EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 29 © 2019 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

96 The Bookshelf: War from the Air, Pulp Action and aMaster from the Golden Age l illustrators is also available in the USA from budplant.com Air War Stories By Ferdinando Tacconi Flexi cover 268 pages Book Palace Books £25.00 (UK) Pollen’s Action: The Art of Samson Pollen Edited by Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle Hardcover 140 pages New Texture $39.95 (US), £28.95 (UK) N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives By Jessica May and Christine Podmaniczky Softcover 216 pages Yale University Press $45.00 (US) From the Fleetway Picture Library Classics comes another pocket comic book series, this time centred around air war stories, which is the title of the book. This volume features stories drawn by the great Italian artist, Fer- dinando Tacconi, who specialized in drawing air warfare. Tacconi was one of the most inspired of the Italian artists and worked for many years for the British comic books. The British publish- ers, contrary to Italian ones, insisted on ac- curacy in their depictions of weapons, aircraft and vehicles, so here we get some very aston- ishing views of air warfare accurately depict- ing the aircraft used by all sides in the War. The four strips collected here, compiled from different issues of Fleetway’s Air Ace Pic- ture Library and War Picture Library , feature stories from both the First and Second World Wars. The scenes of aerial combat are simply stunning; you really get the feeling you are in- side one of those planes—being shot at! Tacconi’s artwork is simply bursting with realism. Although with the following years he would simplify his inking style, here his inking is all guns blazing, with some incred- ible effects of light and shadow over exploding planes, and some stunning vistas of aircraft flying through mountainous regions and even a sea combat seen from the air. Did I mention that you feel as though you were there? That’s how good Tacconi’s artwork is. Highly recommended, but hurry and get hold of your copy(s), as this will be only pub- lished as a limited edition. Published in a landscape format comes the second volume dedicated to pulp illustrator, Samson Pollen (1931-2018), who was one of the artists that defined the look of the Men’s Adventure pulp magazines from the 1950s. This genre of fiction, referred to as the “sweat” magazines, due to their having men on their covers with their clothes torn off and sweating heavily, were aimed at the aver- age blue-collar American male who liked his adventure stories straight and with no pussy- footing around, and didn’t want to read about fancy people having their cup of tea sticking their pinky out, or bug-eyed monsters from outer space ravishing innocent ladies. Freshly home from combat, he wanted to read about men fighting against all odds, stuck in the middle of a forsaken jungle, sweating out against the enemy, or any wild beasts, and if he happened upon a lost tribe populated entirely by semi-naked women, so much the better. But it was really the artwork that drew the reader in, and none expressed it more plainly than Samson Pollen, with his action-packed renderings of men fighting against their war enemies, bikers, commies, wild animals, and sometimes all of them together. Both Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle collaborated with the artist before his death on making this book a reality. Following the previous volume ‘Pollen’s Women’, which featured Pollen’s women in distress (and half- naked), this volume features Pollen at his fiercely fighting best! Not a moment of respite is given here. One of the best known illustrators from the Golden Age (and featured in illustrators is- sue 23), N. C. Wyeth was part of a major show last year at the BrandywineMuseum. This book, which serves as a catalogue of the exhibition, too, contains various essays looking at various topics, such as Wyeth’s contribution to the visual mythology of the American West, the darker nuances found in his ‘Treasure island’ illustrations, and the correlations between his illustrations and cinema. There is also a detailed chronology, with a carefully researched study on his life and work. The book also provides images of some of Wyeth’s best known illustrations, but for the most part concentrates on his fine art work instead, which up to know had never been part of a single (or any) collection. While Wyeth was a very able artist, he was mostly known for his illustrations, something he eventually regretted. Asmentioned earlier, it’s carefully researched, and while there are some insights into his illus- trations and the repercussions they had—not only on the readers, but on his life as well—most of the images (which take about a third of the book) are of his fine art paintings. Interesting to note that Wyeth could have become a fine artist himself, if it weren’t for the fact that his illustrations paidmuch better, and he had quite a large family to maintain. Recommended to fans of Wyeth’s work, and completists, as it shows another aspect of this artist’s career that has been largely ignored.