Wally's World
The Brilliant Life & Tragic Death of Wally Wood,
the World's 2nd Best Comic Book Artist

¬?¬?¬?¬?¬?Wally's World opens Halloween night, 1981, in a seedy world of pornographers and drug addicts, with a mysterious death by .44 magnum gunshot on the outskirts of Hollywood? This is no mystery club thriller but the true, dramatic, gut wrenching illustrated biography of legendary cartoonist-illustrator Wallace Wood. But his death, in semi-squalid surroundings and the wretched state of his body belie the glory that came before. Within the world of pop-art, Wood was revered as a rebel genius--akin to Jack Kerouac, James Dean and John Lennon--who led the way for, and inspired, a generation, including "underground" cartoonists Robert Crumb, Bill Griffith (Zippy) and Pulitzer Prize winner Art Spiegelman (Maus). The award-winning Wood rose to the pentacle of pop-culture stardom with a brilliant career as one...

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Vanguard Unites Famous Illustrators in NYC on 9-11-05

Vanguard Productions, the world's leading producer of art books and biographies on illustrators and cartoonists, united two famous illustrators at the recent 9-11-05 Big Apple Convention in New York City.

Jim Steranko is not only the top Shadow paperback book cover illustrator of all time, he's also a legendary 1960's pop-art innovator, escape artist (who helped inspire the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay), musician who gigged with early rock icon Bill Haley, and has worked with film directors Lucas, Spielberg & Coppola. Steranko's most recent book is the pulp revival, Domino Lady (Vanguard), which includes many Steranko illustrations and an all-new Steranko text story. Steranko is also working on an instructional graphic design book due from Vanguard in the Spring of 2006.

Basil Gogos is quite possibly the world's most famous monster artist. Gogos' early illustration work included men's adventure magazines and paperback covers but he endeared himself to multiple generations of monster movie fans with his Technicolor portrait covers to Famous Monster s of Filmland magazine from the early '60s through the late '70s. Today Gogos continues to produce beautiful monsters for movie posters, CD covers and more. He is currently working with Vanguard on a full-color monograph, The Famous Monster Movie Art of Basil Gogos (expected to ship New Year's) with intro by rock star, film director and Gogos collector, Rob Zombie.

Vanguard publisher and past president of the Dallas Society of Illustrators, J. David Spu rlock said, "It was the first-ever meeting of Jim Steranko and Basil Gogos." Spurlock continued, " As you can see in the photo, they were very pleased to finally meet." Gogos appeared in promotion of his upcoming Vanguard art book while Steranko appeared in support of his Spirit of America 9-11 benefit project.

It's official!

CREAM
October 24, 25, 26 at Madison Square Garden (only US dates)
Presale Sept 12.
Public sale Sept 19.
Through TicketMaster

RGK: The Art of Roy G. Krenkel
ULTRA DELUXE EDITION

Vanguard is releasing their first ULTRA Deluxe Edition book. The RGK: Art of Roy G. Krenkel ULTRA Deluxe edition features gold gilded pages, suede slipcase, genuine leather binding, blind embossed official stamp of the Krenkel Estate, and an original sketch by RGK hand-tipped into each book.
Limited to 120 copies
$250 + $12 s/h
($36.00 s/h outside USA)

Available on a FIRST-COME,
NON-RETURNABLE basis
ONLY FROM VANGUARD

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MAJOR NEWS FLASH!

Smiles & Grins Music president J. David Spurlock announced July 7, 2005 that, "Rumor has it that Cream will play New York, Oct. 23-25, 2005. Official confirmation is yet to come."

CREAM REUNION SHOW!

All of London and the world are a buzz over the rock event of the year, Cream's reunion concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. Cream is the world's first power-trio supergroup comprised of legends, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce & Ginger Baker. As head of the original (20 years) Jack Bruce Fan Club, I was interviewed about the event on BBC television and on Sirius Satellite Radio.

Compared to the later nights, the first night of the Cream reunion shows was like a rehearsal. While all the major press reviewed the first night as very good, little did they know the other nights were much better. My favorite was #3 of the 4, which was the most psychedelic. Souvenir stands looked like a wild day on Wall Street with many items selling out the first night!

Rock's royalty in attendance for the historic events included: The Beatles' Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison's wife Olivia; Pink Floyd's Roger Waters & Nick Mason; Sheryl Crow; Tom Hanks; Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page; Gary Moore; The Rolling Stones' Bill Wyman; The Who's Roger Daltry; Cream lyricist Pete Brown, who I sat with the first night; Traffic's Steve Winwood and Dave Mason; Elton John's Ray Cooper and many more.

---J. David Spurlock

NEW CREAM BOOK!

A NEW WALLY WOOD GRAPHIC NOVEL?

Vanguard Productions announces LUNAR TUNES!

¬?¬?¬?¬?¬?In this previously unpublished work, comics legend Wallace (Wally) Wood combines the satirical wit and humor that made him a star at MAD with the far-out sci-fi settings that made him famous at EC. Creat ed shortly before the comics genius's death, only a few LUNAR TUNES sample pages saw print in the later issues of Witzend but Vanguard presents, for the first time anywhere, the complete LUNAR TUNES...

A word from Harlan Ellison about Alex Schomburg

"Finally and at last! The magnificent answer to the question, 'What do you buy for the Man Who Has Everything?' No matter what age he may be, this every-page-a-wonder assemblage of Schomburg paintings will thrill, charm and delight any guy on his anniversary, birthday, holiday or need for apology from you. It might please women, too, but for guys, for sure."
-Harlan Ellison</ font>