Review: Innocence & Seduction - The Art of Dan DeCarlo

Over the next couple of days, I wanted to expand a bit on what my great friend and colleague Alan David Doane had to say about a couple of new releases from Fantagraphics. Go here for ADD's brief reviews, but I wanted to comment on them here. It's unusual for me, as I tend to avoid reviews of work I plan to discuss myself, even if it's ADD doing the reviewing, but the bastard always gets there before me! Anyway...

ADD: "INNOCENCE AND SEDUCTION is an unspeakably well-produced artbook that showcases the full spectrum of DeCarlo's artistic power from the very beginning to the end of his career. It's also a deeply moving memorial and biography. More comics creators should be given this sort of respect."

All true, all true. Bill Morrison, he of Bongo Comics and one of the final employers of DeCarlo after Archie Publications sent him packing, does a wonderful job in this book. Not to take anything away from the handsome pin-up books that Alex Chun has produced for Fantagraphics of DeCarlo and others, but once you read this you see what those books are missing, which is the human element. In this case, DeCarlo's life took some unbelievably tragic turns, yet what shines through is a good-hearted man who always put his family before his own needs. Also, the guy was a hell of an artist, which I have to admit I lost sight of, having seen so many of his imitators over the years on Archie product, which isn't really my sense of humor anyway. I think DeCarlo was a good gag man and amazing at depicting the female frame; I don't get a seamy feel from his work at all. He just seems to enjoy how women look, and no doubt having a fun, loving wife like Josie all those years helped his art and his outlook. A terrific book.