To my mind, however, this version seems a bit rushed and cramped: definitely below his usual standard - besides which it has an off-putting slickness which makes Alice look as though she's strayed from the pages of Embleton's 'Oh Wicked Wanda' strip inPenthouse!
By contrast I'd rate Jesus Blasco's interpretation amongst the best work he ever produced. I don't know if he did all the colouring himself but your mention of the background colours 'crashing together' in startling ways is spot on. Here's a truly spectacular sequence in which the whole scene seems to be viewed through a kaleidoscope:
...And Alice's encounter with a 'magic' mushroom is positively hallucinogenic (this was, after all, just three years after the 'Summer of Love'!).
Finally, an electrifying sequence from 'The Enchanted Lion' where Blasco experiments with avoiding the use of solid black altogether in two panels - thereby producing an utterly stunning effect that seems to jump right out of the page!
- Phil Rushton
By contrast I'd rate Jesus Blasco's interpretation amongst the best work he ever produced. I don't know if he did all the colouring himself but your mention of the background colours 'crashing together' in startling ways is spot on. Here's a truly spectacular sequence in which the whole scene seems to be viewed through a kaleidoscope:
...And Alice's encounter with a 'magic' mushroom is positively hallucinogenic (this was, after all, just three years after the 'Summer of Love'!).
Finally, an electrifying sequence from 'The Enchanted Lion' where Blasco experiments with avoiding the use of solid black altogether in two panels - thereby producing an utterly stunning effect that seems to jump right out of the page!
- Phil Rushton
Scrumptuous' is a perfect description of Blasco's Alice! As for the curious variations in her age, I suspect that Jesus might have used a photographic model for some (but not by any means all) of his renditions, which could well explain any apparent discontinuity. The second panel in the page below, for example, looks to me as though it was based on a photograph - either of a real girl or a doll - which makes it stand out quite oddly from the dynamism of the surrounding panels. (It's also interesting to compare this page with the rather more leisurely treatment of the same scene that appeared in Tiny Tots).
...And here's an even more obvious piece of photo-realism that Blasco used in his slightly-less-scrumptuous adaptation of 'Gulliver's Travels' shortly afterwards:
- Phil Rushton
...And here's an even more obvious piece of photo-realism that Blasco used in his slightly-less-scrumptuous adaptation of 'Gulliver's Travels' shortly afterwards:
- Phil Rushton
Regarding Sue's earlier observation that Jesus Blasco seemed to have trouble keeping Alice's apparent age stable from one panel to the next I couldn't help noticing that he had similar problems with Tom the chimney sweep in his adaptation of The Water Babies. This rather weird inconsistency is particularly noticeable in the following five page sequence - though it's pretty breathtaking in every other respect.
...As Alice herself said - "curiouser and curiouser!"
- Phil Rushton
...As Alice herself said - "curiouser and curiouser!"
- Phil Rushton
That's great Matrix! 
I've got other episodes from the same story but not that particular one.
On Jesus Blasco, he was fortunate enough to be helped out at one time or another by three brothers and a sister. At least two of them proved to be excellent artists in their own right so that during the 1950s Jesus, Alejandro and Adriano individually drew stories for the British market that would be difficult to tell apart if it weren't for their different signatures. Shortly after this, however, they seem to have started working together solely under Jesus' byline with Alejandro and Andriano providing meticulous finishes for their brother's layouts - thereby producing three times as many pages as any one artist could ever hope to. Here they can be seen working together in a photo taken from the Spanish website Deskartes Mil:
http://deskartesmil.blogspot.co.uk/2010 ... asa-v.html
- Phil Rushton
I've got other episodes from the same story but not that particular one.On Jesus Blasco, he was fortunate enough to be helped out at one time or another by three brothers and a sister. At least two of them proved to be excellent artists in their own right so that during the 1950s Jesus, Alejandro and Adriano individually drew stories for the British market that would be difficult to tell apart if it weren't for their different signatures. Shortly after this, however, they seem to have started working together solely under Jesus' byline with Alejandro and Andriano providing meticulous finishes for their brother's layouts - thereby producing three times as many pages as any one artist could ever hope to. Here they can be seen working together in a photo taken from the Spanish website Deskartes Mil:
http://deskartesmil.blogspot.co.uk/2010 ... asa-v.html
- Phil Rushton
Thanks Phil..
from comicsuk forum
2 comments:
Yeah I see what you mean Alice appearing a bit worldly in some of the panels, still an excellent piece of work though. The Enchanted Lion is one of my favourite Blasco's, he really does display his flair, there's a great panel where he renders the velvet texture of the heroins dress with a few deft highlights.
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