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Oh, just for fun, or maybe to get some mileage out of my distracting obsession with Wally Wood. Pretty much what the title says it is: A tiny sampling of why Wood is such a compelling artist.

He understood physical grace (and he was a great costume designer).

He could organize space in a way that made it seem infinite and STILL teeming with “stuff”.

His hyper-detailed, baroque inking style gave aliens and technology a solid, complex dimensionality.

He was funny.

In his later years he figured a wonderfully airy sense of space — his figures no longer stiff or contorted, and his pen line (or assistant’s line) smooth and minimal.

That’s it.

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I do not have the proper mindset for decent comics bloggery this week, but I still thought I’d quickly post a link to this fascinating essay by Kentaro Takekuma (co-creator of one of my favorite books of comics meta-criticism, Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga) writing on Osamu Tezuka and Hayao Miyazaki.

One of the most interesting parts of this essay, I think, is where Kentaro describes why he feels that Miyazaki’s Nausicaä manga series is “hard to read”, including this bit:

The individual panels are too “complete” as illustrations. This is only true for each singular frame (panel), and there isn’t enough of an attempt to connect one frame to the next, or to guide the reader in following the flow of the manga.

This probably has something to do with why people so often describe Nausicaä as aesthetically “Western”. The whole thing is worth reading, especially for Miyazaki or Tezuka fans.

Oh, and for the record, I personally didn’t find Nausicaä hard to read at all.

[H/t to J.O.G. McCullochuddy]

Ok. And while I was writing this, Chris Butcher linked to it, so this meager post is even more superfluous now. I’ll put it up anyway.

[And apparently D. Deppey posted it yesterday. Whatever. I’m done.]

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ICHIBA / YOKOYAMA (1)

ICHIBA / YOKOYAMA (2)

NEWGARDEN / YOKOYAMA

More Luzernnotes: We were having dinner with Yokoyama and Ichiba when I asked them both for their “autograph.” Yokoyama was happy to oblige but instead of just signing his name or making a little drawing in my notebook, he got Ichiba to “jam” with him on the same drawing. It was a drawing game. The notebook is folded back, and the participants are drawing while facing each other, holding the folded notebook between them so that each person cannot see what the other is drawing. Yokoyama made a mark where the top and the bottom of the head will be, a mark that both can see. This way it’s a surprise what the other will draw, but the proportions of the face will “line up.” It was pretty funny just to watch Yokoyama and Ichiba bantering in Japanese and laughing while they tried it twice. Later at the “Jazz Kantine” bar, Yokoyama and Mark Newgarden gave it a whirl and made me laugh so hard I choked on my wine. (I love how on their drawing it’s difficult to tell who did which half. Any guesses?)

Oh, and Yokoyama kept drawing faces with a “Do You Know?” word balloon. I asked him what that was about and he said that everyone—meaning Dan and me—kept asking him questions like “Do you know Jack Kirby?” or “Do you know Suehiro Maruo?” So he began writing it on these head drawing and said to me that the drawing is saying, “Do you know ME?”

Funny shit.

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Hello strangers, friends.
Been awhile.
Over on the Cold Heat blog, I posted some sketches from a train ride in Switzerland.
Quite an adventure.
Pittsburgh looks dirtier than ever. So what.
I like being back.

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A daily drawing by Blutch

Fumetto was certainly a blast. Essentially the festival takes over the town of Lucerne, Switzerland, and mounts about a dozen exhibitions, holds panel discussions and demonstrations, as well as signings and tours. It’s a non-commercial festival, with one great store located in the festival center and that’s it. It was wonderfully well-organized, well programmed and just, well, kinda perfect. It’s also interestingly broad, encompassing illustration and art as well as more traditional comics. By the end, we were told, 150,000 people had been through the festival. For me, it was a great chance to be involved with a different vision of what a festival can be, as well as a fun international cultural exchange. After all, PictureBox was there in the form of an exhibition by Frank, Lauren and CF, as well as a show by Yokoyama. But so was Ever Meulen, with a wonderful little retrospective. And so was Blutch, the “artist-in-residence” who provided excellent new drawings everyday in his hotel lobby. Mark Newgarden mounted, for me, the best exhibition of the festival, with a conceptually tight showing of his original artwork and ephemera. Shary Boyle was there with a fantastic show, and so was David Shrigley, not to mention Daisuke Ichiba, Elvis Studio, Alex Baladi, and numerous others. Anyhow, here are some pictures from the scene and there is much, much more on Flickr. Thanks to Lynn Kost and the Fumetto staff for such a wonderful experience!

Elvis Studio’s show.

Study for RAW cover and finish by Ever Meulen.

Newgarden made gorgeous large-format prints of Love’s Savage Fury.

Preggers Lauren is a great cook.

CF and Yokoyama bonded.

Oh yeah, one day me and Frank went to see Lee Perry at his mountain retreat an hour from Lucerne. He and Frank collaborated on this Batman drawing.

At the feet of THE RULER.

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Here’s a quick look at what’s happening in Lucerne…

Group interview time! Santoro, Weinstein, me, Forgues, Yokoyama. Major topic: Hemingway and humanism. Also: war comics.

Very large painting by Yokoyama, circa 1994

Part of Frank’s installation.

Part of Lauren’s show.

Oh, there’s this.

Brinkman here in spirit but not body.

I do love Ever Meulen.

Mark Newgarden makes his presence known.

More later.

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Well, two-thirds of Comics Comics will soon be in glorious Lucerne, Switzerland for the Fumetto Festival. That’s right, I’ll be there with Frank Santoro as well as Lauren Weinstein, C.F., Yuichi Yokoyama and others. PictureBox itself has a nice exhibition of work by these artists and the festival sounds pretty great in general, with shows and/or talks by Mark Newgarden, Mat Brinkman, Blutch, Shary Boyle and others. Frank and Lauren are already there and apparently Frank and Blutch had a drawing contest of some kind, resulting in a nicely Swiss “even draw”. Anyhow, I’ll be there from April 1 to April 6. Hey Europeans, come see us!

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If not, it will be soon:

Big Questions Big Numbers 3!

Of related interest: a big chunk of the issue’s original script.

And Frank discusses the earlier issues.

(Thanks, Sean H.)

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(Unrelated eye-catching image by Ethan D’Ercole)

A question for the peanut gallery: There’s a great two-page Wally Wood comic from EC that has him describing the worlds he draws and ends with a self portrait in the last panel. Does anyone remember where and when that first appeared? I can’t find my source for it.

Thanks.

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Here’s a fantastic photo of a Jiggs and Maggie rug made for George McManus. It’s from the legendary Circulation magazine. The full article is a good read. Thanks to collector kingpin Warren Bernard for letting me swipe this.