BLIMEY! The Blog of British Comics: Comic Journals

Friday, June 08, 2012

Comic Journals

A few months ago I reviewed a nice batch of books from Ilex Press that focused on American pre-code comics of the 1950s. (See blog post here if you missed it.) Now the same publisher has just released four more books, two of which also have a 1950s comic theme, - albeit with blank pages. Yes, the latest offerings are in the form of journals, for you to fill the pages as you see fit.

Edited by Tim Pilcher, each book has its own theme: Tales of Terror, Fantasy Art, Lovelorn, and, the most stylish looking, Vampire (seen at the top with artwork by John Schwegel). Not just any notebook journals, these books are beautifully produced. Hardback with embossed artwork on the covers (you can feel the ribs of the zombie on the Terror journal) with bound in bookmarks, tinted edges to the pages, and a pocket in the inside back covers.

The spreads in each book feature quotes relevant to the theme. The Fantasy Art Journal has quotations from authors such as C.S. Lewis, Robert Howard, and Terry Pratchett, Vampire Journal quotes Anne Rice, Bram Stoker, Richard Matheson and more, Lovelorn Journal quotes various 1950s romance comics, and Tales of Terror Journal has quotations from horror comics of the day.

Some pages are lined, some are blank, so you can fill them with anything from your latest character sketches to your secret plans for world domination. Personally I usually rough my ideas out in A6 size booklets I make myself from A4 paper, but these journals are so tactile and impressive that I think I'll go upmarket and start using those. Although in a way they're so smart and stylish that it's a shame to scrawl in them. The Vampire one looks good enough to eat, reminding me of the Dracula lolly of the 1970s with its black ice and red jelly centre, although somehow I doubt the book will taste as good.