Better Things: The Life and Choices of Jeffrey Catherine Jones

I finally today was able to see the long-awaited documentary on the late artist and friend of this blog, Jeffrey Catherine Jones. 

I first discovered Jeff Jones through his unique WONDER WOMAN covers in 1972 and suddenly I noticed his J signature on art from various old and new horror mags, fanzines and paperback covers. It was in 1977, in Philadelphia, where I really became a big fan after I wandered into a room full of Jones paintings at that year's Seuling Con. I've often wondered if Jeff himself was in that room, unrecognized by 18 year old me.

Cut to many years later when I started blogging and suddenly received an email from Jones about something I had posted on my blog about him.  Only by that point HE was Jeffrey CATHERINE Jones! We exchanged a few emails and I discovered she was recovering from a breakdown. She asked if she could quote me on her website and I, of course, agreed. As long as the site was active, my quote was right there after Frank Frazetta's quote on Jones! A proud moment for me. 

I forget what brought it up but I remember suggesting that she go on Facebook to find out just how much her art was appreciated. She said I wasn't the first to make that suggestion. A little while later, she did just that and eventually maxed out her friend list at 5000!

I introduced her to my young friend Leslie's artwork and had to explain to Leslie how significant it was when Catherine clicked "Like" on one of her albums!

I think the fan support was good for her. She posted lots of her older pieces and received much love and adulation for them. Eventually, she even did a new piece or two despite having given up art a few years earlier.

From time to time, I'd still get messages from her such as when I switched from PC to Mac and raved about my new IMac online. She said she was considering getting one. At one point in BETTER THINGS, Catherine is interviewed sitting in front of a duplicate of my IMac.

Jeffrey Catherine Jones was still alive when the majority of Maria Paz Cabardo's documentary, BETTER THINGS: THE LIFE AND CHOICES OF JEFFREY CATHERINE JONES, was lensed. She contributes much as she looks back over her life. The film is revealing in many ways, sad and yet uplifting.

Featured in the film is a Who's Who of friends and artists influenced by Jones including Kaluta, Wrightson, Neil Gaiman, Paul Pope, George Pratt, Roger Dean, Louise Simonson and many others. While there are a few rather obvious omissions--only one of which is explained--what's there is certainly open and telling.

The editing is at times choppy such as fading up into a scene with the music already going as though we missed a bit or flashing identifying captions over photos so briefly that freeze framing helps. The content itself more than makes up for that minor flaw and an unexpected positive is the gorgeous cinematography on some of the sections shot especially for this film.

There is a long section on the now long gone underground artist Vaughn Bode as well, almost too long for a film not about him and yet so important in its influence on Jones' life in many ways with which I was previously unfamiliar. 

This was  a film I helped fund in a small way and helped promote and yet was beginning to think I would never get to see. Today we had a little bit of money and it is now available to purchase for download ($19.95) so I saw it and you can see it, too!

Go to 

http://alivemindcinema.com/betterthings/

Booksteve Recommends!

R.I.P Catherine.

1944-2011

Cincinnati Comic Expo Panel-2010

Coming up this month is the 4th Annual Cincinnati Comic Expo. Seen here in its entirety is a panel from the first Expo in 2010 in which Michael Uslan spotlights the legends Russ Heath, Murphy Anderson and Allan Bellman.

The Blue Racer

One of the last theatrical cartoon series, THE BLUE RACER was produced by Depatie-Freleng and ran for a total of 17 animated shorts between 1972 and 1974, most offering a variation of the classic Road Runner/Coyote plot as the super-fast snake attempts to eat a stereotyped Japanese beetle.

Larry Storch-2008

Octogenarian Larry Storch, one of the great unsung impressionists and cartoon voices, doing stand-up in 2008. Larry is a scheduled guest at Martin Grams' upcoming Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention coming up this month in Maryland!

Vivek Tiwary and the Fifth Beatle

Here's Broadway/Movie/TV producer Vivek Tiwary discussing his own upcoming Beatles-related graphic novel and film, centering on their manager Brian Epstein. I recently transcribed an interview with him for an upcoming issue of COMIC BOOK CREATOR and found him majorly enthusiastic about this project.

Sweetwater-Motherless Child-1969

I became fascinated with Sweetwater a little more than a decade back when one of my employees saw the TV movie about them and her Dad told her it was all fiction, that they weren't a real band. I actually managed to get her a hard-to-find CD of Sweetwater which she played endlessly at work when she was working in the back room. I enjoyed it. Here they are--the first band to play Woodstock and a band with NO guitars--introduced by no less than Der Bingle on a 1969 episode of HOLLYWOOD PALACE. Their career was interrupted for many years when lead singer Nancy received brain damage and vocal cord damage in an automobile accident.

Booksteve Reviews: Beatles With an "a" by Mauri Kunnas

As a longtime booklover and bookseller, I'm sorry to say I wasn't familiar with the work of author/artist Mauri Kunnas. A quick search of the 'Net, however, shows me that he has been, for decades, the most popular children's book author in Finland as well as a renowned cartoonist.

He is also a major Beatles fan.

Yesterday, I received a package in the mail from Finland. It was a solid little box with cartoon versions of the Fabs marching across it toward its customs stickers. Another image was on the back. Inside, a lovely musical  themed gift-wrapping covered the 78 page hardcover, full-color graphic novel, "Beatles with an a."

I had things to do yesterday and figured I'd try and get to the book today. But it stormed last evening so I couldn't do what I needed to do. Instead, I read. I read and read and enjoyed every minute of it!

Not intended to be a straight-forward biography along the lines of Vivak Tawary's upcoming graphic novel take on the same material through the eyes of Brian Epstein, Kunnas's work is more a combination of early seventies undergrounds and early fifties MAD. It's not incredibly dirty but it does have its uncensored moments and the often busy panels deserve more than a cursory glance so one can absorb all the detail.

The story covers the same ground as the movies BIRTH OF THE BEATLES and BACKBEAT, only with more depth. It looks at the Beatles from their births (literally) to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Whether or not a second volume is planned, I do not know but in a way I hope not. This story stands on its own as it plays out the rough lives and hard times of some unlikely friends as they grow up and strive for a musical dream that forever seems hopelessly out of reach.

From my own familiarity with the subject, it becomes obvious quickly that Kunnas has his own expertise on the subject so the few apparent mistakes he makes are a bit jarring. But then, the translated intro seems to make reference to the fact that he knows they're there.

Most of the characters in the oft-told story are given more depth than usual here with John's Aunt Mimi coming across as the major bitch she seems to have actually been rather than his beloved, loving savior as she was originally portrayed!

All of the characters are caricatured with no one escaping. John probably looks best but poor Cynthia is not treated kindly at all! Paul's face is like a little china doll with eyelashes some girl would undoubtedly die to have. George looks the least recognizable and Ringo…well…

The actual history is told and a great deal of emotion comes through but its all tempered by the gritty silliness of the art and the telling, not the least of which is incongruously having Mick and Keef appear as aged cherubs commenting musically from time to time in Greek Chorus fashion…with Stones lyrics.

In the end, this book is a work of triumph--both for the characters and the author! Casual Beatles fans ail enjoy it on a basic level and likely learn a lot. More seasoned Beatle buffs will delight, as I did, in all the amazing minutiae, tidbits and references.

If you're a Beatles fan, an underground fan or just a fan of a good, entertaining graphic novel, you can check out some sample pages and then pick up an English language copy at:

http://www.beatleswithana.com

BOOKSTEVE RECOMMENDS!