Idyl Day!

Catherine Jeffrey Jones was born on this date in 1944. Jones was a seminal paperback artist in the 1960's and 1970's. She worked in comics some at DC and elsewhere, but it did not seem to be her primary focus.  Jones created the comic strip Idyll. I know it was featured only a short time ago at the Dojo, but it's really the only choice.  

(Berni Wrightson, Catherine Jeffrey Jones, Mike Kaluta, Barry Windsor-Smith - 1978)

Jeffrey Catherine Jones was an enigmatic artist. Part of "The Studio", she was most famous at the time for her incredible paperback covers. Many are on par with the best of Frazetta. Frazetta has said that Jones was his favorite artist. Her comics work was sporadic and most of it was not in the usual venues. Idyl, her most personal work appeared in the "Funny Pages" of National Lampoon, and was work not intended for the typical comic book buyer. 

It was in the pages of National Lampoon that I first fell in love with Idyl. She was an alluring and exceedingly naked woman who mused about life and death and such stuff. She lived in a strange world in inhabited by talking animals. 

She's a bawdy Alice in Wonderland, if Alice was nude and mysteriously pregnant. 

Above is the very first "Idyl" installment. It was first published in National Lampoon November 1975 in their first and very distinctive section called simply "Funny Pages". 

Above is the final Idyl. It is marked by the singular panel and expansive thought balloon. 

 

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