Salutations friends and family! It’s once again Friday, and that means it’s time for another Fabulous Find! And this week I’m headed back into the fanzines I own and pulled out the 1975 ACBA Sketchbook! It was published by the Academy of Comic Book Arts, or the ACBA, for short.
It’s basically a forty-eight page portfolio, put together with donated or shared art by various comic book artists of the day. It features forty-seven illustrations. Only the inside front cover, which serves as the table of content doesn’t feature art. Well that’s not completely true, as it does reprint the front cover in a small pic, minus the color!
Here is the cover of the sketchbook, and as you can see it’s drawn by Bernie Wrightson, an features the ACBA Bunny (?) and his sidekick, A Duck (?)! That’s one tough looking duck! I wonder if there is only water in that pistol he’s sporting?
1975 ACBA Sketchbook, Cover by Bernie Wrightson
There aren’t many words to be found within this particular fanzine, so I’ll be scanning and sharing some of the lovely artwork donated by some fine comic book artists practicing back in 1975! Hopefully, you can just set back and enjoy and not have to strain your eyes reading my comments, other than to tell you who drew it, etc.
Page five (5) has a Daredevil spoof, drawn by Bob Brown, that I laugh at every time I read the word balloon in the pin-up! How about you?
Daredevil by Bob Brown
Page ten (10) is a nice Gil Kane page, featuring the artist himself, surrounded by comic book characters he’s drawn throughout his career! How many can you name? All of them? It looks like he;s sharing something he drew back in 1970 and did not do this specifically for the ACBA Sketchbook. But I don’t think that really matters, do you?
Gil Kane Self-Portrait from 1970
Page twelve (12) is drawn by Tom Sutton and features “the family that slays together stays together!” Take a look:
The Family that slays together stays together! by Tom Sutton
Jumping to page twenty-three (23), we find an illustration by Frank Brunner! I believe it was originally done for a portfolio, but since he retained the rights, he was free to share it with the ACBA within these pages:
Frank Brunner Illustration
Next up, and found on page twenty-seven (27) is an example of John Byrne teaming up with Duffy Vohland. It’s a pin-up of the lesser known Marvel Comics’ villain, Scarecrow!
Scarecrow by John Byrne & Duffy Vohland
And one final interior image. A nice single page illustration done by Gray Morrow.
Gray Morrow Illustration
And of course, I’ll wrap thing up with the back cover, also sporting the single color blue, like the front cover. This back cover is a nice single page illustration done by Jeff Jones!
ACBA Sketchbook back Cover by Jeff Jones
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my latest Fabulous Find, and please come back next Friday, for another new RETRO REVIEW! Be seeing you …
