Julie Bell (1) (1958–)

Boris Vallejo is a name and style I was aware of through nerd osmosis, though Julie Bell was not someone I was consciously aware of previously, more's the pity.

Vallejo is...Vallejo, the Fabio romance cover artist 'for the lads'. Undeniable skills with a seeming obsession with one perspective on the 'perfect physical form' and a fantasy icon. I don't have a nostalgic connection to him and I am of the feminine persuasion, so perhaps I feel less kindly towards him than others. His talent and show more imagination are spoiled for me by the lasciviousness of his male gaze and the his focus on masculine fantasy, both in the bodybuilder demigods he models his men after, and the swimsuit models he bases his women on. His scenery, monsters, and sci-fi elements are wonderful, but these are few and far between.

Julie Bell on the other hand has a little of Vallejo's propensity for swimsuit models, but tempers the male gaze with her own vision. You can see her style and portrayal of women evolve and it is beautiful to see. The depth and range of her work is something else with all manner of striking and affecting scenes that, in the same way fantasy stories have evolved, contain so much more than muscle-bound and scantily-clad power fantasies. I am truly glad to have discovered her.

A number of pages were sadly torn from the library edition, so the only collaborative work I can be sure of was a science fantasy floating pyramid piece that was truly spectacular. It says they only worked together on four pieces. I would very much like to see the test and wish they had done more.

A fascinating book, but honestly I could have just done with a book of Bell's art.

This was my first in-library read/ peruse, which makes it a bit special. show less

I paged through this and really should have known from the cover that nothing good would come of it. I really had hoped we were over female warriors being required to wear chain-mail bikinis but apparently I was wrong. Yes, there is skill in these paintings, but why the world needed a book objectifying women to a horrendous degree and giving fantasy art a bad name, I will never know.

Not sure why I bought this. I guess I thought I would find it more inspirational than it turned out to be. I already knew that I didn't care for Vallejo's art that much, because he makes all his figures look muscular and posed. This book just continued that. Julie Bell's art didn't inspire me either - she's really hung up on chrome. But even worse, between the two of them, few if any of the pictures seemed to actually tell a story. Too often it seemed like art for art's sake only.

I juggled between three and four stars with this one. A bonus is the hardcover has large images and is generous with them, which is the main point of the book. No glossy pages, but that doesn't remove enjoyment. There are short, brief intros to some of the characters, not about the art or process or anything like that. Details of the artists or their goals, or any of their words, pretty much any text nitty-gritty is left out. The artwork is what's stunning - I couldn't imagine being so show more talented a painter. I leaned more toward Boris, as Julie's stuff was too soft for my tastes. The villains in Spiderman and such were especially creepy, they had a knack for making them look evil in a plausible, serious way that other comics and cartoons of them never did. show less