Posted By Dan Greenfield on Nov 4, 2024 | 3 comments

MORRISON MONDAYS!

By BILL MORRISON

I once wrote a book about a dear friend and artistic idol titled Innocence and Seduction: The Art of Dan DeCarlo. Often referred to as “The Jack Kirby of Humor Comics,” Dan was a major figure in the world of comic books and cartooning, and it occurred to me in the late 1990s that nobody had yet written a book about his life and art.

Well, that’s not exactly true, there was a cheaply printed paperback by Archie Fan Magazine editor Mary Smith. But it was sort of like a special square-bound edition of the magazine, available only to fan club members, and not the deluxe, hardcover coffee table art book that I felt Dan’s work deserved. So, I spoke to the iconic Archie artist about my book idea and he invited me to come to his home in Scarsdale, New York, to interview him, go through original art and photos, and start making plans for my pitch to publishers. My excitement was high, but when Dan passed away in 2001 I lost my steam and the project shifted to my back burner.

A few years later I was talking with Dan’s widow, Josie, and she asked me, “Whatever happened to that art book that you and Dan were working on?” I told her that with Dan gone I’d lost my motivation to continue with it, but her reply turned me right around. She said “Oh, that’s too bad. I was really looking forward to it.” And that was kick in the pants I needed. I realized I had originally been doing the book for Dan, but now I had the incentive to move ahead and do it for Josie.

The book was published by Fantagraphics in 2006, and went out of print in a fairly short amount of time. That OOP status and a subsequent rise in the awareness and popularity of Dan’s work made it a rare grail for DeCarlo fans who’d missed out on it. Copies began selling online for hundreds of dollars, and naturally, I had mixed feelings about that. As the author, I liked the fact that it was so well respected and valued by DeCarlo fans, but that also meant that a lot of people who wanted to own it and read Dan’s story couldn’t afford to do so.

Thankfully, Gary Groth at Fantagraphics decided that the book was worthy of a second printing. He contacted me about it and we discussed the possibility of adding material to the original edition. We decided to do this in the form of a gallery of original art reproductions at the back of the book. In the two decades since I wrote the original, I continued to collect Dan’s work, so coming up with additional covers and pin-ups was not a problem. But I told Gary that I also had some complete stories that were in the public domain, and he agreed to add those as well.

So in October of this year, Innocence and Seduction: The Art of Dan DeCarlo — Expanded Edition hit bookstore shelves with a new cover and an additional 65 pages that were not in the original version. Many of those pages feature stunning pin-ups, so Dexterous Dan, the Idea Man suggested I present my 13 FAVORITE DAN DeCARLO PIN-UPS! I loved the idea, but with the hundreds of pin-ups that Dan DeCarlo drew over the decades I found it impossible to narrow my faves down to 13. So with a qualifier I present my 13 Favorite Dan DeCarlo Pin-Ups from my original art collection (and they all appear in the new edition of the book!)

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

In no particular order:

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Innocence and Seduction: The Art of Dan DeCarlo — Expanded Edition, a 248-page oversize hardcover, lists for $65. You can get it through comics shops and booksellers or you can order it directly from Fantagraphics. Click here.

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