Mark Schultz: Carbon

Long out of print. From the publisher: Following his acclaimed Various Drawings art book series, Carbon serves as the first of a new series assembling the best recent graphic works of Mark Schultz. The element carbon, common yet versatile, is the binder at the base of life on Earth as well as the source of the rich blacks that run through Mark Schultz's drawings. Similarly, the book Carbon binds an astonishing array of illustrative art rendered in brush and ink, graphite and carbon pencil, and it also introduces more color than ever before through the artist's increased experimentation with watercolor as an atmospheric element. This compilation showcases many new depictions of Schultz's lovely Pulpette heroines and scenes of grand adventure in otherworldly settings as well as an assortment of the preliminary drawings that develop into his finished works. The large format features four epic gatefold images, including a look at how Mark applies color over his black-line ink work. The vast majority of the art was completed over the last two years, with most of the fifty-plus pieces being published here for the first time. Schultz has produced art and stories for comics and speculative fiction for over twenty-five years. This volume represents his unique vision more than any other to date. As a special bonus, the artist's fascination with science is explored in his introductory text examining the process of working with a paleontologist to accurately depict Xenoceratops, a newly discovered dinosaur, accompanied by the preliminary drawings that evolved into the finished work. Mark Schultz is a storyteller by nature as well as by profession. He could always draw and his storytelling tends to lean toward the visual, although he can cobble his ideas into words as necessary. His interests in adventure fiction and the sciences led him to create his awarding-winning Xenozoic Tales comics series. He has illustrated a collection of Robert E. Howard's Conan of Cimmeria and written the science primer graphic novel The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA. Between scripting the weekly newspaper adventures of Prince Valiant and producing images for such collections as the one you now hold in your hands, he continues to chip away at the illustrations for his novella Storms at Sea. Long-time followers of his career may now roll their eyes.