Caltex98

I seldom get any inquires if I want to sell my art but that may have something to do with the fact that I almost never let the prefilled "NFS" on CAF stay that way. I try to replace it with something more innovative like "No way!", "Nope", "Not. For. Sale. Period." "Not on your life" or "Are you kidding?" Maybe that communicates in a more humorous way that when I have a piece of art in my collection I intend to keep it that way? Of course the fact that what I collect is not very attractive to others than myself also can have something to do with it. The exception is my Preacher and Books of Magic pages where other collectors have been more persistent in the past, but I believe (keeping my fingers crossed) that they have given up by now. And knowing that someone else wants what I got is of course an ego boost in a way (I'm not saying I holding on to stuff out of sheer spite, but you know what I mean).

I bought my first OA in 1984 but kept the collecting at a slow pace until the Internet and eBay came around. Then it increased. A lot.

Very detailed restaurant scene featuring Selina Kyle in her civil duds by Joëlle Jones (Batman #39, page 15): For a better scan in my CAF gallery of her meticulous inking, click on the picture.

Beautiful & simple:

The one and only Julie Newmar as Catwoman interpreted by Fernando Ruiz: Unfortunatly the glitter (Glitter pen?! What comes next?) isn't visible in the photo. For a larger scan click on the picture.

Another great page by Fernando Ruiz & Rich Koslowski with Sharry the Spygirl in very innovative layouts from "The Man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E." story arc, Archie #613, page 8. Jughead mixes it up in the lab: Click on the picture to see a larger scan in my CAF gallery.

What if Sabrina Spellman used her magic to join Josie & the Pussycats during the height of the american surf music craze in the early 1960's and then put a spell on the legendary Bob Keane so he would give them a recording deal on his Del-Fi label? I wonder how the album sleeve would look...? I passed the question along to Bill Galvan and it resulted in this: Front cover with Sabrina, Salem & her aunts. Back cover with Melody, Valerie & Josie doing hommage to Beach Boys' Surfer Girl album. Click on the pictures to see larger scans in my CAF gallery together with the pencils and more on the thoughts behind the creation process.

Betty and Veronica covers by Jeff Shultz: B & V #165, inked by Henry Scarpelli. B & V Digest #181, inked by Jon D'Agostino. B & V #228, inked by Al Milgrom. B & V #235. This is a favorite of mine. Look at the desperation and drama! Also inked by Al Milgrom. B & V #271 variant cover. Jeff's spin on Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch. The finished cover was just the colored pencils, no inks.

Here are my submissions: Published Covers Fernando Ruiz - Die Kitty Die Christmas Special 1 - cover B The B-cover by Fernando Ruiz (there is also a A-cover by Dan Parent) for the first Die Kitty Die Christmas Special (a stretchgoal in their Kickstarter campaign for the second series). I am in total awe over both Fernando's beautiful image and Rich Koslowski's inking skills! Published Splashes, Pin-Ups Joëlle Jones - Lady Killer series 2 #4 - p12-13 Joëlle Jones keeps making the spectacular two-page spread a trademark of her own Lady Killer comic. In this rather disturbing sequence professional killer Josie Schuller disposes of a burlesque dancer by strangling her in her backstage dressing room. Once again it is very easy to get lost in all the authentic details she includes in her pictures. Obviously a lot of research goes into this labor of love. When I showed these pages to Don Rosa he commented that "it looks like something out of a pre-code comic". And he should know. It looks even more disturbing in color, BTW. Published Interior Panel pages Terry Dodson - Red One #3 - p6 From the third issue of Xavier Dorison & Terry Dodson's action thriller Red One comes this excellent example of sequential storytelling. It is simply one of the best staged car chases I have ever come across in a comic book. The dialogue can be read here. Published/Unpublished Commissions Joe Staton - Nova Kane (naughty) When I commissioned Joe Staton (one of my all time heroes in the comic world) to draw a "naughty Nova Kane with the come hither look" at SDCC 2017 he looked almost too pleased with the assignment, and when I returned to pick it up on Friday morning I understood why. He really pulled out (almost) all the stops on this one. Both of us had a hard time stop laughing! Me from the surprise and he from watching my reaction. The next day I asked Fernando Ruiz if he was willing to work his copic marker magic on it, and he kindly agreed to do so. Needless to say Joe strongly agreed with his work and thought it was a great improvement when I showed it to him later on. Unpublished Convention Sketches Jaime Hernandez - Theresa Leeanne Downe (disdainful) I never tire of the way Jaime Hernandez do facial expressions on his characters - they are always exactly the way they should be to express the character's feelings without having to use a word balloon for further clarification. This time I asked him for "a disdainful Terry, loooking over her shoulder" and the result was this. I shudder to think how those who get that look from Terry - friends or enemies - would feel. Masterful! Honourable mentions Fernando Ruiz - Archie #612 - p6 Probably the best picture of Sharry the Spygirl in the entire "The Man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E." story arc. Too bad there never was a sequel! She was too good not to use again! Fernando's character design made her strong, sexy and independent. Alan Kamieniarczyk - Hälge, Edwin & Uffe At the Gothenburg Book Fair 2017 current Hälge artist Alan Kamieniarczyk (who took over the strip when its creator Lars Mortimer passed away in 2014) made this beautiful commission which besides the moose Hälge himself also features the strips two other main protagonists, Edwin (to the left) and macho hunter Uffe. Translation (counter clockwise from top: -I am going to shoot him! -B..but I saw him first! -This may take a while! Link to all my 2017 acquisitions here.

A page by William van Horn from WDC #606 (unfortunately slightly water damaged): (Lower half of the page signed by the artist.)

When Bleeding Cool News commented about the cover of Archie & Friends #156 with the headline "Sabrina cosplays as slave princess Leia. Fanboys head to explode" I suggested that Bill Galvan should draw that happening. His pencils were then embellished by my buddy Jimmy Wallin: Being a Star Wars fan, Jimmy tried to get every detail of Leia's bikini right and I think he succeded quite well. Unfortunately it is all digital. (And BTW, I have 21 of 22 pages from that story in my collection. Bill gave the opening page away to writer Alex Segura but he was kind enough to provide me with a high resolution scan.)

I didn't ask Bill Galvan for any specific image, but it is not unlikely that he was inspired of her jumping out of the cover of Flash #92. Other than that, I really don't know where he got the idea. In the prelim I recieved from Bill she was wearing her domino mask, but I figured it would be long gone by the time she got her own book so it was promply removed.

What if DC had given The Black Canary her own comic book? The story behind this commission by Bill Galvan (and additional images from the work in progress) here.

An finally part III of "The Lovelorn Leprechaun" from Sabrina #24 (cover date April 1999):

Part II: Part III to be posted soon. Hold on.

The longest complete Dan DeCarlo-story I have the privilege to own: The Lovelorn Leprechaun from Sabrina the Teenage Witch #24. -script by Bill Golliher and inks by Jon D'Agostino. Part I: Stay tuned fort part II.

A Betty and Veronica story (B&V Summer Fun #527, 1983) where they speak like valley girls. Probably considered very "with it" in the early eighties. Dan DeCarlo inked by his son, James DeCarlo. Today a tatoo wouldn't cause these reactions... (and Archie is hardly Erich Von Zipper material).

Excellent! A cover I wouldn't mind having in my own collection. Your Dan DeCarlo-collection must be one of the most extensive ever compiled?

That's great. It is a book which definitely deserves to be more well known. One good thing about it is that craig yoe and Victor Gorelick actually reached out to the Archie fans through Archie Comics Fan Forum and asked for suggestions of covers to be printed in the book. About 20 pages of OA is reproduced and a lot of it comes from Nick Katradis collection (not surprising at all). Back cover by Fernando Ruiz. The size compared to the actual OA (very good reproduction, but I scanned it myself in 400 dpi which was the resolution craig asked for):

Here is my contribution to The Art Of Archie: The Covers (can be picked up dirt cheap at Amazon; great value since its only drawback is the exclusion of Stan Goldberg) : Betty & Veronica Digest #16, pencils & ink by Dan DeCarlo. I have no idea why Craig Yoe picked this particular cover for inclusion in the book, but I don't complain. It is nice to be allowed to play with the big boys once in a while.

An Archie artist I think sometimes gets overlooked is Rex W. Lindsey. A Kubert School graduate he did more than a hundred issues of Jughead where he was the primary artist working with writer Craig Boldman. I have a soft spot for his very detailed pinup-pages. Here are a few examples: From Sabrina #20. From Jughead #97. From Betty and Veronica Spectacular #17. From Jughead #128. From Betty #54. And last, my personal favorite where Rex admits being inspired by Norman Rockwell: From Betty #27.

No, the main admin is Adam Alamo, I think. I mostly lurk in that group, but Adam is following my twitter account and I think he picked up the Sabrina/Elvira image there when I tweeted it on this years halloween.

Complete stories are always a treat and surprisingly there seems to be quite a few of them around. I count seven by Dan DeCarlo in my own collection (and some more by Bill Galvan & Dan Parent as well) which I may get around to post later. But now I'd like to highlight a few of the commissions I have collected over the years. The modern Archie artists have so far been happy to oblige and realize my somewhat crazy ideas. "Archie Graffiti", a hommage to Mort Drucker by Jeff Shultz with colors by Hedvig Haggman-Sund. "Where were YOU in '62?" Sabrina the Teenage Witch, giving Elvira Halloween off by guest-hosting her show together with Salem by Bill Galvan. Sharry the Spy-Girl from "The Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E."-storyline by Fernando Ruiz. Sabrina the Teenage Witch by Gisèle Lagacé. "Alternate cover" for Archie #649, United Girls Against Jughead by Bill Galvan. Sabrina on broom (inspired by Bewitched & Gil Elvgren) by Jeff Shultz. Riverdale Beach Party (Where are Frankie & Annette?) by Jeff Shultz. Not by an Archie artist, but cool anyway: Interpretation of the cover for Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch #4 (hommage to Dan DeCarlo) by Terry Dodson. I you click on the pictures you will be redirected to the images on CAf where I have described the process from idea to finished commission more in depth. (I may not be able to refrain from posting more commissions in the future.)

Very nice! I remember seeing the cover to Veronica #2 (in Africa) out on eBay some years back, but I can't recall if it was sold. The asked price was in my opinion rather steep (but today I might reconsider). I have been lucky enough to be able to acquire page 2 from that particular issue, though (inks by Hy Eisman): Veronica's hair looks a little longer than usual? I like that Dan bothered to make her wear a hairband with a pattern matching the african environment... Here are two pinup-pages from Cheryl Blossom #16, both from the drawing board of Dan: Conversation with Dan at San Diego Comic Con: Dan: Cheryl is not a nice person. Me: She's kind to her dog! Dan: But besides that she's not supposed to have any redeeming qualities at all!

Interesting. One tends to sometimes forget how versatile some artists are. If the publication had been delayed any further it might had never seen print... Here are a few examples of how Dan DeCarlo handled the daily Archie strip. First three which I suspect are from the 1970's since there are no copyright text with the year on them. Note how DeCarlo didn't let the strip format prevent him from making his usual beautiful drawings, only a bit smaller (I think he inked them himself). Some of them are genuinly funny, too: Veronica goes from zero to b***h in three panels. I really like the third panel in this strip. This could have been made with only talking heads, but DeCarlo didn't take the easy way out. Next is a strip from 1986: The original size is smaller, which affects how much detail DeCarlo bother to draw. A little less compared to the ones from the 70's. A really late strip from 1994: The gag being both visual and verbal made me laugh out load when I saw it for the first time (which sealed the deal).