The Twisted Tales of Bruce Jones

Ahoy there readers.

Following on from my first post I'd like to present some work work by the artist Bruce Jones. The strip in question is taken from "The Twisted Tales of Bruce Jones" (part 1 of 2, Eclipse Comics, Feb 1986) and is entitled "The Princess and the Merman".

Although the cover states that this is part 1 of 2, this was later extended into a 4 issue series, making this part 1 of 4.

Here, yet again, is a great example of Bruce Jones' work. The quality of his writing is also a match for his detailed imagery. The story is based upon a lonely princess who one day discovers a Merman and instantly falls in love with him, but tragically, she never learnt to swim. The style and use of colour reminds me very much of Swamp Thing (which I will no doubt cover at some point). This strip is very fairy tale like, quite different from much of Bruce Jones' other work. In older work for the likes of Pacific and EC Comics, Bruce added large amounts of gratuitous violence and sexuality into the mix, warranting several issues to sport a "Recommended for Mature Readers" warning on the cover. I am a big fan of his earlier work also, but this example has a delicate feel that some of his previous work never had. Enjoy.

First things first.

New discoveries are afoot, readers. 

This is the first post of my new blog 'The Visual Exegesis', a blog designed to stimulate and provoke. It is within this digital landscape I aim to present my findings from the world around me. I present in this first post a somewhat appropriate image, I feel, that helps set the precedence for future posts. 

The image in question appears on the back cover of "The Twisted Tales of Bruce Jones" (part 2 of 4, Eclipse Comics, Feb 1986). I believe the drawing is by Bruce Jones himself (not of Coronation Street fame).

Another favourite comic book artist of mine is Bernie Wrightson; Jones and Wrightson were given their own comic to work on called 'Web of Horror'. Neither Wrightson nor Jones enquired to the amount of money they would be paid, their general feeling was "Wow! We got our own magazine! We're gonna take this in an all-new direction!". Unfortunately Bruce and Bernie, after a long journey across town, discovered the publisher's office empty and so lost any chance of being paid (or getting back any of the original art they had already turned in).

Here is a link to a Bernie Wrightson interview: http://twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/04wrightson.html

When I first started to collect comics I knew that I liked them but didn't know where to start. I read many modern comics but it was only when I was introduced to comics from the 70's that I started to find 'the good stuff'. I personally prefare my comics to be drawn in pencil, then ink and perhaps with some colour (but not essential). I find that modern technques to be too polished and predictable.

After devouring many 70's comics I started to look into some 80's era comics, the first thing I noticed was the improvement in the quality of the printing. Eclipse comics provide superb examples of this; sharper images, more vibrant colours and better quality paper. I wouldn't say that I prefer these 80's comics over older comics, they're just different and of the time. But open up any comic from the last 20 years plus and they all have the same thing in common. The smell. And what a fantastic smell it is.