The amazing art of
A collection of sketches, drawings & paintings
LA GRANDE OURSE
ARTBOOKs
COLLECTION VOLUME 1
Buck Rodgers
PRESENTS
Retro Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Pulps, Women, Stone Age, Monsters and Dinosaurs An amazing collection of sketches, drawings and paintings
The Amazing Art of Don Marquez
All artwork is copyright © 2009 Don Marquez The Amazing Art of Don Marquez (Artbooks collection Volume 1) © 2009 La Grande Ourse A.S.B.L. All right reserved. Printed in Belgium by Mediascreen (mediascreen@skynet.be) Chief editor and book design : Tony Lariviere - Cover design : Louis Many thanks to Don Marquez, Thierry Mornet, Stéphane Louis Published by La Grande Ourse A.S.B.L. Rue Salm, 187b - B-5300 LANDENNE (Belgium) Visit our website http://www.lagrandeourse.be e-mail : tony.lariviere@skynet.be First edition : june 2009
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Retro Saucer
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Don Marquez : Un Don remarquable ! Il suffit de passer en revue rapidement cet artbook pour repérer les influences qui transparaissent à chaque page. De Frank Frazetta dont il s’amuse à adapter la signature jusqu’à Al Williamson en passant par Wallace Wood : tous les géants de l’illustration et du comics contemporain sont présents en filigrane. Mais contrairement à d’autres, Don Marquez ne se contente pas de copier le talent des maîtres, il y ajoute le sien. Il sait nous entraîner un peu plus loin au confins de ces univers peuplés de femmes aux formes improbablement généreuses et de monstres mi-insectes, mi-félins effrayants. Ses héros sont des archétypes de l’aventurier spatial, qu’ils portent de rutilantes combinaisons neuves ou soient habillés d’oripeaux à la suite de combats titanesques contre des créatures monstrueusement dentées et griffues. Les petits frères de Flash Gordon, de Brick Bradford ou de John Carter qu’il met en scène, errent dans des contrées voisines de Pellucidar ou de la planète Mars décrite par Burroughs… Don Marquez nous fait rêver, et nous fait voyager… empruntant juste ce qu’il faut de nostalgie aux univers surannés de la SF des années 50 pour nous inviter à la rêverie, au combat ou encore à la survie. La fantaisie a trouvé un nouveau conteur graphique. Pour notre plus grand bonheur. Thierry Mornet (Directeur de collection chez Delcourt - France)
Don Marquez : reMARQUably gifted ! It only takes a few seconds to flip through the pages of this artbook to spot some of his obvious influences. From Frank Frazetta - whose signature is even graphically adapted - to Al Williamson and Wallace Wood : all those incredible illustrators and comic books artists show up somehow. But contrarily to some others, Don Marquez doesn’t merely swipe or emulate the talent of those masters. He actually brings his own talent with him. He makes us travel to the end of those planets full of gorgeously lavish women and scary bug-like monsters. His heroes are the archetypal space adventurers, wearing either a shiny space-suit or mere rags following a huge fight against monstruous fanged creatures. They are the little brothers of Flash Gordon, Brick Bradford or even John Carter. They wander through nearby places of Pellucidar or the E.R. Burroughs version of Mars… Don Marquez makes us travel and dream… borrowing in the process just what is necessary of nostalgia from those old Sci-Fi universes and atmospheres, so that we can dream, fight or simply survive alongside his characters. Fantasy has found a new storyteller. For our greatest pleasure. Thierry Mornet (Chief editor for Delcourt Publisher - France)
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Planet Peril
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Weird Science Spaceship
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Dome
Asteroid Girl
Space Man and Monster
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Above : Preliminary sketch for Abduction (next page)
Opposite page :
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Green Monster (above) - Egg Thing (left) - Weird Brain (right)
Nomans Planet 12
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Above :
Retro Ants
Below :
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Conquest of Space Flag
Opposite :
Abduction
Above :
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Space Ship
Above : E Opposite page :
C Couple
Space Wreck (above) - Space Cyclops (left) - Retro Space Girl (right) 16
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Lizard Men
Buck Rodgers
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Retro Monster Chase
Space Moon 19
Buck Rodgers
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Martian Science
Mars Lion 21
Banth
Vicking Woman
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Inner World
Left :
Swordsman of Mars
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Sorcereses
Below :
Maid of Mars
Pelucidarians
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Queen of the Creepy Things
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Above :
Lost Women
Jungle Lord, a Girl and Apes
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Below :
Swinger
Forest Pool Above :
Croc Oil
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Above : Birdmen
Previous : Pellucidar
Couple
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Sketch for
Birdmen Lord of the Rings
Left :
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Girl Sword Ape
Above :
Girl and Leopard
Wolves
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Stone Age Girl
Sabertoothl
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Horror Comic TV Movie Homage
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Left :
Snowbeast
Previous page :
Graveyard
Invaders 37 37
Left : Forbidden
Girl
Below :
Right :
Cowgirl
Gorgo
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Lost World
Dinosaurs Mahar
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Bridge Demon
Mammoth and Dino
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Something from the Dinosaurs Age 42
Above left :
Dunwich
Abore right : Werewolf
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Below :
Kong and Rex
Dracula
Frankenstein
Opposite :
Turok and Andar Left :
Turok and Finback 44
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Death Dealer and Harpies 46
Apes
Bear in Forest
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Girl and Ogre
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Ptero Flag
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Biography i
am a native of Sacramento, California, USA. Born in 1949. Most of my most vivid childhood memories Revolve around the comics, sci-fi books, fantastic films, and rock and roll music that I was a fan of while growing up. One of my earliest memories is of my aunt reading me the comic book of Uncle Scrooge in The Golden Fleecing by Carl Barks. Before my family could afford a TV, I listened to broadcasts of the Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon and Uncle Remus on a big old consol radio. Doo wop and rock and roll also sounded great coming out of that thing. A life changing experience for me occurred in about 1959 when my older brother brought home a stack of maybe 200 Golden Age horror comics. I read every one of them and from then on I was really hooked on comics. I positively loved Silver Age comics from Marvel, DC, Dell, Harvey, all the publishers that were active when I was a kid. I read Famous Monsters Of Filmland and attended matinees of the movies that magazine talked about. When Universal Studios released their catalogue of classic horror films to TV for the first time, I stayed up late to watch them. It was so hard trying to stay awake waiting for them to come on, but after they were over I was too scared to go to sleep. I hated school and received terrible grades all the way through my educational career up until I dropped out of college. I always liked to draw, and enrolled in the Famous Artists correspondence course advertised on the back covers of so many comics, but never finished it. I was enthralled by the tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs when Ace books began their paperback reprint series of his work. The covers produced for them by Frank Frazetta completely amazed me. I couldn’t imagine how a human could even produce such images. The first live concert I ever attended was in 1964. The Beau Brummles, and Gary Lewis and the Playboys played at the Memorial Auditorium in my hometown of Sacramento. The acoustics were absolutely horrible, but I loved it anyway. After that, going out to see bands was my favorite thing to do. I combed my Greaser pompadour down into a Beatles doo and started attending any venue where music was happening. I liked the local bands almost as much as I liked the British Invasion bands that came through town. The Stones played in Sacramento about three times I think. They were my heroes. Attending the shows at the Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon ballroom in neighboring San Francisco was a revelation because the audiences were so different from the crowds in Sacramento. Sacramentans were so violent and seemed to enjoy fighting so much that just going out in public felt like a life threatening experience. As a youngster, I was something of a juvenile delinquent and was arrested at age 16 for joy riding in a stolen car. One brush with the law was enough to convince me that a life of crime was not for me. Through high school and beyond, from time to time, I got together with friends to play music and try to form a band. For one reason or another, those ambitions never got further than a few practice sessions, and maybe a photo shoot so we’d have some pictures to try to impress girls with. For many years, I did little more than fill sketchbooks with doodles, and produce maybe one or two paintings a year. I sometimes worked as a freelance jewelry designer. In 1977, along with friends, I formed the psychedelic/garage/new wave band The Twinkeyz. Using the stage name Donnie Jupiter, I wrote songs, sang, and played guitar. We released a handful of records and achieved a modest amount pf notoriety. It was very exciting and rewarding, but the band ultimately proved unstable. Playing in a band brought home the realization that I am not a great singer, and I am not very comfortable on stage. My first comic book work was a four issue mini series called Cartune Land, published in 1987. Since then I have produced and contributed to a couple dozen other comics, most recently providing artwork for Alien Pig Farm 3,000 for Raw Studios. I have been happily married for thirty years, and have two sons, Laser and Max, who have grown up to be fine young men. Currently I produce artwork in the form of oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings that I offer at auction on eBay. My work is a reflection of all the crazy things that have inspired me over the years.
DON MARQUEZ, folsom, 2008 http://www.cartuneland.com
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Retro Space Duo
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