Last weekend I traveled to a comic book shop in Fredericksburg, Virginia. It's only about 70 minutes away from where I live, but once you reach the main drag (i.e., Route 3) leading into town, driving in Fredericksburg on a Saturday afternoon is an exercise in self-flagellation. It's all about stopping at intersections every 100 yards .........with a Wal-Mart tractor-trailer right in front of you going at 10 miles an hour, and gassing you with its exhaust fumes.
The area's population has grown so exponentially that the existing road network can't handle it. And it's only going to get worse, as new subdivisions sprout up as far west as Chancellorsville and the WIlderness, giving the people who choose to live there a 2 1/2 hour one-way commute north to the metro DC area (if there hasn't been an accident on Northbound I-95, that is).
Anyways........... in the back of the store, on a table loaded with old cardboard boxes containing old books, I found some treasures that made the hassle of driving worthwhile. These all were used books, now rare and hard to find, printed in the 70s and 80s from publishers like Catalan and NBM. They had that peculiar smell that signals that they came from a smoker's home...........
Celtia (1975), printed in Ireland by De Danann Press of Dublin, is the first book to showcase (albeit only in black and white) the art of Jim Fitzpatrick.
Lakota (1996), published by Treasure Chest Books, Tucson, Arizona, is from Brazilian artist Sergio Macedo. If you read Heavy Metal magazine at all during the 1970s, then you'll recognize Macedo as the creator of the fantastic comics 'Psychorock' and 'Telefield'.
Tex Arcana (1987) from Catalan Communications compiles a set of strips that first appeared in Heavy Metal in the early 80s. I can't say I found the tongue-in-cheek 'Gothic Western' storyline of Tex Arcana to be all that captivating but there's no denying the meticulous artistic skill employed by John Findley.
Richard Corben: Flights into Fantasy is a real obscurity. It was issued in 1981 by publisher Thumb Tack Books. Copiously illustrated in black and white and color, it's an overview of the comics, album covers, book covers, magazine covers, and other works Corben did up to the early 80s.
The Great Walls of Samaris (1987), from NBM, is an English translation of a 1983 bande dessinee from the Belgian writer Benoit Peeters and artist francois Schuiten. 'Great Walls' is the first volume in the 'The Obscure Cities' series. It also will be familiar to readers of early 80s issues of Heavy Metal.
Then, there is Views (1975), by Roger Dean. Dean created the publishing imprint 'Dragon's Dream' in order to make real his idea for a well-produced book that would showcase his artistic endeavors. Views of course went on to become a staple of the well-read 70's stoner's library, sitting on the shelf alongside such titles as Eschatus by Bruce Pennington, Beauty and the Beast by Chris Achilleos, and Visions by Walter Hopps.
So there you have it............you never know what you might find when you look through those battered cardboard boxes in the back of the store................
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