EXTRACTS: Illustrators Issue 5 © 2013 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

96 Letters It was with a degree of humility mixed with delight that we received the following two emails from Tarzan collector and afficionado Robert R. Barrett in response to the feature on Fortunino Matania: Dear Sirs, I just received a copy of illustrators three and read with interest Peter Richardson’s essay on Fortunino Matania. I never seem to get enough information about Matania and his art. The reason for this email is to comment on something that Mr. Richardson wrote at the end of his essay: “(Matania) was contacted by American art director Vern Coriell to provide artwork for a new edition of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Pirates of Venus and Lost On Venus. Coriell had not only seen the illustrations he had created for a previous serialization of these stories some twenty years earlier, but had also tracked down the originals and had them hanging framed on the walls of his home.” In truth Vern Coriell was not an art director. Instead he was a circus acrobat who created the fanzine The Burroughs Bulletin as well as the Burroughs Bibliophiles, a group of fans and collectors of the life and works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. In the 1950s, he and another Burroughs collector contacted Fortunino Matania and purchased all of his illustrations from the Burroughs Venus serials published in The Passing Show. Coriell did not commission Matania to create new illustrations for a new edition of the Venus stories. Vern Coriell did commission Matania to execute an oil painting for him in 1961, depicting a scene from Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars. Both Vern Coriell and the other collector passed away several years ago, and the Matania illustrations for the Venus serials passed on the collector’s son and myself (sadly I kept only a few of the Venus illustrations, trading or selling some to finance new art acquisitions). I also acquired the Princess of Mars painting— one of the gems of my collection! Thank you for a very fine magazine. —Robert R. Barrett Dear Peter, Thank you for replying to my email, and I’m pleased that you will be able to correct that portion of your article dealing with Vern Coriell. I was amazed to learn that Matania only asked for eighty pounds sterling of Coriell for the Princess of Mars painting which, I believe was equivalent to approximately $US224 at that time. Vern passed away in 1985, and his estranged wife sold Matania’s Princess of Mars to another collector. I asked a good friend of mine who was acquainted with the collector if he would be interested in trading the Matania for a small Frazetta painting.The collector was so anxious to have the Frazetta painting that he immediately sent the Matania painting off and even included one of Matania’s original Venus illustrations as part of the trade! While I hated to trade We are pleased to have your views about illustrators, so please write to the editor, Peter Richardson, at Illustrators. The Book Palace. Jubilee House. Bedwardine Road. Crystal Palace. LONDON. SE19 3AP, or email him at p-r@dircon.co.uk @ The photograph of Frank Frazetta (left), and Robert R. Barrett as it appeared in Squa Tront No.5 published in 1969. the Frazetta art, I wanted the Matania even more! Thank you for your kind comment regarding my Burroughs artist articles and the photo from Squa Tront. Frank set his camera up on a tripod, set the timing to give him enough time to sit down with us, and the camera went off. Frank then took the film out and took it to the basement where his darkroom was, and developed it so that I could have a print right away. Although the article was only the second that I had written for a fanzine it remains one of my favourites. I don’t know if you know the website www.pulpartists.com , but I was able to give some assistance to the owner of the site, David Saunders (whose father was the pulp cover artist Norman Saunders), on his entries on the lives of the Burroughs pulp artists. —Robert Dear Peter, Received illustrators three. Beautiful mag. You did me proud… thank you so much... I will show it off to the people at The EuroWeekly News to educate them how it was done by real Fleet Street people way before the computer. Writing, layout and presentation is superb. Many thanks again. —Peter Maddocks Dear Mr Richardson, Thank you so very much for the exquisite magazine with my father’s artwork in it. I am so proud to have this for myself and my three sons to treasure always. This fine publication will remain on my bookshelf to be enjoyed by many over the years to come. With warm regards, —Jennifer Virgil Gurchinoff Heya Peter, The copies of illustrators arrived today. I’m utterly gob smacked. It’s beautiful. I can’t wait to see the illustrator Terry Oakes, and then the work of Les Edwards. You have done me so proud! —Johnny Mains Dear Peter, Absolutely delighted with what you did! Could not have been better. Loved the final selection of art and the double-page spreads, two of my favourite works. —Anita Virgil

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