| Set to Sea p. 47 |
[Dec. 28th, 2009|01:14 pm] |
Hope y'all had a good Christmas, if you're into that.
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| Who Killed Arnold Stang? |
[Dec. 28th, 2009|07:38 am] |
Sad to hear last week about the death of Arnold Stang, voice of Top Cat (among others). His lifestyle of wild sex, drugs and alcohol finally took its toll at 91. |
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| Merry holidays! |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|12:08 am] |
Happy whatever holiday you choose! It just so happens one of my personal favorites of my journal comics is up today. |
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| ...And for the record, Josie > Archie & His Pals > Josie & The Pussycats |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|10:57 am] |
I've recently been reading some of the late Sixties' Archie Publications comics, specifically the early Josie series. I'm not particularly a fan of ... well, just about any teen comic, really, and the Archie family is no real exception. There's a period which begins in fits and starts around 1958, peaks around 1968, and which is gone, gone, gone by 1971 where Archie - if just for the quality of the art - was really notable, and those are what I've been lately perusing.
Dan DeCarlo (and, eventually, the trio of Dan and his twin sons) was the artistic core of these books, the elder DeCarlo specifically being known for his energetic good girl art. Josie's the best of the endless teen comedies DeCarlo and the rest of the Archie Publications crew turned out during this period (for other publishers, even), and the one which received the best flourishes from DeCarlo ...
So, flipping through 1968's Josie #38, I was delighted to come across this charming cameo in a story featuring the (unfortunately typical for the era) stereotypically ditzy blonde bombshell Melody and her anonymous cadre of dumbfounded admirers ...
    
Did I mention that DeCarlo based the character Josie on his longtime wife? Thus I declare that this is adorable... |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|08:22 am] |
Hey Jerks1! Still stuck at work with little or nothing to do? Here's some more time-killers from the best of the latter half of the year's worth of my Livejournal!
Hey, you know what I did on the way to work? Picking up breakfast at the supermarket, I also got a wheel of President brand "Wee Brie", tiny wedges of processed brie. I did this because I thought it was funny. Then I ate some. It's not funny anymore.
MURRAY CRISSMUSS!
1I'm sorry, that was rude, I meant to say "Hey Jerk-ASSES"... |
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| Remix! |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|12:15 am] |
 So, I accidentally opened my work-in-progress cover spread for Cavemen in Space in Preview instead of Photoshop, and this is how it turned out! Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, I guess this is my way of publicly noting that I'm still working on CiS, planning on having it see print in 2010. More about that in a week or two. Also, the guys at Monster Isle want to wish you "Happy Holidays!" Hope everyone is well as the year draws to a close. See you next year! |
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| Best of Me, 2009 ... |
[Dec. 22nd, 2009|08:52 am] |
Hey folks! Stuck at work for the holiday week? Me too! Want something to pass the mortal hours until the bell rings and you can get out of there? Well, you're in luck, it's time again for one of those damn summaries of the highlights of my Livejournal 2009! So, why not while away the hours with ...
And that'll take us through the end of June, enjoy yourself and there'll be more tomorrow, true believers! |
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| Set to Sea p. 46 |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|04:37 pm] |
We drove all over town the other night looking for a cheap Christmas tree, but every place was wiped out! Then yesterday our amazing friends showed up at our door with a tree in tow! They are good people. |
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| Doodles 12/20 ... |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|08:01 am] |
Loosening up before a marathon drawing session with pencil and colored marker on colored cardstock ... |
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| POW! |
[Dec. 18th, 2009|09:46 am] |
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| Set to Sea p. 45 |
[Dec. 18th, 2009|01:24 pm] |
If you've ever wondered what American-style English sounds like to non-speakers - the actual sound and flow of it, without the content - this Italian "pop song" is probably as close as you're going to get without some sort of terrible brain trauma. Also, the song is pretty great, it wouldn't sound out of place on that "Nuggets" anthology.
Quiet times around here. Eleanor's working hard getting pieces together for a joint Giant Robot art show she's doing in January. I'm plugging away on Set to Sea. We've been drinking lots of hot toddys in these cold and rainy days.
Yeesh, Christmas is sneaking up on me fast. Time to declare war on this here Christmas.
Currently reading: To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf)
Currently listening: Fear and Whiskey (Mekons)/The Age of Faith (Will Durant audiobook) |
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| #20-21, Best Comics of the Decade... |
[Dec. 17th, 2009|08:40 am] |
Chicken with Plums
Pantheon Books (Marjane Satrapi) 2006
Wikipedia Article
I know, you’re probably asking “If you're going to pick a Marjane Satrapi book, why not pick Persepolis?” Well, I enjoyed Persepolis, and I think it’s a very important work, but I frankly found this relatively unacknowledged work (although it has a film version in the works, evidently) of artistry, love, loss and depression to be the tighter narrative and the more emotionally evocative. Mind you, I don't want to take anything away from Persepolis - or really any of Satrapi's work, which may vary in affect and quality but which is uniformly worth reading - but I also felt that it was very dependent on lessons learned from David B, where Chicken with Plums possesses much more of the independent voice of the author.
Chicken With Plums
Isaac The Pirate
Comics Lit (Christophe Blain) 2003-present
The very little-known French import has collected the first four chapters of Blain's piracy picaresque, a darkly funny and tumultuous story where the menace both to the deceptively eponymous Isaac is both ominously real in terms physical and moral. It's the illustrations which are the primary strength of the series, expressive chiaroscuro expanses where buildings seem to loom heavy with cat-scratch shadows and figures come up drenched from pools of darkness. The conclusion is still forthcoming, but so far it's one of the most impressive books I've come across this decade.
Isaac the Pirate: To Exotic Lands
Isaac the Pirate: The Capital
So, my list was, in no particular order:
- All-Star Superman
- Asterios Polyp
- American Virgin
- The Book of Genesis
- The Complete Peanuts
- Daredevil Vol 2
- Lone Wolf and Cub
- The Will Eisner Omnibus
- Homunculus
- Hellboy
- Epileptic
- The Golem's Mighty Swing
- Blankets
- David Boring
- Army@Love
- Plastic Man
- Popeye
- Scott Pilgrim
- Black Hole
- Chicken With Plums
- Isaac the Pirate
I had to leave out at least a half-dozen books I'd have loved to included, but nonetheless, there's my list. You may now proceed to yell at me for having dumb choices... |
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| Set to Sea p. 44 |
[Dec. 16th, 2009|11:59 am] |
I'm going to post up S2S three times a week for a while, since I've missed so many days recently.
Secret Science Alliance may be sold out on Amazon right now (they're bringing out a 2nd printing, but it probably wn't hit stores till January) but if you need it for Christmas and have a spare $161.84, this guy can hit you up on Ebay! And holy crap, someone on Amazon's trying to get $130.05 for a used copy! Who are these people? |
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| Gruff! |
[Dec. 16th, 2009|09:06 pm] |
Hey, everyone. Sorry for the ever infrequent posts. I've either been working on comics...or I've just been too lazy to post. BUT here's a page from my last issue of Gruff (without the lettering). This is from chapter three. I'm currently working on chapter 4 as you read this. I've thumbnailed out the entire 25 pages of chapter 4 and have already written chapter 5. I think I will collect the first three or four chapters in one book to sell at the cons next year.
If you're interested in picking up any of the first four chapters just drop me a line in the comments. I will gladly give you my comics for money. I can then use the money for food or other fun things. Thanks! |
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| Deathly Pale Ale |
[Dec. 15th, 2009|06:46 pm] |
A little late, from this past Halloween. Before we went on our parade, we had some fun drawing labels for this pale ale I had just brewed. I wanted to document them before I scraped them off the bottles. Most of these were drawn by David Mack, Aaron Fu, or the lovely Eleanor Davis.
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