Some Spots

A couple quick spot illustrations I did recently. The top is Sara and her cat Zoe, and the bottom is Toby walking and listening. I normally don't draw them this cartooned, but I think the style really works for the size and subject matter.

Illustration Friday-Hoard

Back to cavemen for Illustration Friday.

Forgotten Camera, Forgotten Planet

So, I realize that I'm extremely far behind with Illustration Friday since this was done for the topic prior to this week's. I'm trying to catch up, but I figure best just to put up something once it's finished.

Reading Comics: Batman-The Long Halloween

So, this will hopefully be the first in a long series where I review/comment on comics that I find to be worthy of note. They won't always be current, but will be works that I think are significant to the medium, and just plain good. First up: Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Batman: The Long Halloween.
Set during the Year One era, the story traces Batman's pursuit of Carmine 'The Roman' Falcone, Gotham City's untouchable crime lord. But amongst this pursuit is a serial killer dubbed 'Holiday,' who strikes on a holiday each month, killing members of either the Falcone family, or their rivals, the Maroni family. And peppered in with this are an assortment of Batman's rogues gallery, from the Joker, Scarecrow, and Riddler, to more obscure villains such as Solomon Grundy and the Calendar Man. Catwoman also plays a prominent role, but Batman (and you, the reader) can never tell whose side she's on.

I originally read the series back when it was serialized in the late '90's, and having read the series subsequent follow-ups (Batman: Dark Victory and Catwoman: When in Rome), I wanted to go back and take a fresh look at the series. My first impression was just how fast of a read it was. Loeb's writing is sharp and to the point, and Sale treats the page as a canvas, including splash pages and double spreads throughout. Is this a weakness? Not necessarily. It gives each issue a structure, with an opening splash page, and then a double spread. It also focuses our attention on the characters, who are drawn with great detail and character. This isn't to say that Sale doesn't give attention to the environment, Gotham has an excellent, retro atmosphere reminiscent of the first animated series, but the characters are the central players in the story.
My second impression from re-reading the series is that it reads well as a monthly serial, but was clearly not designed as a 'graphic novel.' Loeb does an excellent job of bringing the reader up to speed at the beginning of each issue, with narration that makes it clear who the main players are, and where we are in terms of the story. It's a technique that you don't find often in serialized comics nowadays, to the detriment of readers. But if you were to read three or four issues back-to-back, you may begin to find the writing repetitive. My advice? Give some time between chapters/issues. Granted, you'll want to keep reading, cause Loeb and Sale keep you on the edge of your seat.

But the one of the key elements in the story, and one of the things that most intrigued me about the story when I first read it, is Gotham's transition from organized crime to its cadre of psychotic super villains. One of the things that I never understood about Batman was how people like the Joker and the Penguin were equated with crime in the sense that we understand it. Okay, it's a comic and it's a fantasy, but still... their crimes never resembled anything that we would see today. They were extraordinary. But when this story opens, the mob still has control over Gotham city, people like the Scarecrow and Poison Ivy are just distractions from the main threats to Batman and the city. But by the end, the psychotic villains make a claim to take over, aided by one of Batman's former ally's, district attorney Harvey Dent, now Two-Face. It's a story element that the filmmakers of the current Batman films seem to have picked up on. And I have almost no doubt this story by Loeb and Sale has played a part.

The ending reveals the identity of Holiday, and fits in well with the Batman mythos, adding to it and enriching it. But Loeb also throws in a trick, something that you can't help but question, a loose thread that never quite gets tied up. It may infuriate some readers, but in some ways, it's the sign of a good mystery, leaving you guessing even after the end.

Illustration Friday-Wide

Another installment in my caveman comic strips.

Horror Vacui-Final Design

Here's the final image for the 'Summer Night at Horror Vacui' print. It will be a limited edition screen print for the Minneapolis College of Art and Design MFA Print Portfolio. I always have a difficult time matching colors with screen printing, so we'll have to see what the final print looks like.

Wrinkles-Illustration Friday

Little late on this Illustration Friday piece. I stuck with the caveman imagery from my 'Primitive' post, albeit with completely different characters.

'Summer Night at Horror Vacui' Pencils

So, even though I'm done with my MFA Thesis, I still have some unattended business to finish up. Namely, the MCAD MFA Print Portfolio for 2008. The theme is 'Horror Vacui,' and these are the pencils for the screen print I'm doing. The top image will be superimposed on the lower half of the bottom image once the inks are complete, and then a spot color will be fitted in with the final print. Changes, as always, will occur. I'll post progress images as they happen.

Illustration Friday-Primitive

'The Ballad of Toby & Sara'

Well, after months of drawing, inking, printing, and preparation, it's finally here (well, almost). If you're in the Minneapolis area, stop by the SooVac to get a look at the first two issues of 'The Ballad of Toby & Sara.'

'The Ballad of Toby & Sara'
Comic Release Show
Soo Visual Arts Center
2640 Lyndale Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN
April 23-May 11
Reception May 9, 6-9 PM

Lutefisk Sushi Volume C! Premiere May 2!

The premiere of the Cartoonist Conspiracy's Lutefisk Sushi quickly approaches! Mark your calendars for the opening reception on May 2 at Altered Esthetics in Minneapolis. Click on the above image for more details.

Sneak Peek! Lutefisk Sushi Comic!

Here it is! My contribution for the Cartoonists Conspiracy Lutefisk Sushi box set! Have a sneak peek...

The Cross Pollination of Comics and Movies

The recent news that Warner Bros. is fast tracking a live-action remake of the Japanese anime Akira, with Leonardo DiCaprio producing and starring in, got me to thinking about several points. First, I will say that I was disappointed in the news, why mess with a movie that is already a standout in its own right, and has an audience devoted to it that has been building for years? Then again, from a studio perspective, why NOT mess with a movie like a Akira, which has a large audience, guaranteeing big ticket sales and widespread interest?

So, it seems I've found an answer to these questions right off the bat, which is money (who knows, maybe DiCaprio has a strong passion for this project. Maybe he'll bring something insightful to the American version.) But I think there are some larger issues at work, especially when it comes to comics and their cultural standing in America today. For several years now, (and for the foreseeable future) Hollywood has been adapting comics into movies, with varying degrees of success. For every Spider-Man and Batman Begins, there is Catwoman and the new version of The Punisher. A movie like Ghost World embellishes and deepens its source material, while a movie like V for Vendetta seems to cheapen its source material. For the studios, each movie is a chance to take advantage of the built in audiences for the comics, while for the comics and creators, its the hope that an audience for a comic (or comics in general) will grow. The economics of this whole thing have been widely debated, but what I'm wondering is how these movies affect the cultural standing of comics.

Look at it from this perspective; long before comic adaptations, Hollywood was adapting literary novels and plays. Shakepeare, Austen, Dickens, to name a few. But how long were these literary works in existence before the adaptations? This of course would depend upon its year of creation, and its relation to the invention of film and cinema. In the case of Dickens, this is a span of almost 100 years. For Shakspeare, almost 400. Regardless, long before their adaptations, each work had a good, long opportunity to establish itself for what it was. So, no matter how many adaptations of Hamlet there are, the original play will still be regarded as the real deal.

Comics, however, have not had this benefit. Almost from its popular inception in the first half of the twentieth century, comics became plucking grounds for companies to use for cartoons, movies, tv shows, and merchandise. In some cases, the creators of the comics had a hand in this, but in many more cases the creators saw their hands tied, and their rightful fortunes kept from them. Needless to say, the medium never really had a chance to establish itself in its own right. It was no matter that Superman began in the comics, soon his image was seen in a diverse array of media, so that the original comic source became in some sense inconsequential.

Jump ahead to the present day, and the standing of comics has admittedly improved. Independent creators have grown and thrived (although not economically in many cases), and have more control over the work they've done. Even the Big Two, DC and Marvel, have learned some lessons and have given creators more leeway and control (but not rights necessarily). And comics themselves, thanks to the work of R. Crumb, Chris Ware, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Scott McCloud, and many others, have gained a certain academic cache. But with the trend of cross pollination between media still strong, it seems difficult to ascertain when and how comics will be given its due in its own right, on its own terms. How many creators are there who can resist a film adaptation of their work, or for some, is this the actual goal? Is this necessarily wrong? What is the creator forsaking in her/his original comic work? Is economics the big factor, that an adaptation means more money, which means the creator can keep making comics, possibly making even better comics?

I wish I had answers to these questions, and I will admit, many of these ideas are fairly general. But I think it's all worth chewing over as comics moves ahead in the world, caught in the maelstorm with every other medium of art.

Tangents:
* Of course, it needs to be acknowledged that the creator of Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo, made both the comic and the anime version, with differences between both, and is serving as a producer on the American version. And the cross pollination of ideas within film between Japan and America, East and West, is nothing new. John Ford influenced Akira Kurosawa, as Kurosawa influenced George Lucas and Sergio Leone. Perhaps this new Akira will be one of those cases. Here's hoping, at the very least.

*Something dawned on me as I wrote this: perhaps this cross pollination of media is the future of a work of art. Perhaps there's no other way for a work to exist except to be a book and a movie, to be a comic and a cartoon and a live action film. Perhaps the walls between these media are becoming transparent and fluid, and the only way to exist is to exist as a multiple.

Alien Campfire

Been a while since we saw these guys...

Movie Illustrations

A couple illustrations, one that I've shown before, the other that is fresh. Here goes:

I posted the 'Juno' drawing a few posts back, and I've been playing around with the color ever since. People seem to prefer the sole figure at the top, but I've been throwing around ideas for some background design. After much gnashing of teeth, I decided on the plus signs below. Simple, but they also have a feature in the plot of the movie.
This one is a bit more formal, and I have no intention of adding color. The characters are H.W. and Daniel Plainview from P.T. Anderson's 'There Will Be Blood.' I wanted to creat a contrast between the two portraits, hence the greater use of shading on Plainview. The strongest feature for me was the cross-hatching on the clothing. I've employed it in the past, but this time it seemed to really work.