The Art of Fantasy and a Fantasy of Art

Willy Pogany Rediscovered, Selected and Edited by Jeff A. Menges. A Dover art book with color reproductions, half-tones, and line illustrations. I’ve been a fan of Pogany’s work since middle school, when I read “The Children of Odin” and “The Golden Fleece”. Though I find his earlier work a little too overblown and art nouveau, that period of his career found his work nicely tempered and ornate without being ‘busy’. This book is a late acquisition. Ranking: Expendable. File Code: Art. Softcover.

Maidens, Monsters, and Heroes: The Fantasy Illustrations of H. J. Ford, Selected and Edited by Jeff A. Menges. Another Dover art book. H. J. Ford did many illustrations for the Andrew Lang fairy tale collections, among others. I think the first one I ever even saw of these was ‘The Blue Fairy Book’, which I got in my first year of college from the SWTSU bookstore. I love his style, especially his monsters, but maybe even more his ‘almost humans’ of elves, goblins, and bogeys. Ranking: Keeper. File Code: Art. Softcover.

The Fantastic World of Gervasio Gallardo, Introduction by Betty Ballantine This is one of those art books that flourished in the early 1970’s, years before anyone could go online and get an image library of just about any artist. I got the book in the middle 2010’s, mostly because of nostalgia for the covers of the Ballantine fantasy series. There is other art of his, but I don’t particularly care for it; his symbolic art works much better for fantasy than otherwise. Ranking: Dispensable. File Code: Art. Softcover.

The Land of Froud, Edited by David Larkin. Another art book of the 1970’s. This book was advertised in those old sci-fi mags. I first became aware of Brian Froud in a sort of sideways manner, in that a girl in Briesemeister art class used a picture by him (‘The Goblin King and His Servant’) as a template for her project. I have a dim sort of memory of looking at this book and being puzzled by its ‘graphic language’, and possibly leery of its occasional nudity (I was an enormous prude at the time). By the time of “Faeries” in the 1980’s I was a little more broad-minded, and by “The Dark Crystal” I was a settled fan. Froud has grown a little repetitive and more eccentric lately. There's more of his later. Ranking: Keeper. File Code: Art. Softcover.

Myth and Magic: The Art of John Howe, by John Howe. John Howe, along with Alan Lee, was one the art directors associated with Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ movies, which explains Jackson’s foreword. Howe has done fantasy art for book covers, illustrations, and calendars. Full of his illustrations and his explanation and history for them. No particular memories attached here. But a lot of Tolkien. Ranking: Keeper. File Code: Art. Hardback.

Beyond Fantasy: The Art of Darrell K. Sweet, by Darrell K. Sweet I became aware of Sweet’s work very early, in connection with his Reader’s Digest King Arthur work. Then I knew him through his book covers for Stephen R. Donaldson, Katherine Kurtz, Piers Anthony, Terry Pratchett, and work for the Tolkien calendars, so I soon became very enthusiastic for his clear and beautiful style. His cover for Clifford D. Simak’s “Enchanted Pilgrimage” was better than the whole book. Ranking: Keeper. File Code: Art. Softcover.

The Art of Bone, by Jeff Smith. I have a lot to say about Bone, which I’ll save until later. Right now I’ll say that this is pretty much the end of a long strange journey, and that John bought me this book, and I remember hanging on to it through a trip with all the Shanafelts and the Babels to a restaurant with both(?) Ryans. Jeff Smith talks about his influences and the origins of his award-winning graphic novels and collects quite a record of Bone ephemera and memorabilia. Ranking: Essential for my Jeff Smith collection. File Code: Graphics. History. Hardback.