The Ephemerist

Gabriel Gobrera Sastre is a Spanish illustrator and cartoonist who has an ongoing strip in the über-hip Ling Magazine (it’s so hip it ain’t got no website of its own). As sources of inspiration, he cites Charles Schulz, John Satanley (Little Lulu), Elsie Segar, Gary Taxali (obviously), but above all Seth and Chris Ware.

The strip above, which is one of the latest for Ling, explicitly is meant as a homage to Ware and Seth, who renewed and strengthened his interest in present comics. I quite like it, even though I haven’t got the faintest clue what’s going on - the page layout is very tight and inventive, and the dark and threatening atmosphere is very clear.

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From march 3 until march 30, the Freud Gallery (198 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8JL) presents the artwork from the Inkspot Monologues by Keith Pointing. In this book a dysfunctional relationship therapist uses the Rorschach blot test to help people come to terms with their unsuccessful romantic relationships. Their stories are told through words and pictures, with people’s personalities and more particularly more unsavoury treats are masterfully depicted using elaborated ink blots.

Even though the art is totally different from his “The Man Who” cartoons, these pictures reminded me of the work by H.M. Bateman, thanks to the way sparce pictures and text work together to very accurately pinpoint man in all his smallness.

Later this year, the stories will be published by the Friday Project. Click on for more examples.

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An unexpected piece of comics, from an undated edition of the Book Of Knowledge. It always strikes me that these days, you can’t tell whether you’re dealing with a piece of vintage illustration, or with a clever and ironic take on it by one of those new fangled “cartoonists”. If you don’t know the context, of course.

(thanks for this gem go, as ever, to Van)

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