You don’t really have to sell me on a book called The Art of Jerry Ordway.
I mean, Jerry himself being part of it’s sorta key, but otherwise there’s very little that could dissuade me from plunking down my actual or virtual cash despite my own and the world’s travails of the day. On which more in a few moments.
New Pain, the publishing imprint of comic-book creators Keith Champagne and Tom Nguyen, has a Kickstarter going that’s officially labeled “The Jerry Ordway Double Feature” and which kinda confusingly has two separate headlining rewards — a “32-page special edition” of Proton, the creation of a youthful Ordster that he’s been reimagining with his matured talents, and the above-mentioned “premium, 100-page sketchbook bringing you closer than ever to the raw genius of a master craftsman.”
“The selection of art in the main book was curated by me,” Jerry wrote on Facebook, “and I had way too much cool stuff to choose from.” [Note: An expanded digital edition with 20 more pages for $35 total is one of the reward, a.k.a. pledge/purchase, options. The $25 regular digital edition is happily included with all physical rewards, however, so I asked via Kickstarter if the expanded version, or those 20 extra pages as their own supplement, could be made available at some discounted price as a special add-on for those ordering the physical book and I’ll report back. As it stands you’d effectively be paying $35 for 20 more virtual pages on top of $50 for the physical book and digital edition (not counting signed or remarqued options) plus $10 postage minimum in the US.]
I’ve bought issues of Jerry’s Proton and The Messenger in recent years, which I think contain what’s collected in the special edition, but, to spoil a coincidentally upcoming post, his art has been among my favorite things for over four decades. While I’ll discuss this more there, I believe Jerry Ordway is not just a great, underappreciated penciler, colorist, and storyteller in general, whose facility with Craftint tones blew me away before I even understood what they were, but almost impossibly one of the top two or three inkers that a of pair of icons of my personal Silver Age of Comics, John Byrne and George Pérez, had in their respective careers, entirely apart from my adoration of his wholly modern depiction of certain legendary superheroes in a classic vein.
Look, I know times are especially tight right now, from the usual expenses to pleas
for disaster relief at home and overseas. That only contributes to my determination to boost the work of acquaintances, friends, or simply beloved creative hands, really, because I also know the hustle and economic inconstancy of freelancing are tough.
New Pain’s campaign by Nguyen and Champagne for “The Jerry Ordway Double Feature” runs until midday on July 16th.
Original art board of and digital cover to America vs. The Justice Society #1, as
drawn by Jerry Ordway and lettered by Gaspar Saladino, © 1985 DC Comics.
ReplyDeleteI confirmed via E-mail with New Pain that Jerry’s recent OK Comics issues of Proton #1 & #2 and The Messenger #23 are in the special edition.
Digital or print is my big dilemma for the sketchbook, given the expense once you pile shipping on, especially since there’s an expanded digital version only.
That was me!
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