Russ Heath's Yellow Heat Artist's Edition Portfolio

Russ Heath is one of the finest artists in comic book history. In a career that began more than 70 years ago, he has worked for nearly every publisher. This Artist’s Edition Portfolio prints one of Heath’s most beautiful and notorious stories, “Yellow Heat!” Originally published in Vampirella #58 in 1977, “Yellow Heat” has been called Heath’s greatest work. It is reproduced here meticulously scanned from the original art, and collected in a hardcover portfolio case.

IDW Publishing, June 08, 2016
12″ x 17″, 8 plates
ISBN 9781631406201
$40 USD
Order online: eBay, Things From Another World

As with all AE format material (Artist’s Editions, Artifact Editions, Gallery Editions, Art Editions, Studio Editions, etc.), this is a collection of classic comic material and I’ll be reviewing the book and not the story. For a complete list of all current and announced editions, with review links, please visit our Index. Also, see What is an Artist’s Edition and our Artist Index.

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One more excellent story from a Warren publication, this time Vampirella issue 58. I would have to agree with the publisher’s blurb that this is Heath’s finest work, especially in this original art format.

Scans are clear and clean, with no scan issues. The pages have aged light yellow to yellow. Margin notes are strictly issue and story identifiers. All text is pasted onto the pages, and several are missing but we have the text pencilled on the pages. Blacks are solid with no gradients. Correction fluid is used for the text only.

Another Artist’s Edition Portfolio following the standard design established by Dahlk: clean and elegant. A great choice of image for the cover, once you’ve read the story. The plate sleeve has some room and allows all plates to be inserted at once.

The portfolio comes in a mylar envelope. The hardcover portfolio shows UPC and price on the back cover. Interestingly the back of the plates don’t say “not original art” like most of the other IDW Artist’s Edition Portfolios.

This bears the statement “for mature readers” because of the bare-breasted women in the story.

And this appears to be the last of the Artist’s Edition Portfolio line.