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by **Chris** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:17 pm

I've been on a James Jean kick lately.. I dunno why. I mean, besides being my favorite cover artist, and one of my all-time favorite artists period, of any medium.

I've found myself more interested in actually buying his stuff the past few weeks. I preordered both his Kindling Prints book, and his sketch journals book that's coming out in November..

And today, by mere chance, I stopped by the Books-A-Million near my house on the way back from getting gas.. for no reason at all, really. I wasn't planning on buying anything. And then I saw THIS!

I've been dying to get this for the longest time, but it went out of print really fast, and considering how Jean's other art books don't come back in print once they go out.. I thought my chance was gone, and I'd have to pay crazy amounts for a used copy. (It's running from $95-$125 on Amazon's Marketplace)

I got it for $40.

Awesome! I think because the Books-A-Million near me is brand new, and still gets virtually no traffic is why this was still available.

And it's an amazing book. It has #1-75, and 11 wraparounds.

Each cover gets two pages. On the left are sketches covering the process of making the cover, and blurbs underneath.. be they quotes from the comic relating to the cover, or excerpts from the initial Fables proposal by Bill Willingham, and on the right is the full page cover.

by **habitual** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:23 pm

Jean, Cassaday and Irving are my favorite cover artists.

Good grab!

Hab

by **Chris** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:28 pm

habitual wrote:Jean, Cassaday and Irving are my favorite cover artists.

Hab

Cassaday's art has gotten kind of stale for me in recent years. His stuff with Planetary was way better than his current stuff. That cover for the new S.W.O.R.D. book is downright fugly, IMO.. but he's still up there close to the top.

And Irving? Frazer Irving? I like him. I didn't know he did covers, though.. all I know him from is from the Klarion Seven Soldiers mini, and Silent War.

I like Jean's replacement on Fables, also.. Joao Ruas:

by **Jubilee** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:53 pm

Fables had such good covers.

by **habitual** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:55 pm

Chris wrote:Cassaday's art has gotten kind of stale for me in recent years. His stuff with Planetary was way better than his current stuff. That cover for the new S.W.O.R.D. book is downright fugly, IMO.. but he's still up there close to the top.

And Irving? Frazer Irving? I like him. I didn't know he did covers, though.. all I know him from is from the Klarion Seven Soldiers mini, and Silent War.

I like Jean's replacement on Fables, also.. Joao Ruas:

These are some of my favorite Irving and recent Cassaday covers:

Hab

by **Chris** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:56 pm

I like the one with the horse. The others are good, but not great

by **ReturnoftheMack** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:57 pm

I got that. It's on my coffee table. :-D

Jean isn't just one of my favorite comic cover artists, he is one of my favorite artists in general. My favorite cover is the one with the giant coming out from under the waterfall.

by **habitual** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:58 pm

Chris wrote:I like the one with the horse. The others are good, but not great

I just edited my images, I love that Buck Rogers cover.

Hab

by **bkthomson** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:01 pm

Great Find! I did not know that was already out-of-print. I bought the Jean book during pre-orders so I'm glad I did not decide to wait for this book to be a holiday gift.

Of all the Jean covers Fables #71, red and white of Cindy, is my favorite.

by **Chris** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:02 pm

Frag It wrote:he is one of my favorite artists in general.

Yup.

In terms of guys from comics being in that category, I'd also add JH Williams III.

In fact, I'd probably put Williams ahead of Jean by a hair.

by **Chris** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:03 pm

habitual wrote:I just edited my images, I love that Buck Rogers cover.

Hab

It's a cool cover, but I think the colorist did Cassaday alot of favors with that. Blank background, and a pretty static pose isn't all that great.

by **Chris** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:04 pm

bkthomson wrote:Great Find! I did not know that was already out-of-print. I bought the Jean book during pre-orders so I'm glad I did not decide to wait for this book to be a holiday gift.

Of all the Jean covers Fables #71, red and white of Cindy, is my favorite.

Yeah, his books go out of print insanely fast.

I've been wanting to get his Process Recess art books, but they're all out of print and go for even more than the Fables book! Some are in the $300+ range!

by **Jubilee** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:05 pm

I realised the other day how impressive Laura Martins colouring is on AXM. After I saw a twitter message from Bendis something along the lines of "is surprised how many artists nowadays would be nothing without thier colourists doing the work for them" it's made me think about how undervalued they are.

by **Chris** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:05 pm

Frag It wrote:My favorite cover is the one with the giant coming out from under the waterfall.

My favorite is probably this:

by **Chris** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:06 pm

Twigglet wrote:I realised the other day how impressive Laura Martins colouring is on AXM. After I saw a twitter message from Bendis something along the lines of "is surprised how many artists nowadays would be nothing without thier colourists doing the work for them" it's made me think about how undervalued they are.

Yeah. Laura Martin is one of the best. A good colorist can make a bad artist look good. I remember a couple Rob Liefeld pieces I saw online that looked halfway decent.

On the flipside, a bad colorist can bring down a good artist.

The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

I can't believe I found this! It's been OOP for a while now!

I can't believe I found this! It's been OOP for a while now!

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