Flex Mentallo

Serendipity has been called “the art of meaningful coincidences” and is an important element in my narrative. When I was 7 years of age, I read my first American comic book, one of the first to be imported to the UK from the US. It blew my tiny mind. (Some would say my mind is just as tiny now as then – I would say it has considerably shrunk) I’ve been waiting for the zeta beam to strike ever since… And in a way it did.

More than one respected boardie I know has told me they have become disenchanted with the boards. For me – and I think perhaps for them, comics are less about acquisition (though this is an inescapable aspect of the urge to collect anything), as it is about dreams, the intimate connection between our aspirations and our lives. Above all, for me and surely for the vast majority of you, comics are about magic. They mirror our desire for a life less ordinary. To be the hero or heroine of our own lives, slay the dragon, rescue the fair maiden, and help those in dire need. Heroines – yes, I’m talking about you Sha! "Man is a cup, his soul the wine therein. Flesh is a pipe, spirit the voice within; O Khayyam, have you fathomed what man is? A magic lantern with a light therein."

Tales from the Island of Serendip thread navigation Serendipity Serendipity - Paddyfield School - The Story of Mohan - Sometimes Sting School bully! El Puente Muralist Joe Matunis - El Puente de Williamsburg - Return to Paddyfield School - Lucina Bells from the deep Werner Herzog - Juliane Koepcke - The lost city of Kitezh - Sadko - St Clemente DavidMerryweather Virgil Finlay - Reed Crandall - Graham Ingles - Berni Wrightson - Al Williamson Small works Flex studies for larger paintings pcalhoun & jimjum Clark Ashton Smith - Pat's poems - Jimbo's excellent paintings Father Hess The Life of Father Hess - Kasauli Art Camp - The Death of Mohan Ghosh - Rabindranath Tagore - DavidMerryweather art collection Black Marigolds In Search of Lost Time - Georges Seurat - Roger Fry - The Trojan Horse - Ananda Coomaraswamy - The Great Stupa at Sanchi - Ajanta caves - Black Marigolds Detective Stories Johannes Vermeer 1632–1675: A Detective Story - camera obscura - Han Van Meegeren - The Theft of the Mona Lisa - Donato's Captain America and other works - Rainer Maria Rilke - Cornell Woolrich - Cat's space themed paintings - Netsuke - Hart Crane - Cat's 'Creation' - Boba's illustrations - Caravaggio's Nativity Velasquez Las Meninas - John Singer Sargent - Flex large painting - Thomas Nashe - Tom O' Bedlam - Georges de La Tour - Flex exhibition - Joseph Wright of Derby - John Martin The Bosnian Conflict Andrei Tarkovsky - Welcome to Sarajevo - Margaret Moth - Yasna's cat - Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo - Miss Sarajevo - the Serious Road Trip - War Child - the Help album - The Ruin pcalhoun writer and book collector Autobiographical notes - Jade tiki - Ubbo-Sathla by Clark Ashton Smith - Robert Q Sale - Tekkai Sennin - Bakemono - Zuni fetish - Yooshi's ghosts - Kuniyoshi Steven Assael Paintings - drawings Photos of Nirmal's village When Shabana was 11 - Mohammed Yunus - Grameen bank - mosaics of Ravenna, Venice & Florence - Duccio's Maesta - when Tuku was a child - We cry to Thee, O Conqueror of love Steven Assael Bride paintings with details - Spirits of the dead keep watch Calcutta Flex photo essay - Lucina's gold medal The hero's journey The Courts of Chaos - 'The Heroes' by Charles Kingsley - Medusa - Archetypes - Chris Vogler - Galaxy Quest - the Trickster - Prometheus In the beginning Altamira - Shanidar - flower burial Interlude Mir para - Lija and her baby - Lullaby - Her name is Zoa

You pressed them? Hee hee

fabulous!

Pictures of Jimmy feeling up comics belong in the pre-code horror thread. That Flash #6 is old enough to be his grandmother! Perhaps Michael, but I may very well have been the last civilian (non Classics or CGC personel) to thumb that book up!! It's holder-bound Did I mention you are a very handsome man? That profile!

Two other possibilities might be worth considering. One is that Baker may have been asked to do lots of layouts for lesser artists to complete. There is no denying a certain elegance in the construction here, but Baker makes a face that looks at you, whereas this belongs in the "dot-for-an-eye" category. In addition to which, profiles are hard to get right, and the lines of this one aren't nuanced, as though the inker were tracing an outline rather than creating a three dimensional head from the inside out. Mark Schultz became so disenchanted with his inker on Xenozoic Tales that he ended up doing the inking chores himself and the later artwork looks quite different as a consequence - thank goodness. My second - entirely speculative - point is that It may also be that by this point Baker has become so disenchanted with the cheapskate Fox and is rushing out second rate work. Not sure that fits my image of Baker-as-perfectionist. But when an artist is not focused on doing their best work, rushing things, they can fall into stylistic bad habits. José Gonzales's splashes for Vampirella show he is a master of anatomy yet the style he uses for the rest of the Vampirella strips is very mannered - almost as if it is another artist. In trying to determine whether Baker did a cover what this all boils down for me is, can you see evidence of his hand "underneath" - in the layout of the composition, in the latent elegance of form? In the case of the Jo Jo I kind of do. But do I see him operant in the line, in the nuances? I dont.

Heck's pre-code work is the yardstick as to how he should be judged as an artist. Like Adkins, he was an absolute master of the use of spot blacks forced by Marvel to adopt the house style established by Kirby.

...butt in the end it can all be worthwhile..ridiculously beautiful - I mean Billy of course, by which god-like standard even this book pales in comparison! ..and anyway, where's my present?

...butt in the end it can all be worthwhile..ridiculously beautiful - I mean Billy of course, by which god-like standard even this book pales in comparison!

Looks like you guys had a great time with good friends and awesome books! Well, actually, it looks like four slightly going-to-seed ageing hippies smelling each other's farts in a dimly lit room, but of course I speak entirely from envy.

I saw that one last night and wondered if you were going after it. Congrats I heard about it and wondered if you were wondering if Billy would be going after it. I didnt see it and my mind was a complete blank that night - no surprise there, except for an all too brief moment when, surprised by my own prescience, I found myself wondering if there was anything I should be wondering about? Nearly had me worried for a second, but then I thought "Kismet" and as if by magic the moment passed. And of course it's widely known, the word kismet was used on Season 5 Episode 25 of Star Trek DS9. Jake Sisco and the Ferengi Nag were bidding for a 1951 earth baseball card at one of Quark's auctions. They planned to give it to Benjamin Sisco, captain of DS9 to raise his spirits. They were outbid by someone with a lot more gold pressed latinum (space currency) than them. Here's the dialog: Jake Sisco: I want to give my dad something that will bring a little joy into his life. Something special. Im telling you that baseball card is the answer. Its kismet. Nag: Kiss you ? Jake Sisco: (annoyed) Kismet - fate, destiny. I was meant to give that card to my father. Clearly, this is the episode Bill is referring to in his witty repost - er, ripost. Now the word ripost...

Pictures of Jimmy feeling up comics belong in the pre-code horror thread. That Flash #6 is old enough to be his grandmother!

I'm a professional artist and any artist will tell you that hands are the hardest part of the human anatomy to render convincingly - for obvious reasons. Even Rembrandt had trouble with hands. Arnold Houbraken who was a painter and a contemporary of Rembrandt’s in Amsterdam, also an admirer was also very critical of Rembrandt’s drawing on occasion – “it is very seldom one finds in Rembrandt a well painted hand”– of his female nudes……“he has produces such pitiful things that they are hardly worth mentioning, they are invariably repellent and one can only ask oneself in amazement how a man with such talent and intelligence can be so stubborn in his choice of models.”

Could this be the "Winter" cover? Is there a "Spring" and "Summer"? (How about Diary Secrets #27 as one of those?) Flowers in bloom might signify Spring. . Note the near-sequential publication dates. And Diary Secrets #26 might get my vote for "Summer"... Just wondering - is there a February dated cover?

Could this be the "Winter" cover? Is there a "Spring" and "Summer"? (How about Diary Secrets #27 as one of those?) Flowers in bloom might signify Spring. . Note the near-sequential publication dates.

yay!!!!!!!!!!! another ped on my want-list! And you thought my spelling was bad

Nicely done Billy - it is one of the tougher issues! (I know another geek who will be very envious of you!)

I think so too - and it has a really cool cover.

Tough book in any grade

If you met my last girlfriend you might change your mind!

My pleasure - red certainly rocks in this case!

It has gradually broken out given prices realised in the past 18 months.It's definitely a classic cover by any definition, and always has been. But sometimes CGC misses the obvious.

Great site... Very neat to play around with that... Anf not a comic book in sight!

You always turn up the neatest stuff. Thanks Todd. Just lucky I guess .....if we really take the time to look at the Universe....and it's vast expanses of almost absolute emptiness, we're ALL really quite lucky. GOD BLESS.... -jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u http://scaleofuniverse.com/ Blows my mind every time