Customer Reviews

Fatal Beauty : The Boada Sketchbook, Volume One (v. 1)

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The covers front and back are very good. The inside black and white pencil and washes lacked a crispness and didn't have as polished look as the covers. They were good but not great. Reproducing these types of art is always difficult at best. If it had been printed on better quality paper to allow the blacks to really be black in stead of a dark gray may have helped.Fatal Beauty : The Boada Sketchbook, Volume One

As a contemporary of fellow Spanish-born artists Sanjulian and Esteban Maroto, one can certainly see the similarities in style when looking at the work of Boada. But as noted in the introduction to this collection, in Europe Boada is well renowned for his romantic, yet classic paintings of the female form.. A visit to his website will be proof enough of his enormous talent. But it's his over 2000 book cover illustrations that he his perhaps most well-known for in America, capturing a look and feel of old pulp magazines. Boada also produced many covers for 70's horror mags such as Skywald's Psycho and Nightmare.

This collection from SQ Productions provides a sampling of Boada's work, much in the same vein as their Sanjulian collection. Boada's style, at least in these illustrations is somewhat grittier than Sanjulian's, making it a perfect fit for many of the hard-boiled crime and detective pieces displayed in the book. But Boada does love the female form and his beautiful women are on wonderful display here in a series of themed sections. The "Best of the Wild West" features Winchester toting saloon gals in lingerie just daring any cowboy to look at her wrong. Page 18 features a buxom nude on hands and knees in the ocean surf, apparently oblivious to the gun battle taking place in the background.

The largest section shows off Boada's horror illustrations that combine the Boada woman in archetypal gothic settings. In one piece Fritz, the hunchbacked assistant from "Frankenstein" prods a captive female with a torch, much the way he tormented the monster in the original 1931 classic film. Pages 38 and 39 are covers that are taken right out of the 70's era with their decrepit undead attacking damsels who have strayed into the wrong cemeteries. Page 43 features a topless woman, bound tightly in chains as two cobras menace her. Simply marvelous and evocative illustrations!

Perhaps my favorite piece in the entire book is the illustration on page 61 depicting a topless jungle maiden with her arm on the back of her pet...a massive gorilla! Even Charo, the 70's coochie-coochie girl finds her way into the book as Boada illustrates the Spanish singing star in a tight dress that laces up the front with her full breasts spilling out over the top. Just dazzling! A great collection!

Reviewed by Tim Janson