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 !
I’ve never heard of this band, but judging from the Frank Frazetta sleeve design, I can pretty well imagine what it sounds like…
Yesterday we took the kids to an afternoon performance by song-and-dance-man Jan De Smet (as a life-long Dylan fan, he won’t mind me calling him that) and cartoonist Kim Duchateau. Jan played songs on his multitude of instruments : mostly translations of Woody Guthrie’s children’s songs, but also song from his own repertoire. Meanwhile, Kim provided live wacky illustrations.
It was pretty impressive to see how the two of them improvised and played together, considering that this was the frist time they did this. I liked the way every drawing was ready by the time the song was inished, and vice versa.
The one that shan’t be named found these illustrations by Bill Watterson of Calvin And Hobbes fame, for tapes by his brother Tom’s band, The Rels. The designs are signed “Fang Wampire”, which is adequately weird.
Check out Rare Bill Watterson Art for more, indeed, rare Watterson doodles and designs, such as the rather revealing look into his creative process, below.
I’d never seen this album cover by Robert Crumb before, and it sure made my day.
(from Little Hokum Rag)
The One That Is Not Mentioned sent me a few nice examples of music-themed illustrations that appeared in the New Yorker last year. At the very least, this introduced me to the work of two illustrators that I wasn’t aware of before. The lively arts houses above are by Brazilian illustrator Fido Nesti and were published in the June 4 issue. The images below were created by Dan “Ghostshrimp” James and appeared in the April 2 and May 28 issue respectively. Neat !
By the way, I happened to see the Dirty Dozen Brass Band perform live last year, and they truly blew the roof off the house. Highly recommended !
[youtube width="500" height="418"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCdVdWlLnZo[/youtube]At last year’s Turnhout comics festival, Dutch singer-songwriter Spinvis performed on stage with a real pantheon of Dutch and Belgian comics artists. On the video, you hear Nagemaakte Gek (Counterfeit Crazy), with artistic support by Hanco Kolk. It wasn’t the first time the two met up on stage : during the Strips In Stereo event in Amsterdam in 2006 Kolk illustrated a rendition of Spinvis’ song Voor ik vergeet (Before I forget).
More videos after the break. Even if you don’t understand Dutch, the music is amazing.
While waiting to post some christmas cards, I picked up these new Duostamps from my local post office. Duostamps are typically standard value stamps that have a second stamp attached with a certain topical image. In this case, from left to right, the following themes are used :
These stamps are available from Belgian post offices, and (most probably) also on the De Post Eshop. (Smurfs © Peyo; Totor, Leo et Lea, Quick et Flupke, Jo et Zette and Tintin © Moulinsart)
In 1975 British prog rockers Pink Floyd were in their youthful heydays. Flying pigs and clashing egos were still a long way away, and punk, which would denounce their experimental and long-winded music as derivative, self-obsessed and elitist, was still an idea in the head of a very keen shop owner. Pink Floyd was subversive, and young, and hip with the times.
And so, to keep up with those times, they presented the programme for their 1975 tour in the form of an underground comic. Each of the band members have their own strip : Roger Waters is a Roy Of The Rovers clone, Nick Mason is a sturdy captain taking on WWII U-boats, Richard Wright may as well have stepped out of a Spain Rodriguez cartoon and Dave Gilmour is a poor-man’s Evel Knievel. There’s even a Gerald Scarfe center spread !
Enjoy (and thanks to the scanner who provided us with this gem) !
(update - according to JazJaz, this post is NSFW, so you’re warned)
