VCU Libraries Gallery

Browse Items (43 total)

This book is an example of a typical comic book. Measuring 6 ? x 10 ? inches, it is saddle-stitch bound and runs for 25 pages including advertisements. The two staples placed roughly three inches from the top and bottom are clearly visible on the…
Doctor Strange 1026.jpg

This volume is often lauded as the progenitor of the American comic book. A very important historical artifact in its own right, it contains both newspaper strips and new content bound together in the form of a book. In the context of this…
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Marble statue of Aesred, the ever-transforming female from James Branch Cabell's mythical land of Poictesme. Originally belonging to James Branch Cabell, this piece is now in Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library.

The…
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Pages 13 and 14. This page which features the hero Snowbird fighting the weather controlling beast Kolomaq in whiteout conditions is the comic version of drawing a polar bear in a snowstorm. There are no images to follow, instead the text serves to…
Alpha Flight .jpg

Annual report of purchases and donations made by the Associates of James Branch Cabell Library, February 24, 1972. Report created by President, Margaret Freeman Cabell.
Also shown, the original bookplate used by the Associates of James Branch…
M 228 B30 Annual report from MFC_Cabell Associates Feb 24 1972 rsz.jpg

This trade paperback compiles Marvel Premier #9-10, #12-14 and Doctor Strange #1-2, #4-5. Unlike the individual comics that it draws from, this volume is perfect bound, features a descriptive back cover, and contains no advertisements. The cover…
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This print belongs to a series on American authors by printmaker David Freed, professoremeritus of VCU School of the Arts. The woman seen in relief represents Cabell's interest in Greek literature.This work is located in the anteroom to the Cabell…
James Branch Cabell by David Freed 1972 rsz.jpg

Pages 39 and 40 of this book stand as a great example for the sheer variety of ways text balloons can be manipulated as characterization devices. Gaiman’s Eternals are identifiable through their balloons alone. Each “speaks” in a different font,…
Sandman Overture.jpg

This image by L'Engle (1884-1957) appears on the back of Cabell'sThere Were Two Pirates, published in 1946.
JBC drawing by William LEngle 1946 adj rsz.jpg

This trade paperback collects the complete 12-issue run of the HUSH storyline. But instead of simply reproducing the polished and colored pages that appear in the original comic books, this volume features the raws for each one. A “raw” is a page for…
Batman Hush.jpg

This comic is actually representative of so many different categories, it was hard choosing just one to put it into. With the nonlinear imagery, collage arrangement of panels, and watercolor color application, it could easily be the subject of a more…
Kabuki 16012.jpg

This book is a print adaptation of a webcomic by the same name that was first published on September 1, 2016. While it exists in both formats, the reading experience is quite different. The print version exists as a physical object, and thus has…
The Tea Dragon Society.jpg

Frank Cheyne Papé (1872-1972) illustrated seven of Cabell's books. The English illustrator's fanciful, imaginatie and sometimes sexually suggestive style complemented Cabell's satirical works. Papé became an overnight success with the…
JBC by Frank C Pape crop adj rsz.jpg

In this exhibition’s section about layouts, it was mentioned that color can be a powerful tool for creating emphasis. The cover of this comic paints all of the image except for the central figure in a wash of red. This contrasts strongly with the…
Low.jpg

While color itself can carry meanings, lack of color can be just as important. On page 73, the main character Gwen Dylan experiences a flashback. This change in time and space is indicated to the reader through a sudden shift into balck and white.…
iZombie.jpg

The world we live in creates a certain set of expectations. We expect the sun to be bright, and things blocked from its light to be dark. We look outside and we expect the sky to be blue, or the grass to be green. Subverting these expectations can be…
Rose and Thorn.jpg

Story, Firelilly, Page 50. Story, Starfall, Page 87. All of the stories within this anthology only use red alongside black and white to create visual effects. Both the page from Firelilly and from Starfall are examples of monochrome, also called…
Elements Fire page 50.jpg

With the four main characters sketched in black against a yellow field, bold pink lettering, and a single smoke trail of white, The cover of Paper Girls was made to be eye-catching. Yellow is the most reflective of all the colors, meaning that it is…
Paper Girls011.jpg

While the paper choices talked about above are highly important to the final quality and appearance of the finished comic, this is not how the pages often begin. The printed version on the paper that we as readers handle is compiled from artists’…
Jack Tales, page 5, Charles Vess papers, M 374

This piece is an excellent example of dynamic composition. In this scene a group of people with clubs and torches startle the horses drawing a coach, and the coach begins to overturn. Each part of the image, from the buildings to the characters,…
Scotland Yard Detective Page 1-A, Charles Vess Papers M374.jpg

There are roughly eight different types of shading that are often used by artists, hatching, cross-hatching, contour-hatching, contour cross-hatching, diverse hatching, stippling, scribbling, and ink wash. This work is an amazing example of the…
Scotland Yard Detective Page 37, Charles Vess Papers M374.jpg

Pages 18 and 19. This two page spread uses jagged, stained glass inspired panels in a spiral pattern to draw the reader’s attention towards the woman curled in the lower section of the left page who is the focal point of the image. Visually this is…
Madame Xanadu.jpg

Third cartoon strip, page 80. Time is a hard concept to represent. With comics, the gutter between panels can represent anywhere from a second passing to several million years. Typically, we approach comics with the assumption that the time between…
Calvin and Hobbes page 80.JPG
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