I have been a fan of Mark Schultz’s work since I first laid eyes on it in his amazing comic series, Xenozoic Tales. With a unique dry brush technique he produces lavish illustrations of heroes, heroines, dinosaurs and the like. His pencil, ink and painted works evoke the spirit of classic American illustrators like N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, and William Stout as well as comic illustrators Al Williamson, Alex Raymond and Hal Foster. The following image is a color painting for the recently released collection of Robert E. Howard stories, The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian.
The most well known work of Mark Schultz is the aforementioned comic series Xenozoic Tales, recently released in graphic novel format. Xenozoic Tales‘s publisher, Dark Horse Comics, states that “Mark Schultz’s vision of the future includes ruined cities, guano-powered Cadillacs, warring factions of humanity, reborn dinosaurs, and their intelligent, humanoid descendants. The tough-as-nails shaman, Jack Tenrec, and the beautiful scientist, Hannah Dundee, yearn to uncover the origins and secrets of their violent world while dealing with their own rocky relationship.” Hannah Dundee and Jack Tenrec are by far Schultz’s most popular creations.
Mark Schultz: Various Drawings Volume 1 is published by Flesk Publications. Flesk is a small publisher specializing in high quality illustration books. Mark Schultz had very specific desires in relation to the materials used to make this book and it shows. Various Drawings is a slight book containing only 49 illustrations but the museum quality paper and meticulous reproduction of the originals make this one of the better art books that I’ve seen. The lavish print quality and soft focus element of Schultz’s art make each piece seem almost 3 dimensional. The hardback edition is limited to only 500 copies and ordering directly from the publisher netted me number 34 of 500. The tipped in, hand signed signature page is gorgeous. I love well put together books and Flesk Publications garners high praise with this release.
If you are a fan of Tarzan, Conan, or similar adventures stories then I guarantee you would enjoy the work of Mark Schultz. In addition to being an amazing artist he is also a talented writer and the world he created in Xenozoic Tales is a world worth visiting. Interestingly enough Xenozoic Tales was turned into an animated series that aired on CBS in 1993-94 entitled Cadillacs and Dinosaurs.
Although nothing has been announced I’m looking forward to more volumes of Schultz’s artwork in the future.
ooh~ I’m SO checkin him out!
mg
very cool!
There are more examples of his art work in a gallery section on the Flesk Publications site.
Nice art. I havent looked at comics much since i was a kid. I will occasionally pick up star wars tales from Dark Horse but, thats about it.
This was a great comic because it was very old school, like the old illustrations in Tarzan, the John Carter of Mars series, etc. The trade paperback collections that Dark Horse put out are very nicely done.
Thanks again for letting me look at your copy. I can’t wait until mine comes in. Of course I’m sure will be numbered up in the 2 or 300 hundreds.
I’ve been stretching out into art lately… I dig the look, but doubt I could replicate it. Still, I like having stuff like that around.
I’ll go look.
To be honest, I usually have a hard time seeing artistry in comic book drawings, primarily because it’s difficult for me to look beyond the disproportioned female characters. I have a hard time reading Hemingway for the same reason: when he goes off on anti-female tangent, I lose sight of any literary merit.