Jess Jodloman (1925-2018) was one of the Filipino artists who came to the United States in the 1970s along with Alfred Alcala, Alex Nino, Nestor Redondo and Tony deZuniga. Jess was a regular feature on DC Horror comics but when he could he drew some of the best Sword & Sorcery art. This shouldn’t be a surprise. He caught everyone’s attention in the Philippines with “Ramir” in Bulaklak Komiks. The comic was popular it was made into a film in 1957.
Jess’s Sword & Sorcery appeared at both Marvel and DC and at the same time, 1975.
“Teeth of the Dragon” (Kull and the Barbarians #2, May 1975) was written by Gerry Conway but it was Jess’s art that made this my favorite Kull piece of all time.
“The Man Who Would Be God” (Weird War Tales #38, June 1975) was written by Jack Oleck. The DC Horror comics were known to throw an S&S tale in once in a while.
“The Death Song of Conan the Cimmerian” (Savage Sword of Conan #8, October 1975) was written by Roy Thomas and features one of the best of the early splash pages in Savage Sword.
“Ivanhoe” (Marvel Classics Comics #16, 1976) was written by Doug Moench and it’s really Sword & Sorcery but it did give Jess a chance to draw all those knights. He was a self-trained artist who was inspired by early comic strip art like Prince Valiant.
“The Odyssey” (Marvel Classics Comics #18, 1977) was written by Bill Mantlo. Homer is much closer to S&S being one of the foundational myths that lead to the sub-genres creation. Jess does perhaps the best version of the cyclops scene in any comic.
Not nearly enough from an artist who brought something special to heroic fantasy. Jess Jodloman’s Horror work is excellent of course, but I would have loved to see him do a run of issues in Kull the Destroyer.
