Scored this beauty in a second-hand bookshop yesterday, and thought I'd share as much as I can safely scan without ruining the book.
This is billed as a nature book, with text by a respected paleontologist, and maybe one day I'll even read it, but right now we're here for Bill Stout.
If Frankenstein is Berni Wrightson's opus, Dinosaurs has to be Stout's. It's crammed full of paintings and drawings in just about every medium, and they're all beautiful. Here's some examples:
Nice to see Stout drawing dinosaurs not dragging their tales on the ground like Charles R. Knight's paintings. I first saw his work in Racin' Toons, a hot rod mag in the early seventies. This book came out forty years ago, I believe. Probably had an impact on James Gurney.
ReplyDeleteGene Poole
Correction: tails
ReplyDeleteThe date on the back cover artwork is 1980.
ReplyDelete- Neil
I remember reading some comments by William Stout in Comics Interview about his production art & experiences working on the "Conan the Barbarian" film in 1982. Ron Cobb did a lot more regarding actual set design. Stout hated the movie, saying it was far too slow moving. I loved it myself. Great score by Basil Pouledoris!
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Chris A.
Now I'm muffing it! Poledouris.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Chris A.
1980 yeah, so I counting it. I loved the Conan movie too, stately and epic is a better phrase for me.
ReplyDeleteThe Stout one has his own website, which is well worth checking out - the blog especially is worth reading, with many recent entries being reminiscences of his exploits in the film world
ReplyDeletehttp://www.williamstout.com
Will do, thanks B.
ReplyDeleteHe has had an interesting career. William Stout could easily have been as famous in mainstream comics as Dave Stevens (who worked in a studio with Stout for a time) or Frank Cho, but he chose a different path. Being in California. Stout landed a lot more lucrative accounts with storyboards & production art for films. He has also secured some interesting assignments, such as travelling to Antarctica to paint a series of commissioned landscapes. Probably his most mainstream comics work had come in fleeting moments, such as occasional covers for Pacific Comics in the early '80s.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Chris A.
Seeing as you bought the subject up Chris, probably Stout's most mainstream (and fleeting) comics work was for DC in the 70s, ghost inking an issue of Jack Kirby's Demon.
DeleteIf you're interested, Stout talk about it - and a couple of his record covers (a popular subject over at Rec Road) - at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecj9cCUXunw
-sean
And he adapted 'Shattered Like A Glass Goblin' for The Illustrated Harlan Ellison, which is where I first came across him.
ReplyDeleteSecond hand bookstores can be the source of much hidden treasure. I've come across some real finds in Half-Price Books staffed by unsavvy comic book people.
ReplyDelete