It’s always a pleasure seeing new, interesting blogs pop up about ephemeral aspects of comics. With L’Homme Dans La Foule, blogger Basil Sedbuk tries to trace the quite voluminous output of French artist Floc’h outside the confines of comics : illustrations, limited edition prints, magazine covers, the works.
I particularly liked the above cover for French magazine Monsieur, since it features a man in a suit and two suited up men.
Lyle Tucker spotted the above caption competition in this week’s issue of the New Yorker. And quickly found out what it reminded him from…
Art Spiegelman has provided the cover for the Spring 2008 issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review, which, as you see, also features new work by Chris Ware.
Never Been, a nine meter long wordless narrative scroll by Stuart Kolakovic, is now completely available online ! It’s a magnificent tale of loss and regret, beautifully rendered in Kolakovic’s trademark style, combining contemporary cartoon elements and references to traditional art from Eastern Europe.
What’s particularly interesting about this piece, is that it’s essentially one big drawing, in which the different frames that make up the narrative, are flawlessly meshed. Important turns in the story are accentuated by changing the visual direction of the art as well (reminiscent of Scott McCloud’s infinite canvas - Mr. McCloud’s influence is spreading, it would seem). In short, a beautiful piece, that I would very much like to own in hardcopy. Stuart, you know what to do !
I received a cute envelope today, containing one empty sheet of equally cute stationary paper designed by none other than Mr. Brian Biggs ! I felt like a schoolgirl, collecting Diddl sheets…
(images altered to protect the innocent and not-so-innocent alike - with thanks to the innocent you-know-who-you-are)
Issue 159 of the excellent (free !) Dutch comics review magazine Zozolala features an interesting interview with illustrator and cartoonist Peter Kuper. And on that occasion, Kuper provided the magazine with an exclusive cover illustration.
(ill. © Peter Kuper)
Austin Kleon is a cartoonist and poet from Austin, Texas who has a quite original and intriguing way of working. He takes a page from an existing book or newspaper article and blacks out words until he finds a new and hidden meaning in the text, using the block of text as a visual and poetic element, on a par with the actual words.
Some of the results are hilarioius, some are profound and even unsettling, but they are never bland or boring.
Now that Al Jaffee’s all the rage again, with the New York Times salute and all, I thought i’d be a good idea to illustrate his influence on many art forms with this video for the song Girl by Beck. Keep on the lookout for these fold-ins !
In 1923, cartoonist B. Knight, working under the monicker of Tack, compiled a few tips for aspiring cartoonists in a small booklet called Tack’s Cartoon Tips. Thanks to David Blog (and that’s his real name), we can all learn from him through a special Flickr set.
