[comics] What We're Still Loving: The Helm

3265.

We're a bit late to the party on this one. But we stumbled on it in meeting a wholly witty person. Therein lies the tale.

During OryCon last, we stumbled upon a man billing himself as J.R.R.R. Hardison. Little did we know. He was promoting a book … but I'll not get ahead of myself. To promote himself, he was distributing copies of the comic he wrote, The Helm (with heroic art and Frazetta cover homage by Bart Sears). I thumbed through it, and, as though by fate, a sequence hooked itself right into my cortex.

It's just after our main character … Mathew Blurdy … has gone through the worst part of his no-good, very bad, terrible day. Not only has his girlfriend dumped him, publicly and humiliatingly, at his place of work … a DVD rental shop … his inability to keep it together there immediately and subsequently cost him his job. A miserable mess, the now-unemployed, now-nodding-lonely, 30-year-old, overweight manchild manages to intersect with an eerie, almost-comically portentious garage sale. A whim draws him hither, where he meets the titular artifact, which calls to him in only a voice he can hear.

Mathew is the Chosen One. But The Helm's vision is cloudy, that day … and once it sees what doughy clay it has to work with, tries to reject him, all but saying I said GOOD DAY, sir! And, in the frame after, after the garage sale's equally-creepy proprietor (who figures mightily in a crucial way much later) tells him bluntly to put the merch down unless he intends to buy, a bronze, chiseled hunk of a brick house appears as though fated to be, and asks to look at a sword. The Helm, tellingly, speaks not to him.

The hunk so distracted, the chunk steals away with The Helm.

That, friends, the sort of deft comic timing I enjoy. The joke may not be complex, but the telling is timed like a precision time piece. And that's the sort of comic timing that made the comic worth the possessing.

I've read it many times since; if I was going to write about it, I want to do it justice, but the subtext that sticks with me is that Mathew Blurdy is terribly believable. He gets the superpower, he slowly learns to pay the cost; like most mortals, he certainly didn't genetically know what to do next and stumbles about with it like a 6-year-old kid who just got the keys to a Lamborghini. But somehow, chaotically, when the moment presents itself, he goes with his considerable gut and shows he has what he needs just when he needs it. He ends the adventure changed a little, but not significantly, and The Helm, realizing it's stuck with him, does the best that it can with what it has to work with.

Everything and everyone in this play is so perfectly imperfect.

It's that comic timing and grasp of the absurdity that is people that give me high hopes for Jim's upcoming novel, Fish Wielder. The wit of The Helm's writing shows an aptness for writing sharp satire. I don't think I'll be disappointed, but the wait … the book's due out in August of this year. But, if the story's good enough for Piers Anthony to glowingly recommend it, and if the comic's good enough for Harlan Ellison to be delighted by it, then it ought to be good enough for anyone.

Holy crap, Jim! You did all the LOLs!

Contact Jim on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jim.hardison.75

[comics] Modest Medusa Merch from Artist Alley

3211.

So in an earlier missive I promised I'd share some stuffs that I got from Artist Alley Comics Fest. Here's the first bit.

I've already declared my affection for Modest Medusa and so a big goal for me was to get something Modest. Jake Richmond was there (and I broke Chocodile bread with him, so that was pretty peak right there). He had a great deal of stuffs for sale, including all seasons of the story published so far (he breaks the narrative into TV-series-like 'seasons', which allows for story arcs and subplots which weave in and out of the world in that same way, which is very appealing). I was unable to purchase for now (his prices are wholly reasonable, it's my budget that isn't). But, as I said in an earlier post, there was all sorts of niftyness at all sorts of prices.

Here's what I scored from Jake:

Two 24-Hour Comic mini-comics and that spiffy promo card. The two mini-comics will hold me until I get his bigger books. They are two sweet and silly snake-girl stories that can't help but make me smile.

The first, simply titled 24-Hour Comic, is just that – 24 hour in the life of Modest and Jake, one hour per panel. She eats noodles for lunch, hangs out with Jake and his comicking buddies, plays with MLP figurines, has fun drawing, and eventually goes to bed (under protest) … only to start it all over again. Anyone who's ever loved a kid, this'll speak to you.

The second, Taco Tuesday, is another 24-Hour Comic, and reveals what happens when the day-person Modest negotiates the acquisition of taco components given that … well, she really doesn't know what a taco is … 

My favorite exchange comes earlier in the day, when a telemarketer tries calling the Jake household only to get Modest on the phone …

Modest: "Hello?"
Caller:"Hi, is your dad home?"
M:"No. What's a taco?"
C:"Excuse me?"
M:"Do you know what a taco is?"
C:"A taco? Like the food?"
M:"Is it a restaurant food?"
C:"Ummm … yes, you can get tacos at restaurants."
M:"Okay. Goodbye!"

Modest muses this new information and then the telemarker calls back:

M:"Hello?"
C:"Uhhh, hello again. Is your mother home?"
M:"My mom is a snake."

That is some tight comedy writing. Its economy is its beauty, and what makes it funny.

Anyway, there's only two left of that one, and I got one of those two. So that makes me lucky, too.

More in a future post.

[comics] What We Saw At The First Artist Alley Comics Fest

3209.

Southeast Portland can hide things, tuck nifty things behind other nifty things. These things are worth the effort in finding.

Comic-cons, for instance. Oh, they're there. Hidden behind awesome little comic-cafes. I give you the corner of SE Powell Boulevard and 59th Avenue, on the border of South Tabor and FoPo.

This is a building containing a hair salon (The Phix), our comix cafe (The Spritely Bean), a print shop, and a good-bad-for-you food cafe (the mighty Steakadelphia). Behind, there, you see a tent or two peeking out? Why, yes you do. Let's explore, shall we?

When we get cross the wide, wide demesne that is SE Powell Boulevard, this is what we see.

This is the First Annual Artist Alley Comics Fest, presented by The Spritely Bean and supported by some worthy supporters, one of which be +Muse Art and Design . The artist alley, as I understand it to be, is an area of a comic-con where artists set up to sell, see, be seen, and meet fans and interested people. Much goodness for sale there. Being that this is set up in the parking lot behind Spritely Bean's building, it's like being in an alley, making this a true artist alley.

Well played, SB, well played.

One of the sponsors, Muse, sent along one of their people to rep the shop. This is one of them:

The tie of the day.

… our friend Vaughn Barker.  I've told you about Vaughn, the alter-ego of Valentine Barker here: http://zehnkatzen.blogspot.com/2015/03/pdxart-illustrator-vaughn-barkers.html, where you can go to find about about his awesomeness and his art and his general Zenitude, so he's worth your time. But this time, it's kinda about the tie.

That is one hell of a tie, man. Straight up.

The hair salon has the delightful name of The Phix. They had a backdrop up and they were showing off some of their work. We almost missed all of that pageant, as we showed a bit more than halfway through the afternoon, but we did see this fellow …

Character? Yes. Comic? No.

… who was as rockstar with his attitude as he was with his hair. Damned affable, too, as far as that goes.

Being tucked away in Southeast like it was, I was worried that there was going to be a gentle response. Adam and Huynh were taking a bit of a chance, I thought, and since I love, so far, everything they do, I was a little anxious for them.

I shouldn't have worried.

A person who's become a dear friend to me, +Donna Barr , creator of Stinz and The Desert Peach, proved that the tiny-con could work, and work well, even out at the end of the road. The Clallam Bay Comic Con, a small event, was none the less energetic, complete with dealer's room, panels, and a party. See here for her result: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2015/07/small-but-fierce-2015-clallam-bay.html.  The micro-cons are a boon because you can have all the creator-awesome without all the corp-overhead, and this is the sort of place where the indies can be the stars of the show.  Linework NW proved that it could shine as a vibrant smaller-sized, creator focused and driven event.

And now, AACF proves that small can be beautiful, gorgeous, amazing, and that tiny can have a big attitude. And nothing but indies! I'm going to show off individually what I got perforce, but there were big and small productions, and if you didn't come on over with a huge budget there were nifties, small comics, and things to get at a whole range of prices. There was brilliance available for a $20 and awesomness available for a $2 bill.

I'm sorry to say that I didn't get as many pictures as I could. Seen and enjoyed but not pictured:

Coffee. The Spritely Bean is a coffeehouse, of course, and Adam and Huynh's fine wares were available. I enjoyed two of their divine cold brew iced coffees, bold, velvety and just the thing for the über-humid afternoon. Also, macarons! I had heard about them, trendy as they are, but I'd never had any before then. EXQUISITE! Best cookie ever. Wife asked for a Italian soda, it was mint and came back Amalfi-style … it was like drinking a York peppermint pattie.

Jake Richmond. One of my more favorite recent discoveries is Modest Medusa, by Jake Richmond. Follow that link there for the skinny on the snake girl. I got to meet Jake and had the a great chat with him. He's part of a crew of SE Portland illustrators (Including Barry Deutsch and Ben Hsu) who were there en cartel, madly creative people who do work which tends to move into your mind and live there. He has a generous spirit and talked at length with me about his creation. There was also a Chocodile, which I consumed. Modest is right … they're quite tasty.

Brett Carville. I've also written about Brett, who is another recent favorite discovery of ours and just one of the nicest guys you'd want to meet. We'd seen him at Linework and it was amazing to see him here too. I got a look at something he's doing called Life of Craig, and I'll have more to write about that in another post in a few more days.

Donna Barr proved that you could have a comic-con anywhere. Linework NW proved that if you made it all about indies, it'll have meaning and velocity.

AACF proved that if you hold it … especially in Portland … they will come.

Hail, Eris.

[comic] What We're Liking: Modest Medusa

3167.

This one is for all the mistfits out there, or anyone who loves one. I qualify two ways there, so I'm smitten, and it's not a modest thing.

It is a Modest thing, though, and as far as that goes, meet Modest:

Just your normal 5-year-old girl, really. Loves Pokemons, Nintendo, and is a confirmed Chocodile addict. She loves manga and when she finally goes to school, is bewildered at the lack of magical girls there.  She's apprehensive about the world around her, but takes it on because, when you're five years old, what else are you going to do? She's got a mother and a father from different worlds (Dad's a vampire, Mom's a giant snake), and she finds herself in an incidental family somewhere in a place that vaguely resembles southeast Portland.

She's also a medusa. Which explains the snakey hair.

The strip, eponymously named Modest Medusa, has been running for four years now, debuting in January 2011. It traces the perambulations (if a little girl with a snake-body can be said to have such things) of a 5-year-old medusa girl who stumbles from her world into ours, rooked over here by a pair of mean-girl mermaids, and enters the world of her accidental father figure - a comic version of the artist, Portlander Jake Richmond - through his toilet.

His apartment waterlogged, he moves to another room, and as Modest stays, a completely different life. It has to be seen to be believed. In the four short years of the comic's life, it has swung between adventures heroic, fantastic and fatal and dryly humorous and banal but always with the viewpoint of a little kid just trying to figure out where she's going to fit in. Just like other little kids, her arrival causes tragic disruption (though in ways at times quite hazardous for her new friends).

Where Modest Medusa really shines out, though, is in a subtheme that's quite unexpected … and that takes the form of the reaction of the world around her. Here, the comic operates on an evolved level, because while other characters in the world do see that she is, in fact, a snake girl with snakes for hair, they seem to be little bothered by it. Like the characters in the Pooh stories who accepted Eeyore for what he was and loved him without trying to change him, adults and kids regard her as a little girl - and with her particular talent for winning friends, she soon finds some sort of place.

Jake Richmond has made her a kind of a totem for those us who just don't feel like we belong exactly anywhere but won't let that stop us. She's a fully realized character who finds herself in a world she didn't make.

I don't know about anybody else, but that speaks to me. In Modest's world, the gaze of a medusa won't turn you to stone, but she might melt your heart just a little.

GET IT: The comic is available in toto for you to read at ModestMedusa.com, (Facebook for Jake Richmond so you can be updated every MWF) and can be found in bound, very well-done book format at The Sprightly Bean comic cafe (Facebook). Jake Richmond is also part of Patreon, the website that allows people to actively support comic artists by becoming regular patrons of the artist.

[#art] All Over Coffee with Paul Madonna

3115.

Add this man to the list of artists without which I cannot do.

Paul Madonna is a SF-based artist who does one of the most singular comics out there. All Over Coffee is a impressionistic masterpiece, with moody, visually-delicious drawings of San Francisco street scenes with bits of text strewn within. The text itself is, at best, tangentially referential to the picture; the text seems to provide a sound track to what is happening within the picture, kinda. 

It's very subjective. You can imagine the text as someone thinking to themselves about something that something in the picture referenced; a snatch of a distant conversation heard by the person at the POV; or just text living in the picture.

It's the perfect blend of word and picture, forming a poetry and music of its own. Sometimes the words live within the picture, forming a grim, yet funny existential punchline.

Ultimately what a person sees within an All Over Coffee strip is what they find there; you will probably see what you bring to the experience. And, to be sure, the idea of putting only-vaguely-sequitur words with images is hardly something new or unusual. The way Madonna does it, though, is unique … though it defies embodiment in something as surly as mere words, it certainly is there. There's something approaching vulnerability there, the artist's vulnerability, his love of his hometown, and the pure liberating passion of drawing that make the series absolutely beguiling, and once seen, never to be forgotten.

I've lusted for Madonna's  first eponymously-named collection for quite some time, drawn in by the beguilement that cannot be quite expressed in print. Some weeks ago, I found a copy at Powell's, only to be disappointed that someone had razored-out a single page. Bad human! but at our last visit, last Sunday evening, there was a copy, at a price.

All Over Coffee is now mine to leaf through whenever I want. They have a copy at +Multnomah County Library, and I encourage any of you all to check it out when you can. There's a second volume of AOC collected, Everything Is Its Own Reward, which I shall lust over perforce.

[art] LineworkNW … The First Issue

3055.

In the middle of the day, yesterday, we took the time to visit LineworkNW … the premiere issue. It was dropped at Norse Hall, at the corner of NW 11th and Couch here in Portland, and my word, it was of a brilliance.

Comic and Illustration conventions have become huge business and überfashionable. As such they are usually located a)in places I can't usually get to and, even if I can get there, b)I can't afford 'em. Last year, Stumptown Comics Fest folded itself into the Rose City Comic Con, leaving a big hole for what makes Portland comic art so special and unique: heavily indie, madly and fiercely passionate, and intimate and approachable.

Enter LineworkNW: a 1-day festival, free to go to, easy to exhibit at, all about creators and the things they create and how they connect to the people who love the work they do … all the good things about Indiewood's culture, the stuff that made Portland popular to begin with.

We must never forget our roots.

Brief abashed confession here: I nearly didn't go. A moment to sing the Third Shift Blues: If I want to do anything nifty on Saturday, I wind up staying up more than 24 hours. This sort of schedule distortion has played havoc on many things, from my creative inspiration to some thought processes, I've become convinced; as The Wife™ and myself browsed the copies of Soylent News™in the Midland library, I was leaning toward going home and chilling out. But, in the A-and/or-E section mentioned LineworkNW, and The Wife™saw it, and insisted.

This is why my The Wife™ is awesome. When I run out of gumption, she gives me the kick.

So we decamped from the library, made an errand-stop on our way overtown, and, just before 5:00 PM, on an inordinately-pleasant Oregon spring afternoon, we came to the Norse Hall. Any doubts that LineworkNW was going to go over well were, if not dispelled by the news of the immense response, completely cast away by the traffic around that corner.

For a small festival, it was huge.

Parking our battered steed a full block and a half away (in a space that had opened up just a moment or two before), we walked over and entered.

Here I can tell you what the beauty of a one-day con is: if you get there half way through the day, and can only stay a little while, you don't feel like you're missing out. Every slice you take from this cake is good. Because, cake.

The exhibition floor was thronging, as you can see in these photos. So many people, you can scarcely see the merchandise for the crowd. Intimate doesn't begin to describe.

I was, as stated before, on the latter half of a very long day, so I can't give a complete rundown of all the awesomeness I saw there. But it was awesome. Creators were on hand to comment on all their work. There was Fantagraphics, there was Reading Frenzy (I think that's Chloe Eudaly there on the right of the photo, at the RF table), there was DarkHorse; there was Know Your City and their wonderful Oregon History Comics zine series (we got 3 more of them, my favorite was the Dead Freeways volume), Fantom Forest (I got the wonderful PDX/100 by Matt Sundstrom).

We had at $20 budget and still we found nifty stuff. We'd have bought most of that room if we could.

We could attend one panel as well. The title was Line/Work, and it was about creators and their creating.

From right; one of The Little Freinds of Printmaking, Bwana Spoons, The other of The Little Friends of Printmaking, moderator Jason Sturgill

It was a general talk on everyone's creative process, what they did to do what they did, which even touched on such things as why Portland instead of Los Angeles, and whether they preferred working out of the home versus a studio (my question. Surprisingly, the studio crowd outvoted the work-at-home crowd. It helps, apparently, to sharpen one against one's tribal fellows on a daily basis).

From right: Meg Hunt, BT Livermore, Kinoko

Sitting back absorbing this with the assistance of indulging in a Bitsburger Pils was a privation I was perfectly willing to bear up under.

Word is that they're going to do this yearly, and keep it small. Damn fine idea, I say. One of the things I have a problem with, in reclaiming my inner artist, is thinking that people who do this on a regular basis are some sort of elevated being, and I am not that being. Well, they are sensational people, but they aren't supernatural … they just do what they do and it's awesome. And they share what they know. And that's aspirational.

LineworkNW was brilliance, and I'm glad as hell someone did this. Thank you. I'm grateful.

[liff] Odds and Sods, Tax Time Edition

3051.

Some neato stuff I want to write about but can't because they speak just fine for themselves:

• The tao of hand lettering, from some pros: http://www.creativebloq.com/typography/hand-drawn-type-41411275
• The natural history, and geology, of Westeros, at Generation Anthropocene: http://www.stanford.edu/group/anthropocene/cgi-bin/wordpress/category/game-of-thrones/ … it's not Karen Wynn Fonstad, but it'll do until the next one of her ilk comes along.
• Paul Madonna, because Paul Madonna. We need no other reason. All Over Coffee: https://www.paulmadonna.com/all_over_coffee/

[Toon] Sprial Notebook Comics: A Look Behind The Scenes

3002.

One of the happier things I've seen lately is what John E. Williams does called 'Spiral Notebook Comics'. They double down on the creativity and the funny by being very spare, straight-to-the-paper, and close-to-the-inspiration.

From what has to be a very brief laying-out, the ballpoint goes right out to the paper. I fancy that this makes the route from inspiration to drawing that much shorter. There's a rawness that makes these little drawings memorable, and preserves John's dry, acid wit.

John's done us a solid by putting up a blog posting showing what he called 'outtakes' to his holiday story about Lucy. Here's one:

I adore WIPs, as I've tiresomely endlessly repeated. But there's a reason. I find them just as interesting, in an ineffable way, as finished works. I would have loved to see Michelangelo's sketches for the Mona Lisa.

See the rest of John's outtakes at

http://spiralnotebookcomics.blogspot.com/2014/01/lucy-outtakes.html

[comic art] How To Draw A Male Manga Face

2801Mark Crilley has an approach to manga that results in a look I like quite a lot … a face with realistic aspects but that visually-addicting manga style. This is from a series of very easy-to-follow manga tutorials on his YouTube channel.

[comic art] Creating A Dystopian-Future Comic Book Cover

2801 (Via Dark Horse Comics at the Book'o'Face) The Massive is a dystopian near-future comic series coming soon that is supposed to take place in an environment where the the race between global climate change has ended, and global climate change has won. There are previews available here and about.

The cover art, like any great comic cover art, hooks you in.

In this article at iO9, Brian Wood takes us through the creative process that led to that cover.

[comics] Archie Comics #636, Where Girls Will Be Boys, and …

2800You can probably finish the title yourself.

I'm amused that, amongst all the people or things that are bravely (or accidentally, even) leading us into the future, Archie comics would be one. When I was growing up, of course, Archie was fun, but conventional, safe … and rather boring. While the visual style has always been engaging, as time went on the impression I got was of something that didn't require too much skill. I imagined that Archie characters weren't so much drawn as assembled.

But within the last year, Archie has taken what is, for me, an unexpected place at the front of the changing times. But then, what does popular art do but reflect the times, if it does anything worthwhile at all? So, last year, we had two important supporting gay characters get married, something which stirred up its own controversy. And now, Archie's going all Freaky Friday on us.

According to this article at gay.net (http://www.gay.net/hot-reads/2012/04/19/archie-gang-goes-gender-bender), as the story apparently goes, the male side of the gang and the female side of the gang get into a big argument about who has it easier … so Sabrina, The Teenage Witch (and her kitteh) decide to change everything up so that each other gets to see for sure.

What got me about the whole thing though was the art. There's something subtly different about the cover art (see the link). The standard Archie kit is all there, but it's somehow more accomplished. Of course, Veronica is adorable in that cute mini-dress (that said, I've always been a Betty partisan. I liked Mary Ann over Ginger, for what that's predictably worth), but one of the keys to a winning comic is drawings you like to look at (as Charles Schultz alluded to when he commented on Calvin and Hobbes) and these two cover arts are comic arts I enjoy looking at. The burger-munchery on the part of Jughead was a little gratuitous, and I still wonder how Archie gets those grid-prints in his hair, but the indignant look on Betty's face is one for the books, and the irritation between Archie and Veronica is the most real emotion I've seen in a long time from any Archie comic.

Despite the adventure, some things remain ere the same; on the cover of the swtiched (see the link) identities, "Archina" (argh!) is still the meat in the "Ronnie"-"Billy" sandwich. But that's all they're tipping thier hats to.

Archie #636 is scheduled to hit the newsstands in August, so we'll all have to wait until then.

[comics] A Look At The New Little, Brown Tintin Graphic Novel Covers! (SOPA-Compliant)

2757.Good news, fellow Tintin fans! As far as I'm concerned (and I'm sure I'll get no disagreement here), a rerelease of the Tintin stories has been a needful thing for far too long. I just found, via Facebook, that several Tintin albums are getting the graphic-novel treatment and will be released again soon. I don't know if this means the format of the pages will change, I suppose that can go either way) but it's got to be some kind of good news.

I've gotten a look at some of the covers, and I like them muchly. Here they are:

I'm looking forward to them, aren't you?

Yeah, I knew ya were.

[comics] How iSteve Ruined Comics

2704.(via Gizmodo) Well, iSteve didn't ruin comics, per se, but Apple, with it's dead-brilliant design regime, have made technology that was once easily renderable … such as the phone, the TV, and such - so subtly designed that, when they're used, they need almost as much exposition as a supporting character:

Compare with the idea off a man getting outraged at a magazine or newspaper article. You don't need to be told what that is. This? Why is that tiny replica of the 2001 monolith making that monkey so angry?

The subtle, usually elegant design regime inspired by the Apple iLine of, oh, just about everything, has created articles that are beginning to require entire new ways of storytelling, causing a sort of evolution in comics. Just how do you tell a story with props that, depending on the context, need to have their stories told before you know what they and what the characters are doing with the small oblong objects that could be, well, just about anything?

Tom Pappalardo asks the question in the article Cartooning vs Technology: How Steve Jobs Ruined Comics … but he's trying to make a point with that title. He don't really hate iSteve, or the toys he created. But it's a smart, funny article that asks a good question.

[comic art] Everyone's A Critic!

2651.And here's the dogpile on one Rob Liefield, who has a certain sense of style most other comic artists tend to shy away from.

Upside: He founded Image Comics.

Downside: Well, this, pretty much.

[art] Comic Character Development

2367.

After sharing that last with me and the rest of his Twitter stream, @raydred shared a little character development sketch that he was a little scoff-y about but which I found quite nifty indeed. Here:

This is good for the same reason Tony Millionaire's work is good. Raydred is, in a Millionaire-esque way, in charge of his medium, and it shows in every line he draws. This, though sketch-y, shows a confidence and command that seems to come out of the drawing at me, and makes me want to look.

Technorati Tags: Raydred, comic art, creativity, comic character development

[cartoon art] Everywhere I Look, I See Your Face ...

2323.One thing I remember Scott McCloud hinting on in one of his amazing books on comics is demonstrated very well here, with this picture from a blog I stumbled on, Emilia's Illustrated Blog (used with permission):

There's a lot to like about the illustration. The ladies thereon are simply very very pretty. The outfits are stylish and executed well. The drawings are, dare one says, sexy. But there's one surprising thing that might not stick out, and I'll give you all a closeup so you can see (if this missive's title didn't give it away):

You've caught it now if you've noticed that, aside from a different set of eyebrows on one and a redder shade of lips on same that the four faces are, in fact the same face. The girls are quadruplets!

This can be a very effective shortcut for the illustrator wanting to 'people' an illustration. I don't know about anyone else viewing the complete illustration, there's enough going on in the illustration that the similarities in the faces aren't immediately apparent.

This of course doesn't take away from the fact that the illustrator is rather talented. If you look around on her blog, you will see that she has the mad skillz. If you think of it as a tool, then there's simply an appropriate use, and this is the epitome of an appropriate use. I wouldn't base a comic strip on it, for instance, but as an illustrator's tool, it's magnificent.

The whole point is that the prospect of drawing multiple people – and a person is about the hardest thing you can draw realistically – can be intimidating. McCloud pointed out in one of his books (Making Comics, I think it was), essentially, that the range of things a face can do can be represented with a limited set of things. An open mouth can mean talking, yelling, yawning, and it kind of depends on the context. The four ladies above seem entirely different people – but it all has to do with the context: the hairstyles, the dresses, even the attitudes one reads into them.

Moreover, Emilia's use of this tool shows an understanding of the fundamentals of illustration design that only a true pro would aspire to.

Understand your context, and the proper tool will usually present itself.

Technorati Tags: Illustration, digital illustration

[comic art] Why I Admire Barry Deutsch

2322.This illustration of Mirka's family from Hereville is a good example of why I admire his work so much:

It's hard to argue that there's true talent when such simple lines can weave such an emotional story in one single panel.

It doesn't matter what kind of family you grew up in … if you grew up in a family, and that includes most of us, this will resonate with you. It's human.

• Read and Visit: Barry Deutsch's Hereville: http://www.hereville.com/
• Visit: Alas, A Blog: http://www.amptoons.com/blog/

Technorati Tags: art, comic art, Barry Deutsch, Hereville, Amptoons

[comics] Phil Foglio: "Girl Genius" Free Via The Web?

2318.Well, it is something that many might do, and some might succeed at, but of all the comic artists I've liked over the years, only Phil Foglio can do it as though he always knew the way it was supposed to be done, as he highlights here, in conversation with Brigid Alverson at the Robot 6 division of the Comic Book Resources website:

Girl Genius was an established book. We put out 14 issues as a comic book periodical. It came out on a regular basis, and as an independent comic book goes, it was doing pretty darn well: We were selling, like 9,000 copies. About a third of them we were selling retail, off of our website or at conventions, the other two-thirds we were selling through distributors like Diamond. In 2005 we just stopped printing the comics, and we took this already established property that we had been selling for money and put it online for free and said no firewall, no subscriptions, no nothing—we are giving it away.

…

First of all, printing comic books is expensive. I figured that by not having to do the comic book we were saving close to $20,000 a year. When you lay out a comic book and then lay out a graphic novel, it’s two entirely different jobs. You have to do it all over again. All we do now is sell the collections. Also, printing the comic was really expensive, and we were in a cash crunch at a particular time and we were like, “Is this really worth it?”

And thirdly, for years people had been coming up to me and saying “I would like to get into comics” and I had been saying “Screw comics. Do a webcomic. It’s the wave of the future and your production costs are super low,” and eventually I realized that instead of just giving this advice I should take it.

A lot of the success of Girl Genius I think could only have been done by a person like myself who had a long career building up an established name and being in independent publishing, because that meant I was publishing my own books. So when Girl Genius went online, we were able to sell people Girl Genius books from day one, whereas almost everybody, who starts a webcomic has to collect material before they get a book. It takes them sometimes up to two years before they can begin to monetize our core product. We went in with a functioning store, and all we had to do was say “Like it? Buy it now.”

I've seen a lot of opinion (and mockery) of those who choose the web comic route. There is one thing, however; as divine as I think printed 'zines are, the economics of web comics are such that all you need is an online connection and they're up. There are some costs, but when you look at it as a value-based proposition rather than from a price POV (not that that isn't important but someties it's a flawed perspective) it can stand to be a huge winner.

Phil's got something on all of us aspiring web-comickers though, and it's not just an undoubted talent – it's the strength of a brand. Phil's famous for wry, clever humor, a delicious visual style, and an sense of adventure that's taken him credibly from role-playing gaming (What's New with Phil and Dixie, sometimes the only reason to pick up the late TSR's periodical Dragon Magazine), through fantasy (Asprin's Myth Adventures), satirical Pythonesque SF (Buck Godot) and to a comic that, for me, redefines steampunk (Girl Genius). When you get something with Phil Foglio on the cover, you simply know you're going to be entertained. When you combine that with the Studio Foglio's aggregate talent, Phil and Kaja's publishing knowledge and his history, you've got an unbeatable brand. It almost can't lose.

If you want to become famous and make a few bucks from your comics, then, start making your reputation now, if you haven't already, and if all you can do is put 'em on the web, put 'em on the web. We have to make some step.

Read: Girl Genius by surfing to http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
Visit: Studio Foglio by surfing to http://www.studiofoglio.com/

Technorati Tags: branding, Phil Foglio, business of design, web comics, comic art, cartoonists, Girl Genius

[comics] Why Joe Sacco Prefers PDX

2289.Joe Sacco, awesome globetrotting comic artist that he is, keeps coming back to quiet, nothing-ever-happens-here PDX.

I've always wondered why myself, and with all this foofaraw about the so-called creative class, it's a good question, I think. So, why does someone who could pretty much carve his niche anywhere he wants continually return to this our cozy little town? PMerc tells you:

But I came back about six years ago or maybe seven years ago to finish this book. Because I was living in Europe at the time and I was thinking, "What's the next city I want to live in?" I just needed to be in a place where I know I can work and I will have as many distractions as I want, not too few necessarily—it's not like New York where you're just distracted endlessly. Portland's a place where you can hear yourself think.

So he comes back to Portland because this is little old, quite, nothing-ever-happens-here PDX.

Technorati Tags: Joe Sacco, PDX, Comic Artists, Portland

[comic art] The Tintin Sketchbook

2257.There be lots of Tintins here.

And Snowys. And Thom(p)sons. And Haddocks. Even a Thompson Triplet. Sadly, no Bianca Castafiore, Professor Calculus, or even Jollyon Wagg. You can't have it all.

(Update: I have been apprised, by gallery owner Leigh Walton, that there are indeed at least one Castafiore and a couple of Calculuses (?). Next time, I should be more thorough)

But, there are not only about 100 Tintins/Snowys/Haddocks/Thom(p)sons, there are many interpretations. I particularly enjoy the one I've chosen to illustrate, by artist David Chelsea, since I'm also terribly besotted with Magritte.

From the Flickr description:

Hi, I'm Leigh from Top Shelf. This is a themed sketchbook I started collecting at San Diego Comic-Con 2008. The theme is Herge's Tintin -- any character from the series. So far I've filled up one whole book and moved into a second volume...

100 interesting departures (including a graphic-novel-style realistic Tintin I quite enjoyed can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/phthoggos/sets/72157606566029871/

Go see it.

Technorati Tags: art, comics, comic art, Tintin