There's something about drawings...

I have a lot of art books at my store. I'm pretty eclectic in my tastes; all the way from modern art to impressionism, to illustrative, to commercial, to -- obviously, fantasy and comic art.

When it comes to individual pictures, the distinctions start to disappear. You know, a great picture is a great picture.

Anyway, I often find myself drawn (heh) to line-drawings, instead of the finished, polished art.

Vallejos, for instance, is way too polished, posed almost, leaving little to the imagination. Alex Ross -- his pictures are great to look at the first couple of times, but get -- almost too sweet and surgary for me after awhile. Like listening to a catchy pop tune too many times. I love Frazetta more, possibly because he is less finished in his art -- and the very roughness seems to keep the picture alive, as if there is more to happen.

I have finished artbooks of Royo, for instance, but there are also the original sketches, and again, I think those are much more intriguing.

I snagged a used copy of James Jean third artbook, Process Recess Vol. 3, and the art comes directly from his sketchbooks. They show street life, friends, strangers in the next row. Great stuff.

His artwork for the Fables series is great, but these sketches are in some ways more interesting. They are somehow free-er and looser and a glimpse into the artist's mind.