Book Review: The Art of Joe Jusko
Joe Jusko is one of the best known fantasy, pin-up and comic artists around. The Art of Joe Jusko is a compilation of his work spanning a career of over 30 years. This is one thick 328-page hardcover book.
The book starts off with a first-person biography by Joe Jusko himself. There you'll read about his childhood, his family — pretty mom, gambling addict dad and dependable brother — and how he fell in love with drawing. The stories are filled with details and it's pretty amazing he can remember so much of what he did as a kid. Among them, it's most interesting to learn that he was actually a cop once involved in shootings and delivering babies in hallways. The 6-page biography, though short, is wonderfully written.
The rest of the book is the portfolio of his illustrious career. He has drawn for different genres like fantasy, science fiction, horror, adventure, pulp fiction and super-heroes. Titles include — deep breath in — Vampirella, Sojourn, Conan, Star Wars, Tarzan, Tomb Raider, Spider-man and various other superheroes, and many more.
His work has appeared on books, magazines, cards and even a person's back as tattoo! Most of the illustrations collected here are covers, with several sketches and, right at the back, some sequential art and a tutorial. The tutorial is actually his workflow at creating traditional art.
Every illustration in the book is captioned by Joe Jusko. There's an incredible amount of information to read. He talks about everything. It can him admitting to his dumbest drawing of Hans Solo fighting a giant otter, talking about framing a machine gun welding bikini-clad warrior with the mouth of a demon, or describing "Holy Sh*t" expressions of side-characters.
This book is a impressive gallery of work, with plenty to read. It's highly recommended to any fans of Joe Jusko.
You can check out more of his work at www.joejusko.com
-
The Art Of Joe Jusko is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)
Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.
If you buy from the links, I get a little commission that helps me get more books to feature.
Here are direct links to the book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp | Amazon.cn
Comments
Thank you so much for the
Thank you so much for the kind review!! I tried to make the book as interesting to read as it was to look at and I'm happy to read that you thought it was. I was surprised that I remembered as much as I did, also. It was my one fear going in. Surprisingly, I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday but I can remember conversations I had with editors 25 years ago! Go figure. Your site is a pleasant surprise to come across and I'll be reading through it at length. Take care and thanks again!
--Joe Jusko
Just wanted to say thank you
Just wanted to say thank you for a wonderful site. You are costing me a fortune though as your fantaastic reviews make me want to own these gems.
regarding the first comment..
regarding the first comment.. WHOAA.. is that.. do you really think this is really.. WHOAA, man, you are connected!
regarding the second comment- exactly! you cost us all a real fortune, but that's OK, I'll sell my old car, Jeo Jusko is much more fun!
Joe Jusko - Thanks for the
In reply to Thank you so much for the by joe Jusko (not verified)
Joe Jusko -
Thanks for the comment. I like biographies, especially first person account. A nice one can lift any book up and is also very inspiring for other artists.
Lirch -
I've a quite a few readers commenting that this blog is "poisonous" to their wallets -- mine too. =)
you are amazing, your reviews
you are amazing, your reviews are absolutely well balanced, and very descriptive, joe jusko himself thanking you! man, unbelievable. i always go thru your reviews first before buying any art book. thanks, keep up the good work!
Add new comment