics and some collectible books and sale books... was just non-stop all the first day, like people here are starved for good stuff. Sold all my new and back issues of Jim Vadeboncoeur's Images magazines, Illustration Magazines, art books, vintage fanzines, discounted recent comic strip collections, you name it, people were picking things up. Traded with several comics dealers (Harley Yee, Terry O'Neill, John Hauser, Ken Smith) for Golden Age for my own collection. Here's a link to a photo of Golden Age classic, Capt America #27, my favorite acquisition. Found a nice copy with three binder holes, which made it affordable (well, relatively speaking).

Many of the other (old comics) dealers were also very happy.

My speculation is (probably obvious) now that San Diego Comic-Con is so big/so expensive/sold out, regional conventions like this are a very attractive alternative. Also far more accessible for marginally interested newer and younger fans than an expensive sojourn to San Diego, where hotels are sold out, parking is non-existent, and lines to everything are long. Not trying to be negative here, but that's the facts these days.

Lots of new, first time attendees--several mentioned this was their first show. Guests were Stan Lee and Leonard Nimoy but also long lines for artists like Mark Texiera, Mike Allred (who told me for the first time he had to give an "end of line" sign out, he was so busy and the people lining up were never-ending) so lots of fans too.

The attendee count was up to 14,000 as of Sunday afternoon--advance reg was 4x last year. Dealer's booths sold out months ago and they are already talking of expansion for next year. One big room, easy to get around, LOTS and LOTS of artist alley tables. I'd say there were as many artists and creators there, judging from the space, as there were vendors like me. That's a great ratio. Very much like the San Francisco's Wonder Con (which is just coming up the first week in April). Nice folks, everyone having fun. I'm coming back next year and doubling my space so I can bring more Bud's Art Books goodies.

Hope other shows are doing this well. Really great to not only do well but see a lively interest from lots of folks of all ages. Many costumes like SD and WC. It will be interesting to see how Wonder Conit pans out. But my optimism is up at the moment. Sure a lot more fun to do this show than SD. Found lots of good old comics, too. I'll try and post some costume photos next blog update.

Also, I see Arnie Fenner just gave me a nice 40th anniversary feature on his Spectrum website. Many thanks Arnie!

-Bud

The Oddly Compelling Art of Denis Kitchen

2010-03-09T12:12:00.000-08:00

Coming in June is a long-overdue look at the very strange art of Denis Kitchen. I suggested a mashup of Basil Wolverton and Ernie Bushmiller and Denis didn't get indignant, so there it is... Denis is probably doing a special signed bookplate for us, free with any purchase of the book. Here's a link to The Beat with lots more details:
http://www.comicsbeat.com/2010/02/23/the-oddly-compelling-art-if-denis-kitchen-due-from-dark-horse/#more-9740

Guest Post from Craig Yoe - Milt Gross

2010-03-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Milt Gross!
Today, March 4, would have been Milt Gross' 115th birthday! We're celebrating on http://theITCHblog.com starting with presenting the the funniest comic book story ever, by the funniest comic book artist ever (IMHO). On the ITCH blog we'll be showing a Gross story every day and even rare goodies that couldn't fit into the about to be released book, "The Complete Milt Gross Comic Books and Life Story". This will continue until March 10 when the book will be in brick and mortar stores and on-line bookstores. Speaking of bricks, the book is over 350 fantastic full color pages of Milt Gross giddiness with a FOLD-INtroduction by Al Jaffee and a foreword by Herb Gross, Milt's son. And that's no Banana Oil!

Thanks much,
Craig Yoe
yoecomix@hotmail.com

PS: Bud here, we'll also have the new book as soon as the shipment roles in here. Search the website under "Milt Gross." Also don't miss our 2010 Calendar Sale, we're running out of titles and have just a few left. Regardless of the original retail price, everything is just $5.99. Just search "calendar."

I Want Your Comments; Coming Shows; New Books

2010-02-09T10:50:00.000-08:00

I apologize that I haven't been posting very often. If you'd like to hear more from me, send me a comment. I need some feedback!! What would you like to hear about? Post it here or send it to me personally at bud@budsartbooks.com.

Book and Comic Shows: Anne and I just exhibited at our first big antiquarian book show of the year in San Francisco. Called the Larsen show, it alternates with the ABAA (Antiquarian Bookseller's of America) show each year. This year the ABAA show is in Los Angeles February 12-14, but we elected to skip it.

Next up I'll be exhibiting old comic books and some sale items at the Sacramento Comic Con on Sunday, March 7, 10-5. This show runs about every two months and I always set up there with a small exhibit. I don't the their specialized anime shows. More info at http://www.sacramentocomics.com/html/index2.html

Next is the the Emerald City Comic Con, a very successful show that is attracting major dealers from around the U.S. This will be my first time there. It's in Seattle March 13th and 14th. More information at http://www.emeraldcitycomicon.com/

Then I'll be set up at the new spring Sacramento Book Fair, one day only, Saturday March 27 from 10-5. Information at http://www.sacbookfair.com/

Calendar Sale: We just dropped the prices on ALL remaining calendars and several titles have already sold out since the email went out last Friday. Nothing over $5.99. For regular titles, see http://budsartbooks.com/cat.cfm/cid/12/va/1

New Books: We just learned about a new book coming about Mort Meskin, a mainstay Golden Age artist who has never had anything major written about him. It's coming in July from Fantagraphics and of course we will handle it. From Shadow to Light: The Life & Art of Mort Meskin.

With all the publicity about R. Crumb and his Book of Genesis, it has now gone into it's 4th printing! The deluxe signed edition ($500) sold out and we were allocated copies--thus it never made it to the catalog as a new item. At the bookshow I just did last week, copies were there at $950 and $1000. So you lucky folks who bought it from us have something to brag about.

We are just ordering up another Crumb book that has always done well and it is not stocked by Amazon: The Monkey Wrench Gang written by Edward Abbey with color cover and b&w illustrations by RC. It'll be back in stock in a week or two at $25, hardcover. For all our other Crumb items, click here.

Black & White Images Vol 5: the fifth collection is now in stock.

This is publishe d by my long time friend and my former partner in the antiquarin book business. Jim retired from bookselling and now devotes himself exclusively to Images. He's given up call the B&W special an annual, since it was two years from Vol 4 to this new one. But they are always worth the wait. 106 pages of wonderful material, incl uding a lost first book illustrated by Frank Pape; E.A. Abbey; Wizard of Oz artist John R. Neill; Flagg, Dore, Christy, Sullivant, Benda, Lathrop, Shinn, Rackham, Rountree and many others. All rare material from scarce magazine appearances, carefully scanned and optimized to look better here than when first published! The first three issues are sold out. #4 is still only $20, this new one has gone to $25. http://budsartbooks.com/prod.cfm/pc/IMAA05/cid/14

From the Pen of Frank R. Paul: We just became the exclusive source for a deluxe lettered edition of 26 copies of From the Pen of Paul. The publisher kept this deluxe edition under wraps until now. It has 16 extra pages, a full leather binding and slipcase, a plate signed by all the contributors and more special features. There are also three other editions priced from $24.95 (softcover) to $59.95 (deluxe). http://budsartbooks.com/search.cfm

Duirwaigh Gallery Help and Auction

2010-02-09T10:45:00.000-08:00

Durwaigh Gallery represents a number of top fantasy artists. They were recently hit by flooding and to raise need cash, they are offering artwork in ebay auctions.

Relief Auction for FLOODING AT DUIRWAIGH GALLERY Duirwaigh Gallery, located just north of Atlanta, was hit particularly hard by the rains and floods last fall in the South. The Government declared a state of emergency for parts of Georgia, but the help has yet to trickle down to Duirwaigh's home, gallery and warehouse.To help plug the leaks, staunch the flow and repair the damages --and save thousands of dollars of artwork from drowning! -- Duirwaigh is hosting a huge auction on ebay featuring art and books by friends Alan Lee, Brian and Wendy Froud, Terri Windling, David Delamare, Kinuko Craft, and many others.
Visit the sale here beginning February 7th: http://stores.ebay.com/Duirwaigh-Gallery-Art-CollectiblesConact them at: info@duirwaigh.com
thanks for any and all help!

Angi

40th anniversary & Vess giveaway announced

2010-01-19T15:02:00.000-08:00

For immediate release:

Bud Plant Celebrates 40 Years of Comics and Illustration, Announces Vess Giveaway Contest

(Grass Valley, CA) - For longtime comics fan, retailer and distributor Bud Plant this year marks his 40^th anniversary, and a career that spans remarkable growth and radical changes throughout the industry.

“It’s hard to believe it’s been 40 years, but it’s been a wild ride,” said Bud in a recent interview. “Not too many people get to spend their whole lives doing what they love, but I’ve been lucky, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

In honor of its 40^t^h Year, Bud’s Art Books will be featuring specials in their monthly catalog throughout the entire year. First up is a contest featuring Charles Vess' new book, Drawing Down the Moon. Fans are challenged to count the number of times Hayao Miyazaki’s Totoro is found hidden in Vess' book. Correct entries will be placed in a drawing to win one of ten original drawings by Vess. Full details are available in the latest catalog or at BudsArtBooks.com

Several additional anniversary specials are planned for the coming months including special pricing and exclusive, free signed bookplates by the likes of Vess, Michael Parkes, Peter de Seve, Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, and Brom.

Born in 1952, Bud spent his youth following his passion for comics old and new, and fortuitously discovered Marvel comics during the beginnings of the “Marvel Age” in the early 1960s. Bud started one of the first comic book stores in the country (with six partners!) in 1968. He was in the right place at the right time (the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s) as the burgeoning underground comix movement came about.

Still in his teens, in 1970, Bud started a mail order business handling these poorly-distributed "undergrounds,” comics “fanzines” and the occasional (back then) book about comics. This seed would grow into one of the most dominant and influential forces in comics retailing and distribution. It was also in that year Bud became a founding exhibitor at the first San Diego Comicon (now Comicon International) where his booth would become known as an exciting hub of activity and information for artists, writers and fans from around the world.

In 1972, Bud went on to found the shop Comic & Comix in Berkeley, California, with friends Robert Beerbohm and the late John Barrett. This became the first “chain” of comics shops with seven stores in six cities. They also hosted the first northern California comics convention and the first “underground comix” show, Berkeleycon, in 1973. They also sent Dan O’Neill and his fellow Air Pirates artists to Phil Seuling’s New York Comic Art Con to raise money to fight Disney’s multi-million dollar lawsuit

The following years saw extensive growth for Bud in both the retail and wholesale arenas, and brought new opportunities including forays into publishing underground comics, such as Jack Katz’s The First Kingdom, Magic Carpet, Dan O’Neill’s Comics & Stories and Alfredo Alcala’s Voltar. Dark Horse editor Diana Schutz got her start as in comics working for Comics & Comix and editing the chain’s popular industry journal, The Telegraph Wire.

With continued growth and the explosive resurgence of interest in comics in the 1980s, Bud Plant, Inc. became the dominant comics distributor on the West Coast and the 3^rd largest in the U.S., just behind Diamond Comics and Capital City Distribution. In 1988, Bud sold his distribution division to Diamond, but continued to operate his mail-order/catalog business, Bud Plant Comic Art. The sale allowed him more time to get back to his roots and his real interests: to meet and encourage new artists, to foster interest and awareness of classic and contemporary comic art, and to become the #1 source for books devoted to all forms of fantastic and imaginative illustration and fine art.

To that end, Bud Plant’s Incredible Catalog became not just a successful sales tool for comics and illustrated books, but a de facto reference for the industry. With the emergence of the internet and changes in comics publishing, Bud's catalog evolved to become more inclusive, adding fine art, photography, and a quirky collection of popular culture titles. The catalog’s current incarnation, Bud’s Art Books, continues to offer a wide variety of books and DVDs with a strong emphasis on comics, sketchbooks, individual illustrators and artists, and fantasy art in general.

Bud's unique position, as a comic art expert and seasoned industry leader, has made him a much sought after resource in the comic art world. In addition to overseeing his retail business, Bud travels extensively as an exhibitor at comic shows and antiquarian book shows (his second passion). He is also on the Spectrum Board of Advisors and has served twice as a juror. He continues to freely share his knowledge and enthusiasm for great comic art and the history of illustration.

Our Year-Long 40th Anniversary Party, plus EC Archives news

2010-01-14T12:23:00.000-08:00

We are beginning a year-long celebration of our 40th Year Anniversary. The new catalog, in your hands now or shortly, has a special give-away of ten original drawings by Charles Vess. Get a copy of his new book (hopefully from us, or you can get it elsewhere and still participate). Count the times he's hidden the character Totoro in his paintings throughout the book. Send in your answer for a drawing for one of the ten drawings. More details in our new catalog 1001F with "Visions of Never" on the cover.

To celebrate our 40th, we'll be offering old pics and special offers and others goodies throughout the year. Watch each catalog for a new offer exclusively for our customers, to thank everyone for their support over the years!!

And...Here's a note from Gemstone publisher Russ Cochran:

Preliminary work is progressing on the EC 3D book, we have decided that the art should be reproduced twice, for completeness, once in flat 2D as it was drawn by the EC artists, and then a gain in the best 3D which can be done. The technical part of preparing the negatives for the 3D versions will be done by Ray Zone, who is "Mr. 3D" as far as comics go.

Still no news to report on which publisher will be given the license to continue publication of the EC Archives. Several publishers are in the running and I expect that Cathy Gaines Mifsud will make a decision soon. As soon as I know the answer to this one, I will notify everyone who gets this newsletter.

Baltimore Comic-Con; Ken Sanders and the book thief

2009-10-31T06:58:00.000-07:00

Baltimore Comic-Con 2009
A good friend of Anne and mine is Henrik Andreasen, a Danish comics fan who comes to the San Diego Comic-Con every year. Henrik helps Anne set up our booth of out-of-print material while I'm literally a couple football fields away, in the Bud's Art Books booths. Henrik does the same thing for David Spurlock each year at the Baltimore show, and here is an excellent report, with lots of cool photos of pro artists, of this years show. Click here for the link.

I added a bit to my last post about the new R. Crumb Book of Genesis, including a link to my buddy Ken Sander's website. Speaking of Ken, a new book has just been published about his work catching a major book thief while Ken was the Security Officer for the ABAA, the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett is "The true story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession." It's quite a riveting read and I could hardly put it down once I got started. I know many of the players, including top booksellers who both were burned by this guy and who helped to put him in prison, which makes it particularly fun. The author did a fine job of capturing the various sometimes-eccentric personalities of rare book dealers, explaining the ins-and-outs of the rare book world and dug deep on what drove the fanatical thief to continually risk--and serve--jail time in order to get the rare books he coveted. Sadly, he does have a screw loose and doesn't "get it" that he's personally harming the very regular folks he's burning with bad credit cards and various scams. Like many criminals, who often don't consider themselves one, he has many convoluted rationals about why he deserves these books, even when he obviously can't--or won't--buy them like a normal person.

Interestingly, the author meets many times why him, both in and out of jail, and admits that eventually she has become part of the story, not just the impartial reporter. Even Ken, who works closely with her, at one point is so angry with her actions (she accompanies the thief to the scene of one of his crimes, Brick Row Book Shop, where the owner John Crichton recognizes him and deals incredibly well with the extremely awkward situation. Ken Sanders is so angry at her he temporarily tells her to take a hike.

Here's what famed author Larry McMurtry has to say about it: "Allison Hoover Bartlett has written a meticulous and fascinating book about a serial bookthief and the persistent sleuth who dogged him for years and finally caught him. It will be especially gripping for those of us who trade in antiquarian books, who owe much to Ken Sanders's persistence. A fine read."
-Larry McMurtry, bestselling author of Books: A Memoir and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove.

Ken would be happy to sign or inscribe a copy to you--you can contact him through the bookstore site.

Anne and I are off next week to the Houston Rare Book Show, then on to Boston for the International Antiquarian Book Show. We'll wrap up the year with a show in Pasadena in early December. Links to all these are in a previous blog--I hope to see you there if you are in the area. Drop us a note and we'll send you a free pass if we have one--or just let me know if you have any comments or suggestions about the blog or anything else...write me at bplant@budplant.com.
-Bud

Fall Reading: Crumb, Pullman, Wynne Jones, Gaiman

2009-10-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

Just finished Crumb's Book of Genesis. More "begat" listings than I needed--"Noah begat John, Jacob and Ezekial, John begat Rachael, Mary and Rufus, et al. But Crumb is merely being totally faithful to the text, in which the original writers sought to trace the lineage of the giants of the Old Testament right back to Adam and Eve! But that minor gripe aside, the many stories (from Noah's Ark and the flood, to the destruction of Sodom and Gamorrah, Egypt's Pharoah and the Seven Years of Plenty and of Drought) at fun to read and beautifully drawn in Crumb's realistic style. His only editing seems to be that each of the major female characters seem to be the idealized Crumb Jewish Girl or woman, strong and well-formed, right down to protuberant nipples. Pretty racy ladies and sometimes with their own agends to keep the linage going (read: time to "lay down" with an important guy and procreate some mail heirs). And I did learn quite a bit. Crumb did a serious and excellent work on the first 50 chapters. I've read it's sold over ...100,000 copies already and is going back for a new printing. I've taken copies to several shows recently and it's always a conversation piece. My buddy Ken Sanders (Ken Sanders Rare Books) in Salt Lake City sold out his initial order in just hours.
Also just discovered a new sequel to Howl's Moving Castle, both a wonderul film by Miyazaki and a fine book by award-winning children's author Diana Wynne Jones. Her other work is mostly excellent.
Philip Pullman is another fine "young adult" author, just read his short tale "Once Upon a Time in the North--which comes complete with a game. It is a spin-off from the "Dark Materials" trilogy from which was made The Golden Compass. This goes back to describe the first meeting of Lee Scoresby, the Texan Balloonist, and Iorek Byrnison, the armored Bear. Very nicely done. Pullman also has done other excellent YA titles, including the Sally Lockhart series and The Tin Princess.
Hellboy Library Vol 3 just appeared and I enjoyed reading "The Conqueror Worm" which is loosely based on the Edgar Allan Poe poem. Wonderful work with a stirring introduction by director Del Toro.
Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book won the Newberry Award recently, the highest honor for a kids/young adult book. I believe it also won the Hugo Award for best novel. It's a wonderfully enjoyable book and I highly recommend it. It's still available in a small hardcover edition which sells for just $17.99. Support your local bookstore, they should have it or can order it. Perfect for kids of all ages.

Join us at these Book Fairs and Comic-Cons; Favorite Books

2009-09-17T12:06:00.000-07:00

Book Fairs and Comic-Cons
Anne and I will be exhibiting at several book fairs between now and the end of the year. First up is Sacramento this weekend, September 12. Then the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair on October 10 and 11. The Golden Gate Park Book Fair in San Francisco on October 25. Admission is free.

Next is The 7th Annual Houston Book Fair on November 7th followed by The Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair November 13-15. Last for the year will be the December 5-6 Pasadena Book Fair.

At each fair we bring a moderately priced selection of out of print and rare items: illustrated and children's books, art books, pulps, Golden Age and Silver Age comics, pop-culture and comics-related books, prints, original artwork, vintage paperbacks and more. I hope to see you at one of these shows. Next year our first two big shows are the San Francisco Antiquarian Book Fair February 6-7 and then our favorite Wonder-Con, this time moved to early April, the 2nd to the 4th!

New Favorite Books
I spent the last two days editing the new items that have just been rolling in here. There are several that I really enjoy and am taking home for myself. I thought I'd briefly share some of these with you. You can find them all on our website.

Alphonse Mucha - I was dismayed with the last Mucha volume suddely went out of print. But now we have a new and much larger volume, which just may be the most comprehensive book on Mucha yet. At $65 it's still quite a deal for a large, heavy volume of 356 full color pages.

Jia Lu - This is awonderfully talented Asian woman who paints, well, mostly Asian women. We handled her first book in 2002 and it was extremely popular--we even devoted a catalog cover to it. I'm considering doing the same with one of these two new books--I think a lot of her art. In the most basic aspects, her choice of subjects reminds me of Michael Parkes. Her subjects are often partially nude, they are usually lovely, sensual women, and the costuming and details are exotic and gorgeous. Transcendent is a revised edition (with higher resolution and color depth) of her first 2002 book, now long out of print, which covers her art up until that date. Illuminated collects her work from 2002 to 2009.

Walton Ford Pancha Tantra - Tashen, the bargain-priced German publisher, first introduced this book as a deluxe edition at $1200. We were astonished to be selling copies at a fair clip, although not because we didn't love the artwork. Ford works in mural-size and draws unusual animals with the skill of a veteran painter but the humor and oddity that is entirely his own. The deluxe edition eventually went to $1800 and sold out! This new edition is a massive, huge book and I'm so pleased to be able to take one home for myself. If we don't show you enough examples of his art, here is a link to Google Images where you can see much more.

Vintage Calendars - This publisher, new to us, is taking calendars one step farther along. These are oversized, with quality wire bindings. Each page is perforated so you can remove and save it each month. Even better, each one starts in September so you get four more full months. Tired of your old calendar. Here's a new one that can go up today. I really like all for of these. The Vintage DC Comics has some of DC's best World War II covers. Vintage Marvel has 16 of the most iconic covers of the 1960s by Kirby, Wood, Ditko and others. Vintage Norma Jean has 16 absolutely delightful, warm images of a teen-aged Marilyn Monroe. Two or three feature her in a demure swimsuit, so there is no nudity at all. The others are classic beautiful girl poses, like you'd find on vintage magazines and even romance comics of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Last, the Vintage Mad calendar features Kelly Freas and Norman Mingo covers that are lots of fun.

Atlas Era Black Knight and Yellow Claw - Someone at Marvel is really doing a service for us comics fans. These "Atlas Era" collections are really a lot of fun to read, they feature great artwork, and they are pretty tought and expensive comics if you are a collector. This new volume collects one of Joe Maneely's favorite projects, The Black Knight. Apparently in the 1950s knighthood was popular. There were big budget films; Prince Valiant finally made it to the screen; DC Comics devoted the first 25 or so issues of The Brave and the Bold to the Shining Knight (along with Joe Kubert's Viking Prince and Robin Hood). The Black Knight was one of Marvel's best titles, a "costumed" hero with a secret identity but set in a realistic medieval world.

The Yellow Claw is a direct rip-off of the every popular Sax Rhomer series of Fu Manchu titles. Nonetheless, it's a fun title combining adventure and the appeal of the "yellow menace." Along with Jack Kirby, the origin story is drawn by Joe Maneely, and John Severin and Bill Everett contributed covers to #2-4, the last issue. What an all-star lineup!

The new Eerie Archives volume 2 continues this fine series of reprints of the Warren magazines. I've been astonished at what wonderful artwork was coming from artists like Angelo Torres, one of the true all-stars of the creators, Reed Crandall, Alex Toth, Johnny Craig, Neal Adams. The creators run the gamut for the best EC vets to newcomers like Adams. Ditko continues to contribute work that is among his best outside of Spider-Man. After some anemic stories in the earliest Creepy issues, powerhouse editor Archie Goodwin took over almost all of the writing and his deliveries an astounding high average of horror stories and unique twists, issue after issue. And of course, here are the earliest Frazetta paintings, done for the Eerie covers, that were the very beginning of Frazetta's rise to being the most acclaimed fantasy painter ever.

The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics - My good buddy Craig Yoe (Modern Art, Secret Identity, Clean Cartoonists Dirty Drawings) was all set to put out a collection of his favorite 1940s kid's stories when the publisher said they already had one in the works--edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly. I hope Craig will do his own, since there's a BIG world of wild and wacky stories out there to choose from. This impressive volume, offering 60 complete one-pages and stories, is a wonderful start, the first to reveal two decades of fantasy for all ages. Here is Carl Barks, Walt Kelly, Dick Briefer's Frankensten, Little Archie, Uncle Scooge, Sugar and Spike, Melvin Monster, Supermouse, Little Lulu and Tubby...it's fun to read, as I did over the past few days, knowing that each story represents some hand-picked by the editors.

It's divided into chapters: Hey Kids; Funny Animals; Fantasyland; Storytime; and Weird and Wacky. But it's funny how each one overlaps into the others, since comics humor was almost entirely funny animal at the time, and fantasy, and, pretty darned weird and wacky. There's rare gems by Sheldon Mayer, Harvey Kurtzman's first Hey Look one-pagers, Jack Cole, Dr. Seuss, John Stanley, Dave Berg, the brillant George Carlson's Jingle Jangle stories so highly priased by Harlan Ellison...the list goes on and on. The early Pogo stories are great fun. And one of my favorite kid titles, Dell's Fairy Tale Parade by Walt Kelly, is well represented with several stories and covers.

It's a don't-miss-this item and a PERFECT book to give to or share with any youngsters. These have been carefully selected so they are all-ages. If my kids were still kids, this would be under the tree for them this year. At least a copy or two will be going to grandkids, nieces and nephews.

About Matt Baker

2009-08-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a question that just came in about artist Matt Baker.

Hi Bud, I found your name as a reference to a Matt Baker article. It mentioned you wrote a biography on Matt Baker. I was wondering if you had a copy available that I might read? I'm a big Baker fan and I'm really interested in his life and work.
Thank you!
Joanna

Dear Joanna,

I may have had a short bio on my website some years ago, written by Michelle Nolan. I don't have quick access to that at this moment to check it. You could write Michelle at 216 Franklin St., Bellingham, WA 98225 and she might make you a copy of it if it was indeed done.

However...there have been at least two, possibly more, articles on Baker in Alter Ego magazine, published by Twomorrows. There site is down as I write this, but here's the URL:

http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=down_for_maintenance

Most back issues of AE are available and you should be able to order the Baker ones. I also did a search on Alter Ego + Matt Baker on Google, and that has more info on one of the issues, #47, and maybe some other links you might find handy. A very recent article in AE, with participation of his family, was very informative.

There have also been two books that deal somewhat with Baker, albeit on his work for St. John comics in the early 1950s. They are Romance Without Tears by John Benson, and Confessions, Romances, Secrets and Temptations, also by John Benson. My business no longer handles either book, but you should be able to easily find copies online. They were published by Fantagraphics.

Bud

Comic-Con 40 Years Book; Final Spirit Archives; Harvey Kurtzman

2009-07-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

San Diego Comic-Con: 40 Years

We just got an advance copy of this unique new book. At the convention next week (July 22-26), the organizers will have an exclusive on these, but after the show they will be available from us. It's a lot of fun! Loads of special art for the past 40 years of program books, lots of rare photos of celebs, inside stories of the shows, the awards, the guests.

I'm even mentioned a couple times, since I have been somewhat of a fixture, exhibiting at every show since the first in 1970.

If you're coming this year, we'll be there as usual in 1500 and Anne will have out of print books, comics & more in 5015.

Also within a week or two of the show, we'll have a nice new batch of signed sketchbooks uploaded onto the website. This has gotten to be an annual event for those who can't make the show but want to share in the fun of these unique sketchbooks, often available only at shows or online from us.

Speaking of Will Eisner and The Spirit--at left is a special cover he did for the 1975 San Diego Program Book--the last Spirit Archives from DC Comics just came in. It collects all The Spirit stories and artwork done AFTER the initial end of The Spirit in 1952. It includes a rare newspaper Spirit story from 1966 that has never before been collected.

It's the perfect end to one of the most ambitious Archives collections, and one of my very favorites. Now you can own every eight page Spirit story, as published every week as a Sunday newspaper supplement from June 1940 to 1952.

Who would have imagined, back when I started collecting in the 1960s, that this 26-volume set would be done, let alone all the other amazing reprints of classic comics material. Just yesterday I was reading the latest Little Lulu collection from Dark Horse, this one in full color. Man, we are in our own Golden Age where we can have so much material on our bookshelves, as well as so much information a keystroke away on the internet. Yet the internet can only collect so much and do it in it's own fashion--so I don't see printed books going away anytime in my lifetime.

The Art of Harvey Kurtzman
The legendary Denis Kitchen (Kitchen Sink Press, long may they be remembered) has been busy behind the scenes and here we have his latest project. It's THE book on Kurtzman. Denis is now the agent for Kurtzman's estate, on top of his long relationship with Harvey over the years. Denis published Harvey's one-and-only "underground" comic, Kurtzman Komics, and lots of other fine projects as Kitchen Sink Press. So he knows the players, the inside stories and he has the art to choose the best...

And the result is a fine new art book from the prestigious publisher Abrams (Secret Identity, J.C. Leyendecker, R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues and Jazz, et al). As you may know, Kurtzman's follow-up to Mad, which he created, was Humbug. This is also currently in print, along with Little Annie Fanny (Dark Horse) and The Mad Archives.
It's a good time to be a Kurtzman fan.

Denis Kitchen is also behind the recently released Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics into Comix.
Denis' daughter Alexa, now ten years old, is a very young cartoonist and, amazingly, has a second book coming out this Fall. Her first was Drawing Comics is Easy (Except When It's Hard) in 2006. [My partner Anne and I still have a few copies with a signed bookplate we printed for it. You can email Anne at bp&hbooks@mac.com.]
Alexa's second book will be Grownups are Dumb! ((No Offense)), published by the Disney publisher, Hyperion.

Next time around, news from the San Diego Comic-Con. Watch for it in two weeks.

Best Wishes, Bud

Comic-Con Update; new Prince Valiant series; Comics for kids

2009-07-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

Comic-Con '09: Sold Out in San Diego
"While the City Council debates a $1 billion expansion of the Convention Center, you can't buy a ticket to this year's Comic-Con International."

Heidi MacDonald offers an excellent overview of the state of San Diego's Comic-Con 2009 in her latest Publisher's Weekly blog. Maxed at 125,000 people, there is no sign of a recession at the show this year.

We'll be there, in our multi-booth set up in the 1600 aisle, and also as Bud Plant & Hutchison Books in Booth 5015, with out of print books, pulps comics and more.

New Hal Foster Prince Valiant series begins

I'm very impressed with Fantagraphic's restart of this wonderful series. The reproduction quality is much improved over their old softcover series; it's the best I've seen. Plus Volume One collects 1937-38, almost two years of Sunday Pages, nearly twice that in each of the softcovers. These are hardcover, with a handsome black cloth spine and a nicely designed closeup of one of the Sunday pages on the cover. Inside there are more extras, a little-seen interview with Hal Foster, rare photos and illustrations, and a biographical essay by Brian Kane, who wrote the out-of-print book on Foster.

What about your Prince Val softcovers? This is the perfect series to introduce kids to great comics adventure. As each hardcover appears, pass on your softcovers to a son or daughter, niece or nephew, grandson or granddaughter--even a neighbor kid. Ages 8-14 are those "sense of wonder" years, when kids discover comics that they will cherish for the rest of their lives.

Many fans have told me they've read Prince Valiant to or with their kids. Other perfect comics for young readers are Little Lulu, Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge and even the classic 1960s comics from Marvel and DC, collected in the Masterworks and Archives series.

I hear rumors that Dell's Fairy Tale Parade series by Walt Kelly might finally be collected. This is another perfect intro comic for young readers and one of the finest all-ages comics from the Golden Age. In the meantime, Craig Yoe (Arf, Secret Identity, Boody) is working on a all-kids book of reprints from the Golden Age. That will be a lot of fun.

Best wishes,

Bud

Dave Stevens, Comic-Con, John Carter of Mars, Calla Does Illustrated Classics

2009-06-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

BRUSH WITH PASSION: The Art and Life of Dave Stevens -Edited by Arnie Fenner and Cathy Fenner. The regular edition is now out-of-print. But to my blog-readers, here's your last chance to pick this up since we still have a few copies left as I write this. The special Diamond edition is long gone and the Deluxe Edition was over-subscribed before it was published. Publisher Tim Underwood says he doesn't plan to reprint but will do a softcover edition in 2010.

San Diego International Comic-Con
The good news is that we'll have our usual huge display of books for your perusal at this year's show. Also, my partner Anne Hutchison will have out of print books in her separate booth, #5015, opposite Stuart Ng's booth. Anne will have my comics-related books, old comics, Big Little Books, children's and old illustrated books, fantasy art books, etc. Bud's Art Books is in the same spot, the 1600 aisle. Come by and check out the latest releases, many that are not yet in a catalog, plus lots and lots of sale-priced art books and graphic novels and lots more. The bad news? If you don't have a ticket, they are sold out. Yow! Another big year at the show.

Frank Schoonover Raisonne
George McWhorter edits The Gridley Wave and the excellent Burroughs Bulletin, which is a nicely illustrated magazine devoted Edgar Rice Burroughs. George recently did an excellent review of the new Schoonover two-book set and gave me permission to reprint it it. Click on the title above to see his review below our description. You can contact George about BB: george.mcwhorter@louisville.edu.

And a reminder: we'd love to have you review any items that we handle. Just click on "review this product" below any item on our site, log in and go to town.

John Carter Omnibus

George also writes about a new John Carter book, illustrated by artist Thomas Yeates. It's being published by Barnes and Noble and, sadly, they do not wholesale their books to other stores and dealers, such as ourselves. We might get some if it is remaindered, but in the meantime you might keep a lookout for it if you freqent a B&N store or you might find it online if they have a site, and I'm sure they do. It's due out in September 2009.

Calla Editions

I'm very pleased with a new publisher to us, Calla Editions. For decades many publishers have reprinted some of the classic illustrated books from the Golden Age of Illustration, circa 1900-1925. However, they usually make over the books in new modern formats and often feature bad reproductions of what were once magnificent color plates.

Calla is doing real facsimile editions, that look really, really like the original books. The reproduction inside and out is first rate. We're now handling three of these--by Kay Nielsen, Maxfield Parrish and Edmund Dulac. The books are even the original size, be it a smaller "quarto" (7x10) for East of the Sun, West of the Moon or a large, like The Knave of Hearts, "folio" size (11x13.5). Cover titles are in gilt on East of the Sun and on Dulac's Stories from Hans Christian Anderson, just like on the original editions, or in the case of Knave, it's an incredible color plate embossed and then tipped onto black cloth. These are really great, thus the unabashed plug here.

If you want to learn more about these illustrations, here are links to my old partner Jim Vadeboncoeur's website, with excellent and illustrated biographies. You can also go on our website and search any artist by names for all books in which he/she appears. We have several excellent art books right now on the Golden Age.

Edmund Dulac

Kay Nielsen

Maxfield Parrish

Illustration UK; Color Lulu; Hidden Frazetta; Super-Con Pictures

2009-05-26T12:19:00.000-07:00

Illustration

UK:

Not to be confused with Dan Zimmer's Illustration Magazine from the U.S.--this British-produced quarterly is entirely different. The editors examine artists both contemporary and classic, from W. Heath Robinson (shown at left) to Mervyn Peake, Elenore Fortescue Brickdale (a favorite of mine) to natural history illustrators, woodblock artists and much, much more. Many back issues are detailed on their website and subscriptions are available. This is virtually not distributed in the U.S.

Little Lulu in COLOR!

After a wait of more than a year, here is a new release in Dark Horse's delightful series. This is just the second book they've done in full color (the first is out of stock, sorry). Previous volumes are nearly as fun in black and white, particularly because they are only $9.95 and we even have several discounted down to $6.95 while they last. But there is nothing like color and this new one is just delightful (it's actually #19 in the series). Fans of humor comics have always said that after Carl Barks and the Ducks, John Stanley and Irving Tripp's Lulu are the funniest and best loved of all the "fun" comic books. I turned my kids on to them but didn't sit down and actually read most of these until this series started. I was hooked. These are a perfect gift for any little girl (and, honestly, boys too) from the age of reading and up.

Frazetta's Little Miracles

In case you missed it, a nifty article on Frank's pen & ink drawings from the early 1960s is hidden away in the newly reprinted Illustration #2.

I've always had a fondness for these. As a kid I discovered Tarzan, John Carter and the other Edgar Rice Burroughs characters. I devoured the books, abetted by Dr. Abercrombie across the street, who still had his jacketed Grosset and Dunlap editions published before World War II. I was in hog heaven as he loaned me one book at a time over the months. I was soon to discover Frank Frazett'a work, first on the paperback Conan covers, then covers of Warren's Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. Then it turned out Frazetta had done 27 of these incredible pen and ink drawings for the "new" Canaveral Press editions of Burroughs titles At the Earth's Core (1962), Tarzan and the Castaways (1965), and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Master of Adventure (1965). Other books were planned but never published--these ended up in Tarzan, Master of Adventure. Oh, and what work it is, as you can see here. Dr. David Winiewicz has written a delightful article on these fine work and includes full page reproductions of these two pieces and two more, plus two great pics of Frank at his drawing board.

San Jose Super-Con Report

I had a booth at the May 16-17 Super-Con in San Jose (my old home town until 1975) along with my buddy, Dick Swan, known to the San Francisco Bay Area comics world as Big Guy's Comics. The attendance at the show was a bit light, typical of many shows in this economic downturn of ours. But regardless, I had a great time. I met a bunch of old friends, traded for some great comics for my collection, bought even more of the same, and even sold a few things. Below are a few pictures I managed to snap. What I didn't get a picture of was my chance meeting with Marina Sirtis, the lovely actress who played Counselor Deanna Troi on Star Trek The New Generation for seven seasons, along with Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard!

I'd heard that she was at the show but typically, I don't usually try to go see the special guests. But on Sunday afternoon I thought I'd run up the aisle and look in on her table. Lo and behold, there she was without a person there (the lastest young boy-toy actor was currently grabbing fan attention). I've been friends with British artist Chris Achilleos (Sirens, Amazona, Medusa) for many years now. He'd told me he and his sister had known Marina since they were in school together in England. So I had something to talk about besides "gee, I liked you in New Generation." We had a nice chat for a few minutes, one of my very few star sightings. She was delightful, of course, and promised to say hello next time she saw Chris.

Here are the pics I took at Super-Con:

Friend and artist Jim Silke and his two models, Mia and Linda. Jim wrote Bettie Page, Queen of Hearts (1995) which I co-produced with Dark Horse. Of course he has another Bettie book, his own graphic novel Rascals and much more.

Good friend Sergio Aragones (Groo, Mad artist). Sergio is so great, he always makes a point of saying hello to me every time we do a show together. And counting San Diego Comic-Cons and Wonder-Con, that's a lot of shows.

Long time comics dealer Tony Raiola with a friend. She had a lovely Italian name and now I've forgotten it. Tony publishes old comics as Pacific Comics Club. He's planning a new collection of Connie daily strips by Frank Godwin, which I'm eager to see. He's also doing three volumes of Adventures of Patsy (1935-56) by Mel Graff, who assisted Milton Caniff on Terry and the Pirates.

My Buddy Dick Swan (Big Guy's Comics) with a friend dressed as a funky Robin. Dick lists his comics for sale on his EBay store and he's THE most honest and fair dealer you'll ever meet. Try him if you are looking for Silver Age and pre-code horror comics.

Artist/Writer Howard Chaykin, another buddy I've known for many years. We bumped into each other at closing time and had that typical line "Hey, I didn't know you were here at the show!" He's showing off my display of art books and, yes, even old comics over his shoulder.

Artist Eric Joyner (ROBOTS AND DONUTS: The Art of Eric Joyner)

Christian Alcala and his mother. He's working on a book on his father Alfredo Alcala's work, both in Philipino comics and in comics here in the U.S. I was the co-publisher (with my stores Comics & Comix) of Alfredo's "underground comic," Magic Carpet (1977).

It featured his sword and sorcery hero Voltar. It was written by Manual Auad. Alfredo lived with Manual and his family in San Francisco during part of the time he was working in the U.S. Manual now publishes as Auad Publishing and has done several fine books on the work of Alex Toth, Franklin Booth, Jordi Bernet and Alex Nino.

Here are some great comic covers of work Alcala did in the Phillipines.

Thanks for reading. See you next time.

Bud

My Favorite Magazines; Summer Reading; Grand Comics Database; James Payette, Comics Dealer

2009-05-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

Comics Revue

This week I'd like to tell you about two excellent magazines--that we don't handle--that you might enjoy as much as I do. The first is Comics Revue with is now in it's 276th issue. It collects the best in both contemporary and classic comic strips every month. It includes both dailys in black and white and Sundays in full color...for instance, right now each issues includes four Tarzan Sunday pages by Russ Manning. Every so often they get a new, original cover by a pro who loves the magazine...to the left is the latest issue with this wonderful new 2008 painting by Tom Yeates, who has done many wonderful Tarzan projects over the years.

Click here to check out their website. A 12-issue, one year subscription is $45. You may recognize the publisher, Manuscript Press.They also publish Prince Valiant: An American Epic in full page size. We handle these, they are such magnificent books collecting the first three years of PV. Tell Rick at Manuscript you want a new release--I sure do!

Hogan's Alley Special Offer
If you are old enough to remember fanzines--you know, where us comic fans used to get all our information before the internet--you know what I mean when I say Hogan's Alley is like a great old fanzine. It's a pure labor of love (it has to be with so many pages for so little a price). Anyway, below is a special offer to introduce you to this fine magazine or click here for their website.

Perhaps you've never read the print edition of Hogan's Alley...here's your chance to visit the Alley inexpensively and with no strings attached! For a limited time, you can order a copy of Hogan's Alley for only THREE DOLLARS (and that includes postage)! We decide which issue you get, but you're sure to get more than three bucks' worth of reading pleasure! Click here to order now! See what everyone's talking about!

* * *

You might ask me why Bud's Art Books doesn't handle these magazines. Well, the story is this. First of all, we can't get the information to you on new issues until we have then in our warehouse...thus, you don't see them in a catalog until weeks or maybe a month or two after they are released, due to the time it takes for us to put the catalog together. Most reasonable people prefer getting the new issue a bit faster...so they subscribe or they pick it up at the local comic book store or magazine or book store.

So we have edged away from handle periodicals for this reason. Books don't have such a "on time" value and also continue to sell over a long time, whereas new issues of magazine wain in popularity very quickly. So do do a better job for you, we stick to books except for the rare case of a magazine that is somewhat timeless and also is hard to find in retail locations. Two examples are Illustration Magazine and Images.

One more favorite mag I'd like to mention is Alter Ego. We handled this for many years but also have been forced let it go. I still avidely read every issue, which covers the world of comic book artists and writers with in depth interviews. If you click on the link, it'll take you into the publisher Two-Morrows website, where they currently are offering 15% off on their huge line of books and magazines.

Summer Reading
The Comics Journal runs an annual "summer reading" list and they ask for submissions from comics professionals. My reading is pretty eclectic, although I image many of us have similar far-ranging tastes. I mentioned in my first blog that I was re-reading the "Master and Commander" novels by Patrick O'Brian.

I've been thoroughly enjoying the new HBO series The #1 Ladies Detective Agency. So I thought I'd read something by the author, Alexander McCall Smith. He's written four books in another series called The Sunday Philosophy Club. It's every bit as good, but with the twist that the "heroine," Isabel Dalhousie, edits "The Magazine of Applied Ethics" and she applies ethical and philosophical considerations to everything she does in life. It's a great example of the value of slowing down and thinking a bit about our actions. In the first book, a young man falls to his death in a theatre and they just happen to lock eyes for a brief moment on his way done. So she figures out she owes it to him to get the the bottom of this accident, murder or suicide. There are four books so far in the series, all quite easy reads. The added treat is that Isabel lives in Edinburgh, Scotland--McCall Smith also lives in Edinburgh--so there is a lot of great local color where the old world meets the new.

Don't miss Neal Gaiman's Newbury Award Winner: The Graveyard Book. It's an all-ages story of a toddler who's adopted by ghosts and raised in a graveyard to hide him from the killer who wiped out his family and still is hunting for him. It's a great story, I just bought another copy for my daugher Alison. Pretty much all ages and a great, upbeat take on the afterlife with the twists that Gaiman is so good at. Here's what the NY Times says about it.

Which brings me to the comics I have been reading...or rather, re-reading. Like many collectors, I often wonder why I need to keep accumulating more comics when I have so many already. So I took the philosophy to heart, particular considering the current economic times, and have been looking backward...at what I have already. I've ended up having a great time re-reading serveral of my old favorites: Magnus, Robot Fighter (the first Russ Manning issues), Strange Adventures (specifically the classic Schwartz issues, #100-160), and Mystery in Space, which I'm currently working through (I'm up to #25). It's great fun, because each of these are not only well written by well drawn, in the case of SA and MIS by guys like Murphy Anderson, Carmine Infantino, Dan Barry, Gil Kane, Sid Green, et al.

This also gives me a chance to let you know about a GREAT website, the Grand Comics Database. If you click on any of the titles above comic titles, it will take you into what they call the "Gallery" which is pictures of most or all issues in each of these runs! GCD also offers creator credits, searches by character, story titles, cross-over info...you name it. My old partner, Jim Vadeboncoeur, is currently correcting and completing the data for several of the major Fiction House titles, Jumbo, Jungle and next up, Planet. Because I also collect these, I've been able to help by loaning him my issues to complement what he doesn't have.

And another fine site for nice large images of runs of comic covers...I just captured the image to your left from there. It's called Cover Browser.

Finally, as long as I'm talking about old comics, here's the link to my #1 favorite dealer, Jim Payette. He's one of the fairest graders ever; he has a huge selection of all grades, from inexpensive reading copies to top grades; and his website is very easy to use. Jim also publishes a great catalog, with a new edition coming in June. If you are looking for any back issue comics, give him a whirl. He's also very easy to get by phone. He doesn't do shows, so his stock isn't picked over. Tell him I sent you his way, please.

Until next time,

Bud

Reviews invited; Best of Simon&Kirby; Book and Comic Shows; Clearance Sale

2009-04-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

I want you to write for us!
I'd like to invite you to contribute to our website. You can now write a review of any book we handle. You just log in with your password, or create an account for yourself, and go to it. For instance, two great books begging for your personal comments are Reynold Brown and Norman Saunders.

Go to any item, scroll down until you see this:

Customer Reviews:There are no customer reviews yet.
Please log-in if you wish to review this product
or this, if there is already a review:
Please log-in if you wish to review this product

I've been doing the occasional review myself, and here are two examples of what I have done:

BRUSH WITH PASSION: The Art and Life of Dave Stevens Edited by Arnie Fenner and Cathy Fenner.

TELLING STORIES: The Comic Art of Frank Frazetta

The Best of Simon and Kirby

I just got this note from Steve Saffel. Steve just finished editing the new Best of Simon and Kirby and I think his enthusiasm deserves inclusion here. I know very few comics fans who don't love S&K's Golden Age work. I've collected their work since I first discovered comics in the 1960s.

DC has also announced a Golden Age Sandman volume with S&K's seminal work. And also coming is a collection of their best stories from Young Love and Young Romance--the romance work for fans who hate romance. It's S&K worth seeing!

Here's Steve:

Hi There!
Please forgive me the mass e-mail, but I’ve received an advance copy of a book which has me excited beyond words--THE BEST OF SIMON AND KIRBY--and I have a couple of requests.

The Library Journal had words. “Dazzling from beginning to end, The Best of Simon and Kirby is a monumental piece of comics’ history and a hunk of Americana that is a dream come true for legions of fans. Buy it for your graphic novels, art, or pop-culture collections, but buy it.”

Now we need your help. Joe put his heart and soul into the project, and he deserves a bestseller! So...
Spread the word. Forward this e-mail to all of your friends who might be interested.
Pre-order your copy—if you are so inclined—through a book store, a comic book store, or an online store. Help us hit some bestseller lists!
Review the book. I’d love to see it with the five-star rating it deserves.
The book is beautiful. The stories are exciting, the Harry Mendryk restorations are fantastic, and the artwork is a joy to behold. If you’ve never seen Kirby in collaboration with Simon, you’ve missed the best. And if you have, you’ve never seen it like this, with vivid colors on oversize pages. I’ve attached a couple of samples—please take a look. We’ve even got stories made available by Marvel and DC, including the first two S&K mega-hits, Captain America and Boy Commandos.

Years ago, Jules Feiffer’s The Great Comic Book Heroes was an epiphany, introducing us to Simon and Kirby, Jack Cole, Will Eisner, and more. THE BEST OF SIMON AND KIRBY is the same sort of experience, with the most exciting super hero, detective, horror, science fiction, romance, and humor ever to appear in comics. It’s full of surprises—under the dust jacket, in the wonderful Mark Evanier introductions, and in the stories. The entire Titan Books team really knocked themselves out!

It’s obscenely inexpensive. There are more Simon and Kirby books on the way, and this is the one that gets the ball rolling. Thank you for your help!

Best, Steve

Stephen W. Saffel, Editor, The Best of Simon and Kirby

Clearance Sale

We're clearing out some wonderful books at amazing prices, so I hope you don't miss out. We are offering you a huge section of bargain-priced books. Most are in short supply, so act now. You won't find deals like this anywhere else, even on Amazon! A few examples:

Mark Schultz: Various Drawings 3 $19.95, now $12.95

Walt and Skeezix 1925-26 Volume 3 $29.95, now $9.99

Doc Savage #11 $12.95, now $8.95

Chamber of Mystery: Witchcraft $13.99, now $8.99

Liberty Meadows Book 1, 10th Anniversary Special $24.99, now $12.99

Star Wars Vault: 30 Years of Treasures $85, now $55

Click here for more clearance specials:

More Upcoming Shows

Super-Con, San Jose May 16-17
I'll be exhibiting at Super-Con in San Jose, California May 16 and 17. If you are in the area, come by and say hello. I'll have a booth of sale priced new books, a load of Golden Age and Silver Age comics and other goodies. Their website with full information is:
http://www.super-con.com/

Gold Rush Book Fair, Grass Valley May 16
The same weekend, my partner Anne will have antiquarian illustrated books and lots of my out-of-print items at the Gold Rush Book Fair in Grass Valley. One day only, May 16. The picture at the beginning of this week's blog, and below, are from the bookfair:

http://www.goldrushbookfair.com/

Seattle Book and Paper Show May 30-31

Anne Hutchison and I will be exhibiting old comics and pulps, out of print illustrated and children's books and much more.

http://www.seattlebookandpapershow.com/

San Diego Internation Comic-Con July 22-26

Bud's Art Books will be in SD for our 40th consecutive year--I first set up at San Diego in 1970, sharing an eight-foot folding table with three buddies in the ballroom of the U.S. Grant Hotel. This year they expect more than 125k people at the comics event of the year. We'll be there with a 48-foot trailer load of cool new and sale-priced books in our huge multi-booth display. Meet the Bud Plant staff and check out all the new goodies.

Four day passes are sold out, but they still have Thursday and Sunday tickets. Come by Wednesday nite for the preview or as early as you can, so as not to miss out on any early sell-outs. We always have new, exclusive signed books available, too.

http://www.comic-con.org/

Best wishes,

Bud

Gorey Exhibit; Museums; Artist Biographies; Craig Yoe on NPR

2009-04-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

The Art of Edward Gorey at the Brandywine River Museum
Through May 17, the Brandywine River Museum has a exhibit of 180 works by Edward Gorey, many never before exhibited. They are in Chadds Ford, PA, a beautiful scenic area that is a lovely place just to drive through. The DuPont Gardens are also nearby.

The Brandywine is best known as the place to find the works of the Wyeth family--N.C. to Andrew to Jamie. Whenever I get to the east coast, I try to work in a visit to both this and to the Delaware Art Museum. It's in Wilmington, 45 minutes from Chadds Ford. I highly recommend them both, if you live nearby or if your travel plans take you within striking distance. You can also become a member for as little as $15 or $20 and get regular mailings on their many exhibits.

In case you missed the N.C. Wyeth Catalog Raisonne ($395), it remains available from Brandywine (and is actually well worth the price!). Sadly, our copies are gone and we cannot order more. Brandywine also sells other fine (and much less expensive) exhibit catalogs, some of which we have handled in years past.
http://www.brandywinemuseum.org/

http://www.delart.org/exhibitions/current/index.html

The Delaware Art Museum has a permanent exhibit of Howard Pyle and American Illustrators, as well as the finest collection of Pre-Raphaelite artists in the U.S. The latter includes astounding work by J.W. Waterhouse, Lord Leighton, Alma-Tadema, Rossetti, et al.

Craig Yoe/Secret Identity Interview on NPR

Author/artist Craig Yoes is interviewed on the National Public Radio program Fresh Air with Terry Gross. You can listen to it online or download it as a podcast.

That's about his new book, Secret Identity-The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster. Also Frederic Wertham, the Brooklyn Thrill-Killers ("The Columbine of its time"), the Nights of Horror crusade, etc. See more in last week's post on my blog. Here's a direct link to the program:

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13

Patrick O'Brian Jack Aubrey Novels

The Folio Society, based in the United Kingdom, has published the first five Jack Aubrey titles in deluxe and illustrated new hardcovers. I've been one of the legion of fans of this fine series and am currently reading the 21-novel set for the second time around. The wonderful film (I can't recommend it enough, everyone I know loved it), Master and Commander, just gave a brief glimpse of what is to be found in the books.

http://www.foliosociety.com/book/MSC/master-and-commander

They've also done two wonderful books by Charles van Sandwyk, a superb but still relatively little-known illustrator. We handled two of his books several years ago and I would love to again, when the right item comes along.

Folio Society does NOT wholesale their books, so the only source is straight from them (members get discounted prices) or from a used/antiquarian book dealer. Here's a link to van Sandwyk's Wind in the Willows. They did a limited edition of 1000 of these, which started out at $800 and went to $1200 before it sold out...all before publication. The edition here is the less spectacular but still delightful trade edition;

http://www.foliosociety.com/book/WNDB/wind-in-the-willows

Here's a Google Images link to more work by Van Sandwyk.

Speaking of Artists - 102 free online illustrated bios

My former partner in Bud Plant Illustrated Books, Jim Vadeboncoeur, maintains a website with extensive, fully illustrated artist biographies. 102 of them. Included are Gustaf Tenggren, Willy Pogany, Andrew Loomis, Alex Toth, Moebius, Franklin Booth, Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel, Norman Lindsay, etc. Jim is the publisher of Images magazine and The Black and White Images Annual, both of which we handle and recommend. Here are a few images from his website.

http://bpib.com/illustra.htm

That's it for this week. Please write and tell me what you like or don't like about my blog. If you have questions about book illustrators, comic artists, books in or out of print...run them by me. I'll run any I find that should interest others here in the blog. And I always will do my best to answer anyone who writes. That's always been a service I try to provide to customers of Bud's Art Books. My email is bud{-at-}budplant.com (substitute @ for {-at-} )

Thanks for your interest!

Bud

Secret Identity; New Parkes; Reynold Brown; Tor; Eerie Archives

2009-04-14T15:53:00.000-07:00

Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Schuster

The author is my good buddy Craig Yoe. He called last night and filled me in on all the cool publicity he's been getting for this fascinating new book--which, of course, Bud's Art Books now has in stock.

http://budsartbooks.com/prod.cfm/pc/SRTH/cid/43

Craig's USA Today interview just hit and you can check it out here:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2009-04-12-shuster-comics_N.htm

This week you can hear Craig's interview on National Public Radio with TerryGross on Fresh Air. Here's the website:

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13

The LA Times also did a piece. The article states " Artist Shuster and writer Jerry Siegel created Superman in 1938 but didn't benefit when the character exploded in popularity in the 1940s. "

Not true. Siegel and Schuster had a 10 year contract with DC and were being paid like rock stars until 1948, when they sued DC. The had their own studio of artists and were not only drawing the comics, but also had the contract to produce the highly popular daily and Sunday newspaper strip. If they had bankrolled the $$, they might have lived off those good times the rest of their lives. Yes, DC could have done much more for them as the years went by, but they treated them pretty well for the first decade of Superman's existence.

Here's Craig's own website, which is always a lot of fun. He has a blog also.

http://secret-identity.net/

New Michael Parkes in the works

His first self-published book has just gone out of print. We have only a handful of copies left as I type this. They've announced a new book in the same format, a nice large square volume with over 200 pages of his latest and best works, including sculptures, drawings, etc. We'll be asking him to sign a special bookplate for this once again. It's not yet up on our site, but watch for it early this summer. That's The Art of Michael Parkes II.

Reynold Brown: A Life in Pictures
The publisher of Illustration Magazine has been on a real role of late. In addition to new issues, he's re-released numbers 1 and 2 which have been long out of print. #2 features a look at Norman Saunders, which was the beginning of the fine new book that has just been published by...you guessed it...Illustration Magazine.

We featured the Norman Saunders book on the cover of our last catalog. At just $39.95, it's really a bargain in this age of $50, $60 and $75 art books. The Reynold Brown book is just a bit slimmer but is filled with great movie posters--and other work--that will bring back those b-movie days of the 1950s and 1960s and maybe even 1970s. We like this so much it'll be on the cover of our next catalog, which appears in a month or less.

http://budsartbooks.com/prod.cfm/pc/REYH/cid/25

Some more favorite new items:

Tor: A Prehistoric Odyssey by Joe Kubert

Joe created Tor in 1953, when he got his first opportunity to be writer, artist AND editor on a book of his own. He proceeded to revive his prehistoric hero just a couple of times since then. While I first thought this was a reprint of some of that material, it is NOT.

This is a compilation of a comic book series Joe did in 2008. And it's an entirely new take on Tor. It begins with his exile from his tribe and proceeds to put him into incredible situations with both prehistoric critters and some fantasy monsters, with lots of volcanoes and a hidden valley and a newfound love interest.

It's a very readable book and I was pleased I took the time to read it. And while Joe's no spring chicken anymore, the art is really powerful and detailed--he took no shortcuts here. It's a joy just to look at this panel by panel. A lot of work was put into this and it shows. Amazing how Joe is still willing to push himself to create a new, exciting novel where some other artists might just knock something out.

Eerie Archives Volume One

I've still got my Warren magazines packed away in some box or other at home. But I have to admit there's a real convenience to picking up this new book and reading it, cover to cover. They've even included the letters pages, which are a blast when you see letters from future pros.

But it's the art that shines here, incredible work by many of the EC artists only ten years removed from their glory days...in some cases, they're even better. Angelo Torres is a highlight for me, his work is some of the best here, like Al Williamson with an edge. And of course here IS Al Williamson, Steve Ditko, Wally Wood, Johnny Craig, Alex Toth, Reed Crandall... you get the idea. $50 isn't cheap these days, but what a lot of fun reading you get for the price.

http://budsartbooks.com/prod_images/150/eer01h.jpg

Eerie is part of the Archives series from Dark Horse, which has already reprinted Creepy Volume 1 (#1-5) and Volume 2 (#6-10).

http://budsartbooks.com/search.cfm

Blazing Combat

And just out from Fantagraphics is the Blazing Combat collection. Apparently Dark Horse opted out of doing this, so Blazing Combat is under $30 (it collects all four issues, while the Archives collect five), a real deal for the material. Frazetta painted all four covers. If you liked EC's Two Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, you can't miss these anti-war war stories. Again, the line-up of artists is phenomenal:

Russ Heath, Reed Crandall, Al Williamson, Wally Wood, Gene Colan, Alex Toth. And don't forget Archie Goodwin, the phenomenal writer and editor who made all these early issues so damned good. Word is the artists loved the freedom he gave them and the result was some of their finest work ever.

As I write this BC is not quite available...the wrong price was printed on the book, so we're waiting for Fantagraphics to send us the corrected UPC label to put on. It should be ready to ship within a few days.

http://budsartbooks.com/prod.cfm/pc/BLCOH/cid/37

That's plenty for today. I hope you'll sign up for my new blog. I'll try and make it worth your while, with new of cool new books and things coming in the future, some inside stories, etc.

By the way, I'll be exhibiting at Super-Con in San Jose, California May 16 and 17. If you are in the area, come by and say hello. I'll have a booth of sale priced new books, a load of Golden Age and Silver Age comics and other goodies. Their website with full information is:

http://www.super-con.com/

Best Wishes,

Bud