Description

Grand Master of Adventure: The Drawings of J. Allen St. John     Limited Hardcover w/ Dust Jacket & Slipcase
Featuring the Deluxe Slipcased Hardcover Edition. Limited to 500. Contains the Deluxe Edition Portfolio. An extensive collection of the work of pulp magazine artist J. Allen St. John, best known as the illustrator of several titles by Edgar Rice Burroughs, including the ‘Tarzan’ series.
Compiled, Edited, Designed and Art Directed by: J. David Spurlock
Associate Editor: Robert Zeuschner

James Allen St. John was an American author, artist and illustrator. St. John began his career by studying the old master in the museums of Paris around 1880. St. John’s artistic career began to take off in 1898 when returning to America, his notoriety among Fine Art enthusiasts developed with recognition from the Society of American Artists and Metropolitan magazine in 1889. The artist went on to become a professor of drawing and painting at both The American Academy of Art and the Chicago Art Institute, but his greatest notoriety came as he ventured into the colorful world of pulp magazine and adventure book illustration. Amazing Stories, Blue Book, Argosy, and Weird Tales were the top pulp magazine titles of the 1920s and 1930s, and J. Allen St. John’s imaginative, visual flights-of-fantasy illustrations are the era’s most memorable. St. John quickly became the favorite artist of the great adventure author and creator of Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs. He is especially remembered for his illustrations for the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs… Tarzan and the Golden Lion, Tarzan the Terrible, The Beasts of Tarzan, as well as Burroughs’ sci-fi creations, At The Earth’s Core, Pirates of Venus, and the many adventures of John Carter on Mars… although he illustrated works of many types. For the readers of fantasy, science fiction and adventure, St. John surpassed the work of his famous contemporaries Frank Schoonover, James Montgomery Flagg, and N. C. Wyeth. He is considered by many to be ‘The Godfather of Modern Fantasy Art’. His work has inspired the imaginations and creativity for many “future” fantasy masters including Roy G. Krenkel, the Brothers Hildebrandt, and the grandmaster Frank Frazetta.

Grand Master of Adventure: The Drawings of J. Allen St. John collects, for the first time, the exquisite pen, ink and pencil illustrations of the “Godfather’s” early artwork. Profusely illustrated in black and white throughout. This First edition, deluxe edition is limited to 500 copies. Original black faux leather hardcover with gilt titles to the cover and the spine wrapped in a full color dust jacket and housed in the original black faux leather slipcase. Includes the Deluxe Edition Portfolio that was not included in the other editions. A real visual treasure trove of the pulp Sci-Fi artwork of times past.

1930’s illustrator J. Allen St. John quickly became the favorite artist of Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs. The adventures of John Carter of Mars, Tarzan and the Golden Lion, At The Earth’s Core, Tarzan the Terrible, Pirates of Venus, The Beasts of Tarzan, and Savage Pellucidar are but a few of the classics illustrated by St. John. This volume collects the exquisite pen, ink and pencil illustrations of the grand heroic-fantasy artist contemporary of N.C. Wyeth and Frank Schoonover. Only now can we assess St. John’s impact on later masters of fantastic art, including Roy G. Krenkel, Jeffery Jones, Hal Foster and Frank Frazetta, while absorbing St. John’s place in the birth of the Heroic Fantasy and Sword & Sorcery genres.

Table of Contents:
Introduction – Visionary of Heroic Fantasy (Page 6)
Chapter 1 – Adventures on Mars (Page 8
Chapter 2 – Tarzan of the Apes (Page 28)
Chapter 3 – Adventures on Venus (Page 96)
Chapter 4 – Adventures in Pellucidar (Page 106)
Chapter 5 – The Pulps & Other Writers (Page 118)
Collector’s Bonus Portfolio – (Deluxe Hardcover Only) (Page 177-192 (I-XVI))

Limited Hardcover w/ Dust Jacket & Slipcase is bagged and will be carefully / securely packaged then shipped via USPS Priority Mail to ensure that it arrives to you perfectly and quickly.

Limited to 500
First Printing
Publisher: Vanguard Productions
Publication Date: January 2005
Format: BW, 192 pages, HC/Slipcase, 11.65” x 9″
ISBN-10: 188759163X
ISBN-13: 9781887591638

Collectible Entertainment note: Deluxe Slipcase is Very Fine (small bumped corner >> front top right… see scan #2) / Deluxe Limited Hardcover is in Very Fine + condition / Dust Jacket is Fine + (damage >> front top right… see scan #6) Overall… Very Nice!  Please See Scans!!  A must have for any serious J. Allen St. John collector and/or enthusiast.  A fun & entertaining read.  Very Highly Recommended.

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