The Ephemerist » Comics

Yes, smurfs are blue…

sparehed — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:32:01 +0000

… and even more so if you apply spot coloring in your photo ! Incidentally, I love the Schleig Smurfs figurines – the fact that they have so much character makes them ideal for posing, as this photo proves.

(photo by Hans van Reenen via My Modern Met)

New at Griffioen

sparehed — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:21:39 +0000

Griffioen Grafiek, the Dutch purveyor of prime prints, announces new material on its site by Dutch illustrator Joost Swarte (above), Belgian cartoonist Judith Vanistendael and her French colleague Catel (below). More info @ Griffoen (in Dutch).

The Worm’s Eye View

sparehed — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:20:24 +0000

I’m a great fan of essays in comic format, and especially when they’re about comics themselves. The Worm’s Eye View To Comics is not a very lengthy work (it’s only five pages), but it does get to the point. It contains the ideas that Steve Whitaker and Mooncat used to teach to kids, but grown-ups can also learn a lot from it.

The leaflet is also available as a pdf download.

(via BugPowder)

M’enfin !

sparehed — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:07:24 +0000

In his regular strip series Les P’tits Monstres (The Little Monsters), French cartoonist Thierry Martin just posted this great hommage to everybody’s favorite office clerk, Gaston Lagaffe. Anybody who’s regularly among kids that have a steady videogames-comics-cartoons diet, will totally sympathize with this comic’s sentiment.

And no, I’m not going to translate the punchline. Learn French, parbleu !

It’s Panoramix !

sparehed — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:20:19 +0000

Lego wizard Michael Jasper has his peers puzzled with this scene of Panoramix brewing a potion. If you know how he does this, tell me !

(via the Brothers Brick)

A True Comic Opera

sparehed — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:52:22 +0000

On his blog, Canadian illustrator and cartoonist Michael Cho has published a few of the illustrations he made for the opera Les Aventures de Mme Merveille. This opera, written by Cecil Castellucci and currently getting geared up for production by the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal (premiere on May 6), represents quite a unique event, as it combines operatic music with comic book imagery :

Singing, illustrations, video projections and staging come together to recount four highly imaginative stories: The fight of a super heroine against the evil Mr. Dégoût, a fifties love story, the detective enquiry of François and his dog Pax and an interstellar combat.

Other cartoonists working on this production are fellow Canadians Pascal Girard, Scott Hepburn (who’s also published some previews from it on his blog) and Cameron Stewart.

I do hope the result will be broadcast in some way…

Sunshine Week uses comics

sparehed — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:21:02 +0000

Sunshine Week (March 14-20) is a “national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information” led by the American Society of News Editors. As part of its promotional toolkit, ASNE provides banners, buttons, logos, and also a printable awareness poster in comics format. Which is never a bad thing.

Beating insomnia with Roz Chast

sparehed — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:37:33 +0000

For the New York Times Opinionator topic All-Nighters (discussing all aspects of insomnia), New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast provided some advice in the form of a comic. She gets to sleep by doing a simple A-Z game :

I try to list various things from A to Z: countries, rock groups, prescription drugs, movies, books, celebrities whose first and last names begin with the same letter… you get the idea. I don’t mind repeating categories from one night to another. Diseases might seem to be an unlikely insomnia game category, but for some reason, it’s one of my favorites.

(Illustration by Roz Chast, with thanks to Mike)

Batman Blues

sparehed — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:46:43 +0000

Just dig the cool sleeve on this blues compilation from 1969. The man dressed as Batman is supposed to be legendary blues producer Mike Vernon. And what a line-up !

Sala covers beware

sparehed — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:52:46 +0000

I’m not one for using contemporary slang, but OMG ! Robert Goodin just got Richard Sala to join the Covered project with a reworking of Beware #7 (Trojan Magazines, 1954). It’s a great cover, that sticks very closely to the original while at the same time is vintage Sala.