Nov 28 2008

Sketchbook 11/28/08

Lately I’ve been doing a ton of either life drawing or drawing of hands and drapery from photographs, but spending too much time drawing from life to the detriment of drawing from imagination should be avoided just as much as the (more common) opposite situation.

So… I decided to do another “grid” page in my sketchbook as I do every once in a while.  In this case, I divided the page up, did a quick “contour scribble” in each panel in non-photo blue pencil, and then with ink tried to coax some sort of creature form out of each.  The bulk of these are pretty uninsipered, but I do like the rightmost creature in the third row.

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Nov 19 2008

The Jhonen Vasquez Comics Journal Interview… or Not

I just finished reading issue #292 of The Comics Journal–which features a fantastic interview with one of my favorite cartoonists, Kim Deitch–and noticed in the upcoming issues section that a scheduled interview with SLG’s Jhonen Vasquez appears to have disappeared without a trace.

From issue #291:

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Now, from issue #292:

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I guess if it’s been cancelled it may be a good thing.  I’m no theologian but I’m pretty sure that a Jhonen Vasquez interview in The Comics Journal is one of the seven signs of the apocalypse.

On the other hand, if it’s just been bumped to a later issue (which is most likely, I imagine) I guess we can assume–based on Jhonen’s quote below from an older Suicide Girls interview–that he’s finally completed his autobiographical GN about making a sandwich:

DRE: … It’s not like The Comics Journal ever talked about you.
JV: No those people would never come near me. They’d come near me if I was unknown, doing terribly and writing a very matter of fact series about my true life experiences making a sandwich.

Nov 19 2008

A Proposal: No More “Obama as F.D.R” Images, Please

The comparisons between Barack Obama and F.D.R. are obvious: a president taking office during a severe finanacial crisis who will likely institute a large government infrastructure-building program as part of the way out.  So, you can’t really blame folks for capitalizing on this visually.   On the other hand, these images seem to be nearing the “post-9/11 crying eagle” saturation point–and they’re, well, obvious; there’s really nothing to this visual metaphor other than that one point of comparison .  Maybe it’s time to move on…

Here are just a few exmples, culled just from stuff I had in my recycling bin:

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fdr_2

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Now, that’s not to say nothing good has come from all this.  That last image by Richard Thompson (and published in the New Yorker) is beautiful.

Nov 09 2008

Sketchbook 11/09/08

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Nov 07 2008

I’m a 2009 Eisner Judge

“Having read 5,000 comics in a single sitting to win a bet, this poor man suffered brain damage and appeared directly thereafter as – the Flaming Carrot!”

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Looks like I’ll be seeing if you really do turn into a Flaming Carrot as a result of reading tons and tons of comics in a short time period of time since I’ll be one of the judges for this year’s Eisner Awards!

In addition to me, the other judges this year are retailer Amanda Emmert (née Fisher), librarian Mike Pawuk, Diamond Books sales manager John Shableski, and editor/critic Andrew Wheeler.

Full details, bio info for each of us, etc., can all be found on the official Comic-Con site.