REED CRANDALL: Illustrator of the Comics

Bookplate Signed By Roger Hill. Comic art historian Roger Hill has compiled a complete and extensive history of Reed Crandall's life and career, the very first ever, from his early years and major successes, through his passing in 1982. Crandall brought a unique and masterful style to American comic art. Using an illustrator's approach on everything he touched, Crandall gained a reputation as the "artist's artist", through his skillful interpretations of Golden Age super-heroes Doll Man, The Ray, and Blackhawk, his fabled work at EC comics and for Stan Lee’s Atlas group, Silver Age renditions of Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim, comics such as Dynamo for Tower Comics, ERB illustrations for both new editions and fanzine covers, such as the legendary Erb-dom.  And far more…60 years of creativity. Condition: Fine minus. Bottom corner is bumped, else as new. Special note: When this hardcover edition was first published in the summer of 2017, Twomorrows had based their print run in a large part on disappointing advance orders from Diamond Distributors. Obviously many comic shops as well as fans didn’t know much about Reed Crandall, whose career spanned the Golden and Silver Age, but who passed away long ago. And those same fans and shop owners also didn’t realize how superb a writer Roger Hill was. Roger has been a devoted fan and collector for decades, collecting EC art along with all the original comics that Crandall worked on. He knew his stuff, and he knew all the folks who interacted with Crandall, including his fellow artists like Al Williamson.  The book sold out almost instantly. John brought copies to San Diego Comic Con and was out of them very early in the show. Once people saw the book, they wanted it. I raced through my own supply and didn’t even have copies to spare to sell at Comic-Con. I was very disappointed after selling out my initial order, which wasn’t small, to be unable to get any more. It wasn’t the sales revenue I was missing out on, trust me. The point was that Reed Crandall has always been one of my very, very favorite comic book artists and illustrators, all the way back to when I first began collecting comics and Edgar Rice Burroughs books and fanzines in the mid 1960s. I really wanted so many more people to see his work and learn about his long and fascinating career. This is one of the best books ever done on a comic book artist. I immediately was after John Morrow (Twomorrows) to reprint the book. Or at least bring out a softcover. It took 4 years, but John finally published a new softcover edition in 2021. To celebrate, I worked with Roger Hill and we created a signed bookplate using a (virtually) unpublished full color Crandall drawing of John Carter & Dejah Thoris on Mars. This was a large but unfinished watercolor I bought from Jerry Weist way, way back in 1970, that Reed had intended to give to his friend Al Williamson! That is the bookplate we include with this hardcover edition. And we do have the softcover (which I placed a BIG order for) with the same bookplate available. This particular copy of the hardcover came from Richard Dix, my good friend and long time collector who passed away in 2020. He was 91 years old. And obviously had very good taste! -Bud