Where we stayed in Paris near the famed Sorbonne seemingly dozens of comic book shops had sprouted. Here’s an amazing cover that caught our eye—Dans les spirales du temps, from Elvifrance, number 103 in its Serie Verte, 1973. See more Elvifrance here, here, here, and here.

The interest in Mexican pulp art continues to pick up steam. This heroin themed piece was created for a book or comic called Rock Candentes y Mortal, which translates as something like “red-hot and deadly rock.” It was painted, quite skillfully we think, by Jaime S., or alternatively Jaimes. The artists who worked in this market typically signed their work with single names, with the result that today info on most of them is impossible to find. At least for now. Let that be a lesson to you to always sign your work properly. This coming from a couple of anonymous website guys.

A selection of ten amazing Elvifrance comic book/graphic novel covers, 1978 to 1982.

Today we’re back to Mexican pulp art with a piece from an artist who has signed his work R. Rojas Ordonez, someone we’ve never heard of before. A bit of text on the back of the painting suggests that the skull is somehow controlling the action here, maybe causing one of the characters to act while under a trance. Mexican art has used skulls as a major motif since at least the time of the Aztecs, and it has since been explored by everyone from Diego Rivera to contemporary graffiti artists, so we particularly like how this painting fits into that tradition. As we mentioned back in July when we shared five pieces from Dinorin, this style of art blossomed in the 1970s as covers for Mexican comic books, which makes it post-pulp rather than pure pulp. But the feel is certainly right, and collectors are responding, snapping up examples like this for hundreds of dollars. We’ll share a few more of these later. 

This amazing Italian comic book cover for Ian Fleming’s Missione Royal, aka Casino Royale, with excellent cover art by Franco Picchioni, was printed in 1965. We found it over at the blog illustrated007, and there are other items there worth taking a look at if you’re inclined. Casino Royale was the first James Bond adventure written by Ian Fleming, but when it eventually hit the big screen in 1967 it was a Royale with cheese. Or more accurately, it wasn’t a Royale at all because it was a spoof that had nothing in common with Fleming’s work except the title and some characters. Still though, in its own way it was a good movie. But this cover reminds us that one thing we like about Bond as written by Fleming is his seriousness. Fleming more than once described Bond as having a “cruel mouth.” This doppleganger of Sean Connery has a cruel everything. No compassion in those eyes at all. We love it.

It’s Halloween in the U.S., so we thought we’d feature something macabre today by doing another post on the sexiest vampire ever created—Sukia Dragomic. In the comic, she’s born in Transylviania, dies in the 13th century, is accidentally revived in 1724, moves to America, dies again in 1801, and finally ends up residing in the Big Apple. The keen-eyed may notice she is modeled after Italian actress Ornella Muti (check here for comparison). If you’re interested in Sukia, you can download issue one, in English, at comixland.blogspot.com. 

Above is the front cover of a Japanese sonosheet, which is basically a thin, flexible record, housed in a booklet of colorful art, and usually dealing with popular shows of the 1960s and 1970s. This one is for Batman, obviously, and like most sonosheets it features theme music. At least, we assume so. We're digital people, so we aren't sure what's on this, exactly, since our last turntable went to the Goodwill in 1998 along with some Teva sandals and a stinky old money belt. We don't miss latter two items, but we wouldn't mind having the turntable back. Anyway, the art on this is kind of interesting, so we thought we'd post it even if we can't listen to it. It was painted by I. Hiroyazu, whose name is new to us.

And speaking of vintage technology, our internet junta has just told us they never recieved our fax for a new line (can you believe they still do shit by fax here?). We've called every other day for two weeks to make sure they got it, and been told they wouldn't know for fifteen working days because it's not their department. Time was up yesterday, and quelle fucking surprise, they say they never got the fax, even though we have a fax reciept. So they lost or tossed the fax, reciepts are basically just scrap paper, and we're back to square one—we have to send a fax and wait fifteen working days.

Not to go on a rant, but streamlined telecommunications is a big help in stabilizing a struggling country's GDP. After all, even if people who actually live here have no choice about these matters, people who do business internationally cartainly have the option not to choose certain countries. We're not going to say outright where we are, or what company we're dealing with, because, well, you know how those things go. But for those who know where we're located, we'll just say that, yes, there is so much about this country that is wonderful and which we'd never give up (the people, the wine, the festivals, the food), but when it comes to efficiency and service in telecommunications—no contest. The Yanks beat this place like a maid beats a dusty rug. Sonosheet scans below.

Sad news just off the wire—unique, prolific, and influential French illustrator Jean Giraud has died aged 73 after a long battle with cancer. Giraud broke onto the art scene in 1965, won his first awards by 1973, and by 1975 had adopted the pseudonym Moebius and developed into a graphic arts master. He worked in the comics medium quite a bit as both a writer and artist, and in addition to nine Marvel/Epic graphic novels, and work on longrunning Marvel characters like the Silver Surfer, was also a regular in the pages of the seminal French sci-fi magazine Métal Hurlant—known in the U.S. as Heavy Metal. Aside from all that, he also worked extensively in motion picture production design, and his efforts helped shape films such as Alien, Willow, Tron and The Fifth Element. It’s been a rough week for the art world—Ralph McQuarrie died less than a week ago. We’ve gathered up a few Giraud/Moebius pieces below so those who don’t know this master can get a sense of his singular style.