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Your PShaw! for the day.

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In the spirit of hope (and commerce) PictureBox is holding a massive, two-week sale on nearly everything on our web site! It’s a cold world out there, but what better way to pass the time than curling up with a visual book! Each book is a stimulus package for the soul! Plus every purchase from now (January 16) until February 1 will include a FREE copy of Paper Rad’s DVD Problem Solvers.

So, here we go:

* Been curious about Overspray: Riding High with the Kings of California Airbrush Art? This masterpiece has been lauded by everyone from Women’s Wear Daily to the New York Times to Eye Magazine, and it can be yours for just $20!

* Ever wondered about who made the best record covers of the 1970s? In awe of Houses of the Holy, Dark Side of the Moon and Electric Warrior? No need to be frightened, for all will be revealed by buying For the Love of Vinyl: The Album Art of Hipgnosis. It, too, can be yours for $20!

* Beguiled by mythical trappings and enamored of contemporary art and writing by my generation’s best imaginations? Then dig into Trinie Dalton’s MYTHTYM for just $15! It’s like going to a museum, reading the best book ever written, and watching a movie all at the same time!

* Curious about the book about which the New York Times exclaimed: “Few cartoonists of the moment are weirder or more original than Yuichi Yokoyama – his work obsessively diagrams architecture and design … Travel is remarkably entertaining.” Travel can now be yours for just $9.95!

* Want to dip into a graphic novel on nearly ever top ten of ‘08 list? Interested in Dune? Philip K. Dick? What about masterful drawing? Well, my friend, check out C.F.’s Powr Mastrs 2, now just $10!

* And then there’s Monster Men Bureiko Lullaby! The Village Voice crows: “By depicting human behavior at its worst, Nemoto recalibrates the limits of what we can bear to consider on a page of comics.” Damn straight. Yours for $8.95!

* Many consider Lauren Weinstein’s The Goddess of War a shortform masterpiece of graphic storytelling. I sure do! Richard Gehr calls it a “A blend of Marvel’s Thor comic, a Wagnerian space opera, and Anthony Mann’s Westerns” Sounds right to me! Yours for just $7.95!

* And, good heavens, where else can you find Michel Gondry’s visionary memoir/manifesto/guru-text You’ll Like This Film Because You’re In It? The man is a genius, and the book is a helluva a lot of fun to read. Inspirational and educational too! Now just $6.95!

* Wait a minute, what about The Ganzfeld 7? Co-edited and designed by Paper Rad’s Ben Jones, this final issue actually elicited an email from one notoriously cranky woman stating “It’s the best thing ever! And I’m not even stoned!” Yours for just $25.00!

* I know you’ve been wanting to buy Gary Panter, which remains PictureBox’s finest hour, but needed to first purchase a pedestal to hold its 10 pound weight. Now you can, since it’s just $30!!!!!

* All of these books, not to mention our older, equally remarkable books, like Frank Santoro’s Storeyville (just $8.95), Brian Chippendale’s Maggots (just $8.00), Cheryl Dunn’s Some Kinda Vocation (just $8.00) and Paper Rad’s Cartoon Workshop/Pig Tales (just $6.95) are all on sale. Not to mention prints, posters and much much more. Get down with it!

* And remember, PictureBox wants you to have these books because we have your best interests at heart!

This sale will self-destruct on February 1.

Happy hunting.

Love,

PictureBox

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A Brit adrift in Japan has reported back to me. Mr. Jon Chandler, a fine cartoonist in his own right, sent me a link to these unbelievable photos he took of Yuichi Yokoyama doing a live painting demonstration a few days ago. Follow the link and pick your jaw off the floor. Thanks, Jon.

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Richard Gehr casts his eyes to the gutter this week in the Village Voice and finds (besides Tim’s own Gorey find) Monster Men Bureiko Lullaby. He notes that “By depicting human behavior at its worst, Nemoto recalibrates the limits of what we can bear to consider on a page of comics.” Damn straight. I have to admit, aside from my own publisher-like needs, as a critic I feel like Monster Men was criminally overlooked in 2008. With the release of this book and Hanakuma’s Tokyo Zombie we’ve gotten our first North American look at two of the seminal alternative Japanese graphics novels of the last 20 years. There have been anthologies, but never full length works. It’s a funny thing — but perhaps not unexpected — as though Jimbo and Black Hole were released in another language and more or less ignored. What do these two books say about the form? And lurking in the background is that both emerge from King Terry‘s formulation of Heta-Uma as a valid way to make comics — that this bad/good style is arguably a dominant one in the Japanese underground is worthy of notice. Terry, in fact, has packaged both artists works, and designed the North American Nemoto book as well. As far as I can tell, he’s exerted an influence similar to that of Art Spiegelman (editor/packager/mentor) on the Raw generation. I hope there’s room for more material, but I wonder if the sales will make it feasible. They’re not easy reads (well, Hanakuma is easier than Nemoto, but still…) Remember, there’s a trove of material corresponding to our own 30-odd year history of alternative comics, and a tiny, tiny fraction of it has been shown here. I imagine Top Shelf’s Ax anthology will help remedy that, and of course the mighty D&Q continues to shine light on unseen parts of Manga history. Anyhow, all of this is to say that I’d selfishly love to see an article about all of this by a writer far better informed than I am. So, get on it already!

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Ray Yoshida: “Comic Book Specimen – #2 – Right Profile,” 1968

Ray Yoshida: “After an hour,” 1968

I got a rather sad email this afternoon. Ray Yoshida, a crucial figure in the birth of the Hairy Who and their colleagues in mid-late 1960s Chicago art, passed away a few days ago after a sustained illness. He was 78. As an instructor at the Art Institute, Yoshida taught the likes of Roger Brown and Christina Ramberg, and was an older contemporary and champion of Jim Nutt, Gladys Nilsson, and Karl Wirsum, among others. He is credited with being a force for cohesion amongst the artists of the time, as well as an early supporter. His own work, beautifully redered paintings that bring figuration close to pattern-making and abstraction, and luminous, jigsaw puzzle-like collages, is also extremely powerful and important. I never met Yoshida, to my regret, but he was spoken of warmly by Nutt and Nilsson, and his New York gallerist, Adam Baumgold. He is the second crucial figure from that period to pass in recent months. Don Baum, who first exhibited the Hairy Who at the Hyde Park Art Center, died a few months back. Baum, an artist and curator, was an important early champion of the work. I visited him in 2005 and recorded a long interview. He was a very sweet, and sharp man, surrounded by the work of the artists he so loved. I’m grateful to have met him. In any case, all of this reminds me how much I love the work of that period, and how still under-researched it remains. My condolences to the Yoshida family, and, belatedly, to the Baum family.

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Yes, that’s right, we’re all about that. And etc. Frank gets really mad when I post promotional stuff here, which makes me want to do it even more. Anyhow, I can do whatever I want now because Frank is in Roanoke, VA helping Gary Panter paint a giant mural in a museum. He’s probably only thinking about comics 90% of the time, as opposed to his usual 99.9999%. Phew. Anyhow, I will include some non-promo shit here in the form of promised commentary on recent additions to my nightstand: Captain America: America First, Madman #12, Little Orphan Annie Vol. 1, Bat-Manga, and some other stuff I can’t remember right now. Why do I keep returning to Chaykin to such diminished returns? I dunno. I’m sure it has something to do with that damn photoshop he uses so well — weilding it like a blunt instrument. Anyhow, the real reason for this post is to announce to all you art buying types that, for (almost) the first time ever, C.F. is selling some comics pages. It’s the complete story from The Ganzfeld 4, later reprinted in Chris Ware’s edition of Best American Comics. The pages are here. Email to reserve them. Go get ’em.

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Our man (er, one of them) in Providence, C.F., has finally made the big time. Here is his interview in Vice. I like this interview for how business-like it is. I never get to talk to him that way, so for me it’s revealing and good.

I also want to present my very own Top Five of 2008:

Top Five Hilariously Dumb-Awesome Comics Frank Pushed On Me This Year:

1) Slash Maraud “It’s a complete set! Paul GuLAAACY!”
2) Kick-Ass “C’mon man, it’s AWEsome!”
3) Random issue of The Shadow “It’s the MARSHALL ROGERS issue, dude!”
4) Robotech (Something unintelligible)
5) Marvel Fanfare #40 (“It’s all Mazzuchelli! It’s his loose, arty style!”)

Bonus number: The Bill Sienkiewicz New Mutants issues!

And that’s my list for the year.

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Attention peoples:

Because I know Comics Comics is full of discerning readers of visual stuff, I want to point you all to a brand new PictureBox book: Overspray. Check out Norman’s blog about the subject of airbrush art. It’s a great, great read. For fans of imagery and illustration, this book is a must, in my humble opinion. It doesn’t fit into a NYC-centric vision of conceptual illustration or ephemera. But, perceived “depth” or “importance” in illustration has, for the last 30 odd years been calculated along the Steinberg/Push Pin conceptual illustration axis. I love this stuff, but there’s room for more. To me, what we’re dealing with when talking about the Overspray guys is astounding feats of image making. You sink into the images and explore their visual worlds. Things like Charlie’s Levi’s Splash image, or Lloyd’s Rod Stewart cover are unforgettably powerful IMAGES. They’re not tricked-out ideas, a la Glaser, but they are forceful and communicative. And the surfaces are compelling. Unlike so much concept-based illustration, these surfaces add a layer of meaning: the sheen, the sheer thickness of them gives them a life of their own. What they have is presence — something so much illustration lacks. This is more in the vein of contemporary work like Murakami or even Matthew Barney. Or, on a comics level, they harken to Richard Corben, Moebius, Macedo, and other late 70s/early 80s fantasy artists that we at CC love. Plus, there are some awesome images from Tron, which Peter Lloyd helped design. And, I think it could be argued that the Overspray work is more relevant to contemporary visual culture and 90% of the history of illustration. That’s not really an argument for its quality, but certainly if you take one look at magazines like XLR8R, galleries like Deitch Projects, artists like Jim Shaw, and on and on, you see that Overspray contains a huge chunk of stunningly relevant ideas. So, check it out! You’ll be very happy you did. Ok, promotion over.

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Massive Visual Book and Magazine Sale

That’s right, there’s still more stuff to sell! More! I know plenty of you New Yorkers who have not been yet (Tim, you’re excused).

Come visit me in the store!

Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 6 and 7, 12 pm – 6 pm.

Huge collection for sale: Hundreds of books for sale at very low prices (most graphic novels $3-$5, fancy books no more than $10):

Graphic design, illustration, graphic novels, fine art, imported manga, vintage children’s books, silkscreened books and prints, tons of design and art magazines. Many rare and unusual collectibles. Credit cards accepted.

PictureBox
121 3rd St. (Corner of Bond)
Brooklyn NY 11231

Think of your family! Buy stuff for them!

Directions:

F or G train to Carroll St. 
Exit at Smith and 2nd place. 
Walk down 3rd St. to Bond. 

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It’s my duty, both as publisher and “critic” to call your attention to a new mini comic by up and coming young cartoonist Gary Panter. This is Gary’s first new Jimbo story in years and it’s a complete masterpiece, distilling both the abstractions of his recent paintings and his gag-strip timing into one truly awesome comic. It is, along with the new Acme Novelty Library, my favorite damn comic in months. It actually made me like comics again. And again. Conveniently, it’s only for sale at the PictureBox site. Get it now. It’s just fucking astoundingly good. Other favorite recent comics reading: Bottomless Bellybutton and Ranxerox vol. 1-3. Oh, and geez, I re-read Travel last night. It’s better than I remembered, and I published it! Try reading the commentary one page at a time. It’ll do things to you. Also, how come no one is violently offended by Monster Men? Are you people out there finding it in stores? I love it for its often brilliant writing, pacing, and matter-of-fact sexual horror. But that’s just me. Ok, see ya!