Turning back the calendar fifty years, it was an exciting time in society for pushing the boundaries of creativity. It’s hard sometimes to see a clear pathway to who influenced whom, particularly when many concepts are being channeled through a period of cultural extremes. Two strong iconoclastic voices of that period were author Philip JoséContinue reading “Two Holy Mountains: Philip José Farmer and Alejandro Jodorowsky”
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Painting into books: the creation of readable art
The overwhelming majority of books fall into formats and categories required for mass production. Novels are unbroken pages of text, with the occasional prestige edition that includes either color plates or line illustrations…graphic novels, with few exceptions, follow the sequential panel/word balloon/caption formula. Art monographs display large visuals accompanied by usually terse descriptions or title/historyContinue reading “Painting into books: the creation of readable art”
A Feast Unknown cover art through the decades
There have been a lot of editions of Philip José Farmer’s A Feast Unknown novel through the years since it was first published over fifty years ago. Because of the intensely visceral quality of the story, it offers a wide range of approaches for publishers to take in presenting it, from restrained to lurid. PriorContinue reading “A Feast Unknown cover art through the decades”
Orson Welles, Heart of Darkness and the Talos Saga
One of Hollywood’s most intriguing legends is “the greatest film never made”, Orson Welles’ proposed movie adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. It was intended to be Welles’ first picture for RKO, pre-dating Citizen Kane. Welles adapted and starred in a Heart of Darkness CBS Radio broadcast in 1938 as part of his series,Continue reading “Orson Welles, Heart of Darkness and the Talos Saga”
James Bama and Jason Bell
Aside from the rather remarkable synchronicity of both initials and letter-counts in their names, American artists James Bama and Jason Bell (AKA Iason Bellerophon) would appear to be polar opposites. Bama, a photorealistic painter…Bell, a visionary abstract painter. And yet both have formidable reputations both in fine art and in popular genre art. Neither isContinue reading “James Bama and Jason Bell”
Richard Corben, A Feast Unknown artist, 1940-2020
The previous claimant to the phrase “The Ultimate Forbidden Doc Savage” when it comes to the combination of writing and art, would certainly be the 1975 Fokker D-LXIX Press (A Subsidiary of Acme Zeppelin Co.) edition of A Feast Unknown, with illustrations by Richard Corben. I encountered the art of Richard Corben in my teens,Continue reading “Richard Corben, A Feast Unknown artist, 1940-2020”
A Feast Unknown On Stage
The article below, written by Jason Robert Bell (AKA Iason Ragnar Bellerophon) appeared in issue #2 of the Philip José Farmer fanzine Farmerphile, back in 2005. Ten years later R. Paul Sardanas acquired a copy of it, and it became the catalyst for the author and artist to join forces in the creation of DocContinue reading “A Feast Unknown On Stage”
The Woman With Golden Eyes
One of the most important figures in the Talos stories is Patricia…who of course is based on Pat Savage, as well as Phil Farmer’s incarnation of Pat, Trish Wilde. My favorite Doc Savage adventures were always the ones with Pat…and she appeared in 39 novels over the span of the pulp run. When the timeContinue reading “The Woman With Golden Eyes”
Bellerophon’s Anatomy – Visual Code in the Body of Doc Talos
The concept of the body as a vessel for mystical energies is by no means new – it’s been a theme in wildly varied forms of belief for thousands of years. In the Doc Talos saga, occult undercurrents are constantly coming into conflict with those of hard science…from early researches into genetics in the VictorianContinue reading “Bellerophon’s Anatomy – Visual Code in the Body of Doc Talos”
Talos previewed in Bronze Gazette #85
In February 2020 the iconic fanzine The Bronze Gazette published a preview of Talos, with backstory on the origins of the stories, a selection of Iason Bellerophon’s paintings, and a short excerpt featuring Doc and Mona in his “Fortress of Solitude”, Point Nord. For Talos completists, copies of the fanzine can be purchased directly fromContinue reading “Talos previewed in Bronze Gazette #85”
Doc Talos 