Oh, Lina ...

Lina Romay
June 23rd, 1954 - February, 15th 2012

I'm sorry for the informal, emotionally loose post - but the sudden passing of the incredible Lina Romay is weighing heavily on my mind. Lina began her career with Jess Franco in 1972 and was in most of his films (he would direct over 150 after '72) from that point on. They began a partnership professionally as well as romantically, and with Romay by his side Franco accelerated his artistic ambitions to a level that I personally believe no other filmmaker has achieved. To the most open-minded of viewers, many of his films have unique and lasting impact; and not for any repeatedly formulaic reason either. These films are anarchistic; at times purposefully and at times because there was simply no time or money. The disregard for convention is perhaps one of the strongest elements in most of his best work, and it took a little while for that to fully develop. By the late 60's Franco was itching for nothing but total freedom in filmmaking; and he casually tossed aside the possibility for success and money to embark of a lifelong journey of artistic exploration - and splendid debauchery. This wasn't the move of someone who wanted to make a name for himself as an "Auteur", or as an avant garde filmmaker; and nor was it the move of someone who would go on to make only pornography. Franco's most passionate work work lies in an area of its own, quite far from those other worlds. And as any dedicated fan of his work will tell you, this incredible achievement was aided immeasurably by Lina Romay. Her own visions were also unrestrained and wild, and her willingness to lose herself physically and mentally in these films is unmatched in cinema. Lina Romay was one of a kind. The suddenness of her passing makes it hard to comprehend, and we here at Freedom School send our love to Jess Franco and to the memory of one of the screen's brightest, sexiest, and special stars. Goodbye Lina.

"the DISGUSTING ART of DISGUSTING COMICS!"

This one's for Owen ... possible the only person demented enough to enjoy this (besides myself, natch!)

OK, everybody this one's special ... Some of you out there are familiar with Myron Fass and his EERIE PUBLICATIONS, and the lunatic mayhem they unleashed on an unwitting public of youngsters beginning in the 60's. Those of you who are not can catch up really quick with the landmark book "the Weird Word of EERIE PUBLICATIONS" by: Mike Howlett, required reading for all students of the Freedom School. What we have here is a very rare comic magazine in which Fass targets youth's twisted LCD with art by Ken Lanfgraf and Ed Miller ... They go for gross-outs in such bizarre, last-minute, night-before-it-goes-to-press ways that I can honestly say I've never seen ANYTHING like it. "DISGUSTING COMICS: FATSO FANNY" makes "CRACKED MAGAZINE" look like ... I dunno, John Ficarra-era MAD? You get what I mean ...

I'll let these works speak for themselves, but I'd like to add that NO comic ever made me feel as GROSS ... as DISGUSTING COMICS!















Nothin' says "Kid's Mag" more than stills from MANIAC with terrible gags added on ... !











Barrrrfffff ......

-Mike Hunchback

The WEIRD ART of "PULPS" 1974 French Fantasy Zine

This one's for Bhob and Drags ...

Attention Virgil Finlay fans! A nice find from a comic shop last year, "PULPS" is a lavishly printed pro-zine that concerns itself with Pulp, Fantasy and SF art. This is the only issue I've seen; the words are generally scarce and the art is all very wonderful and reproduced amazingly.


Click to enlarge all of these, but this remarkable Wally Wood drawing requires extra attention.


There's a very brief Archie Goodwin interview in this issue, and this very, VERY cool candid shot of Goodwin in his office. Archie Goodwin has a long list of credits that benefited comics and fandom, but he's best know to the Freedom School for editing CREEPY and EERIE, as well as writing a large bulk of their content.





Virgil Finlay tends to not disappoint, and the above drawings are superb examples of his best work at the time.



The two pages above are by "Marilac", whom I gather is a French 40's pulp illustrator. Great work, with a tinge of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" in some of these. I also assume "Marilac" was a fan of American pulps and artist Hannes Bok.

-Mike Hunchback

WEIRD ART QUICKIE - COYE and FINLAY

At this point I have so much Pulp Art that I haven't yet had the time to post, so doing quick posts of art from single issues of things seems like a good idea - these are great 60's illustrations by Lee Brown Coye and Virgil Finlay from the April 1963 issue of AMAZING STORIES. Enjoy, and click to enlarge please!






Wonderful Coye back cover ...

the WEIRD ART of LEE BROWN COYE Part 7: the NIGHT SIDE

Finally, another installment of beautiful art by the most important, significant and successful artist in the Freedom School Records universe, Mr. Lee Brown Coye. The work here is from "The Night Side: Masterpieces of the Strange and Terrible", published in 1947 by Rinehart and Company. The book is third in trilogy of non-Arkham House anthologies edited by Derleth and illustrated by Coye, the other two titles being "Who Knocks?" and "Sleep No More", the latter of which has its own post here. Some of the images have appeared on FSR before (they were scans of original art, not owned by me), but all LBC images from "the Night Side" are included here for posterity. Please click to enlarge the drawings!

For HPL's "The Color Out of Space", the original is owned by a contemporary artist named Justin Lieberman.

For "The Night Wire" by H.F. Arnold

For "The Extra Passenger" by Stephen Grendon

For "Joshua" by R. Creighton Buck

For "Mr. Minchin's Midsummer" by Margery Lawrence

For "The Eerie Mr. Murphy" by Howard Wandrei

For "Nightmare" by Marjorie Bowen

For "One Head Well Done" by John D. Swain

For "Seaton's Aunt" by Walter De La Mare

For "Face in the Mirror" by Denys Val Baker

Although I'm sure the story isn't unknown to historians of Weird Fiction (I'm but a lowly fanatic), I always assumed this trilogy of books was either solicited by the book companies or presented to them by Derleth. Reason perhaps being that Arkham House knew their distribution limitations and felt it didn't interfere with their arguably more boutique business model. Look for the Weird Art of Lee Brown Coye Part 8 in the near future ... !

-Mike Hunchback