Archive for September, 2006

Wunder Under


by

Wednesday, September 20, 2006


Read Comments (4)

This is sort of comics related. Last weekend me and Rachel and Helene Silverman and Gary Panter drove up to Providence RI to attend the opening of “Wunderground“, a massive show of Providence posters 1995-05 and a group of installations by eight artists including Mat Brinkman, Erin Rosenthal, Brian Chippendale, Jim Drain, Leif Goldberg and Jungil Hong. Helene and I art directed the catalog for the RISD Museum. Anyhow, the show is totally amazing. The posters are astounding of course, rivaled only by the 1960s psychedelic explosion on the West Coast. The installations are massive and truly inspired. I’ve never seen a show quite like it, and its vitality is astounding. This kind of work just isn’t made anywhere else. Its real mystery, humor and love should be beacon for other artists. Below is a photo report of sorts.

Here’s a 20-foot tall paper mache ogre by Mat Brinkman. Title: Maximum Ogredrive.


And here’s Jim Drain’s piece, constructed around a totem pole from the museum’s collection:


Here’s a view of Chippendale’s house and one of Erin’s sculptures.


And inside Brian’s house:


And here’s part of Leif’s sculpture, which also projects a fantastic animated film.


and a screen shot:


Anyhow, that’s the story. Go see this show if at all possible.

Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

Lax But Not Lazy


by

Monday, September 11, 2006


Read Comment (1)

Well, Tim’s been on vacation and I’ve been frantically trying to squeeze out some books and get an exhibition up as well. See PictureBox for all the updates. In the meantime, I should note that I saw the great Frank Tashlin movie Artists and Models last week. It’s an amazing Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin vehicle in which they star as writer/artist pals on the make in New York. They happen into, you guessed it, the comic book world, as Jerry’s favorite cartoonist turns out to be their upstairs neighbor and beautiful, too, natch. Dean falls for her (fascinating, given all the recent discussion, that the famous cartoonist in the movie is a woman–also a convenient plot device, but still…) while Jerry falls for her model, played by Shirely Maclaine. Anyhow, there’s some wonderful stuff in there with sleazy publishers, exciting imagery (“Bat-Lady” is the stuff of Jerry’s fantasies) and general hilarity. What’s so refreshing about the movie is that the comics stuff seems oddly right-on. It’s just a business in this movie, but the business still generates the raw material for dreams and nightmares. I could see how comics were once part of the entertainment mainstream–just another thing for a film to riff on. Too bad that’s no longer. There’s also a great sequence in which Jerry gleefully makes the case that comics made him retarded, a sentiment I couldn’t agree with more. Retarded is the new sexy.

Anyhow, we’re hard at work on the next issue, which thus far features a fine essay on Spider-Man by Peter Bagge, a fine list by Mark Newgarden, comics by Matthew Thurber and Paper Rad, a long interview with Pshaw, and Tim on Steve Gerber. It’s coming along. We hope to have it done for October.

Labels: , , ,