Original Art Sundays No. 156: Sketchbook: SF scenes

Jury duty and reduced scanner access continue to hamper the conclusion of the Surrealist Cowgirls story (I anticipate 3 -5 pages for completion of the current story). However, it appears that my commitment to the jury will end this week (though there's no way of knowing for sure).
In the interim, here are some more sketchbook pieces. These are from the same volume as last week's Omaha work, again circa 1992.
Inspired by the recent and largely ignored demise of SF great Jack Vance, whose adaptation of his story The Moon Moth made my Best Comics of 2012 list, these are SF themed sketches. I stubbornly refuse to use the term "sci-fi", though I know it's a losing, if not lost, battle.
In doing these, I was influenced by Kelly Freas and James Pitre (the latter for emotional content more than style- for the sleek stuff I don't mind Vallejo, but prefer Julie Bell). I don't pretend to be in the same league as these folks, but that's where my inspirations lie.
Next week: either more sketches or the next page: the jury is out (literally) on which!

Alien Landscape 1, #4 pencil, marker
and metallic marker

Klingon, #4 pencil and metallic marker

Vulcan Romance, critter looking on,
#4 pencil

Alien Kitty, #4 pencil

Original Art Sundays No. 155: Sketchbooks: Omaha the Cat Dancer, 1993

Next page of Surrealist Cowgirls is still evolving. I may take a day and finish it next weekend.
Always wrestling with the fine line between taking my time to do it right and just dinking around!
Meanwhile, some older sketchbook stuff.
In 1992-1993, I was living with a man who was, ahem, less than pleasant much of the time. I've talked about this in the past and will not rehash, other than to provide context here.
During this time, I found solace in healthy eating and in exercise (I lost over 30 pounds, and when I next saw Reed, he said I was too thin- something nobody else has ever said to me, before or since!) and in my art. I couldn't tell the stories I wanted to tell, since my actions were being closely scrutinized and obsessively criticized, but I filled several sketchbooks. He didn't seem to mind what I sketched too much.
These are all from one sketchbook from that period.
Though these clearly have their flaws, there are many things about them I find pleasing. The anatomy is still lacking in many places, but there's an energy and attitude to them I like to this day.
These were random in the sketchbook. I tried many things artistically during this time, some of which I may post later.
But given that Reed and James Vance recently completed the Omaha storyline, and that Reed may be attending San Diego this year to promote the final volume, this seems as good a time as any to post these.
I'll post a review and final thoughts on Omaha at year's end.
Enjoy!

Marker sketch

Marker and #4 pencil

Metallic marker

Marker and #4 pencil

Marker

Marker (no tail!)

Pencil & marker w/notes

Original Art Sundays no. 154: Surrealist Cowgirls, p. 17

Here we are again after numerous delays!
I'm very excited by this page.
When we left our hapless troupe, they had found their intended witch doctor at the bottom of the onyx ziggurat.
Still having no idea that they are being followed by a mystery man and his snail, they face their potential savior.

I like a great many things about this page. It's dramatic, uses grays nicely and has greater drama in the figure poses than some others in this story.
I also really like Master Pah's pose and attitude, the latter of which will figure prominently in the next few pages.
The next page has been giving me some layout frustrations, but I think I've arrived at a viable solution. 
I anticipate this story seeing completion within eight pages. Very excited to see it resolve!
Between jury duty (I'll post more on that later) and reduced Service Bureau hours at work, my scanner access is limited for the next few weeks, so the next Original Art Sundays will again be inventory work.
Thanks for reading and keep the faith (as Stan Lee used to say)!

Original Art Sundays No. 153: placeholder: A Micmac Legend (gouache, collage)

Well, I'm rethinking figure positions on the next Cowgirls page, so either later this week or up for next Sunday's entry.
Meanwhile, here's another unused editorial piece.
This one incorporates illustration as a border element.
There are aspects of this that I really like, but in retrospect, I would have handled the type differently- nothing really wrong with it, but it doesn't have much character.

The illustration is just detailed enough. The layout is intended to draw the reader right into the text. The costuming of the lower figure is authentic, at least according to my research.
As indicated above, this was done at 100% size in gouache with elements (leaves, photos of earth) collaged into it. I'm hardly a huge fan of collage, but in this case it works.
Very hectic week at work coming up, but I hope to make time to complete that page. The top half is already wonderful; I just must make the bottom half follow suit!

Original Art Sundays no. 152: oddment: atsa my girl!

Next Surrealist Cowgirls page is on the boards, roughed out and half penciled.
Meanwhile, here's a VERY old airbrush piece. Yeah, that's right, traditional airbrush.
This piece was inspired by my fascination with that most surreal of bands, The Residents.

I always liked this one, even though it was not without its flaws. I could have popped more highlights to round the eyeballs, and some veins, and another layer to the cityscape would have increased the piece's depth.
The grays ran to the red in the scan, but I was able to fix a lot of it.
Still, a fun, fairly successful piece.
Next week, back to the Cowgirls.
Here's a Residents video to round things out:

Original Art Sundays No. 151: Surrealist Cowgirls, p. 16

I'm going to have to go back and go over the numbering when the story is a bit closer to done.
After midnight so technically not Sunday any more. But I've written almost 3000 words today, and have 4750 to complete tomorrow for a TIGHT deadline, so I don't care right now. Just glad I have something to post!
Here's the next page:

Quite pleased with this one. The center tier/panel could have a bit more weight, so perhaps before going to press I'll pop in an arc of black or some such. For right now, it more than serves.
The Zen Squirrel is not what he seems.
Next week, either the next page or a Blast From the Past.
Thanks for sticking with me!

Original Art Sundays no. 150: Surrealist Cowgirls, p.15

Here we go again! Finally remembered to scan the page.
Completed next week's page along with a scan of some long overdue past work, so good to go for a few weeks again.
As you recall, our stalwart band had jumped into the miles of solid crystal inside the pyramid and were slowly falling through said crystal.
On they go...

I had some issues rendering a pattern on the floor/ground, and decided to go with a random pebbling, a sort of loose cobblestone effect. You can still see the intended large tile pattern through it, but it looks plausible.
The story is building to something big.
As the story builds, I think the tone/direction is changing. I originally thought of the Cowgirls as advanced silliness drenched in the surreal, like Milt Gross's work. But I'm coming to see them as comedic adventure a la Bone.
That remains one of my favorite books, so I can live with that.
Next week, page 16!

Original Art Sundays No. 149: Psychotic Friends Network

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted! No excuses!
Here's a page I did for fun during my undergrad years.
Most people don't remember the Psychic Friends Network now, though they do still have a Net presence. My kid brother was doing work for them and for a phone-in Tarot reading company for a while. He tried to talk me into doing it. During our conversation, I asked him if he really believed in what he was selling for his $25 an hour (and that's 1990s dollars!).
He gave me a long, convoluted response that boiled down to "maybe. Sort of."
Anyway, bad typography and all, here's my parody of the whole thing: The Psychotic Friend's Network!

 

D.S. is  a parody of Dave Sim, whose rants in the letters pages of Cerebus about homosexuals and women (and especially homosexual women) were all the talk of the comic book community at the time.

R.W. is a pro football player whose name I can't recall (Reggie White, possibly? Not sure) whose rants on other people's morality was seen by many as being at odds with his plans to become a minister, which I believe he later did.

Some fun art and BAD typeface choices here! I really enjoyed drawing the guy on the top, the one chewing up the desk. 

I printed up the text block on a cheesy home printer, using a cheesy design program aimed at housewives. I also used this program, because it was all I had, for the first couple Gentle Giant calendars.

The next page of Surrealist Cowgirls is nearly penciled. I've been poking at it far too long, but it's starting to take shape the way I want it to.

So next week... well, let's hope.

Original Art Sundays No. 148: Fall Into A Book!

On this cold blustery day, I should have a Pooh image for you!
Instead, we're going with an older piece.
I don't often work in gouache, but I do like its richness and versatility- it has some of the advantages of oils with less hassle and cleanup.
This was a blind submission, intended for a Barnes & Noble fall ad campaign. Obviously unused, or  you'd have seen it before.

I like the idea of leaves reading- pages of books being sometimes called leaves and all- and the space left for the logo has a nice ornate, woodsy feel to it.
The palate is limited, and based in the blue paper I had on hand to use as a frame for the deckle edge heavy watercolor paper.
Again, I think my art is at its best when I try not to be too precise.
While I'm not really set up to paint right now, I am feeling the itch a bit.
But then, that might just be dry winter skin!
Next: scanner access is back, so probably another Surrealist Cowgirls page. Between now and then, that neglected Wolverton post!

Best Comics of 2012: No. 1

Time to announce the Best Comic of 2012.

This has it all. Spellbinding beautiful art, three compelling stories woven into one, serious subjects including immigration and gay issues, and spirit. So much spirit.

I haven't read the author's book PUG yet, but I used Derek McCullough's Stagger Lee as a textbook in my recently ended Graphic Novel class (the students loved it), so I'm familiar with his deft handling of music as a narrative vehicle.
In Gone to Amerikay he ties together the stories of two Irish immigrants separated by ninety years with the tale of the wealthy descendant of one who's searching for his musical heritage, forty years after the fact.
In many ways it's a classic Irish tale, full of ghosts, ballads, drinking, joy, sex and life, set against the backdrop of New York. The dialects are spot on without being demeaning. The stories flow well and intertwine cleanly, though there are a couple points where less than astute readers will have to double back and check on something.
On matters Irish: the art is by Colleen Doran, who shares my love for the band Horslips, and who keeps up a "No Irish Need Apply" sign in her studio, as a reminder of hard times and harder people past.
I've been following Colleen's work since A Distant Soil debuted as a preview in the Pini's Elfquest. I've enjoyed her work on J. Michael Straczynski Book of Lost Souls, some key issues of Sandman, Wonder Woman, Legion of Super-Heroes, one of my favorite graphic novels, Warren Ellis' Orbiter (I happened on a signed and sketched copy in a used store, more fool the anonymous "Curt" who got rid of it) and of course, A Distant Soil, which she is closing in on finishing. She's a canny businesswoman, informed and strengthened by the hard knocks life has given her (mostly in the form of creeps trying to take advantage of her in some way).
Sidebar: I purchased a Book of Lost Souls page from Colleen last year, but neglected to ask for one featuring that wonderful cat, so I guess I'm as much a fool as that "Curt"was.
Back to Colleen:
She's produced a formidable body of work over the decades (has it really been that long?), and though she chooses her material carefully to balance time, deadlines and the likelihood of the person or organization promising her payment honoring that commitment, she does continue to create, and just gets better.
Ahem. Case in point.

Can Colleen draw beautiful men or what?
Also, the precise illustrations of mundane daily activities, like shaving, enhance visual storytelling no end.
Here's a page from the sequence set back in time. Remember, while each story is told chronologically, they are intertwined in the book.

Lewis Healy, the magnate
whose search connects the stories

Sometimes I read things with too critical an eye, noticing structure, editing, artistic flourishes and so on. while this has its uses, it can be demoralizing, like that moment after you realize that cartoons are thousands of drawings, and the time afterwards where all you can see is the individual drawings, before cartoons get their magic back. The best stories are the ones in which I forget to critically dissect the content and get sucked into the story's world. Gone to Amerikay is one of those stories.

So we have the tale of Clare O'Dwyer, 1870;
Folk singer Johnny McCormack, 1960;
and Irish billionaire Lewis Haely, 2010. It's his search for the music he loves that ties them together.
But there's also a tie between Clare and Johnny.
Through a meeting with the ghost of her lover, Johnny learns the song he wrote for Clare, and finding her granddaughter quite by accident, learns that Clare's daughter is still alive. He meets her and is able to return the song to its family.
Having just watched What Lies Beneath on TCM tonight, it's nice to see a ghost story with a happy ending.
Being who I am, I have to mention the book itself- a slim but handsome hardcover, apparently PVC bound with black head and tail bands. And the cover of the book beneath the dust jacket holds a lovely blind stamp.

The coloring, by Jose Villarubia, whose work I've loved on Promethea and the bound edition of Alan Moore's The Mirror of Love, is subtle and suits the art perfectly.

So congratulations to the Gone to Amerikay team.
You made my year.
I'm taking a couple days off posting to deal with work matters, but will return by week's end with some thoughts on Basil Wolverton.

Original Art Sundays No. 147: The Source Cards

Back to post some art in the midst of the final Best of 2012 posts.
And as promised, it's new work, though possibly not what you expected.
At MN's SpringCon last year, the organizers gave creators cards to illustrate. This year being an anniversary, the 25th, they wanted to put together a set of cards. These will be redistributed randomly to attendees. They did this five years ago for the 20th- it's a lot of fun!
So I did my part.
After leaving the card blanks laying on the drawing table to annoy me for months while I completed other work, I finally just sat down and did them right at the turn of the year.
The work is loose and sketchy- hey, they ARE sketch cards- and colored in pencil, though it looks like marker in the scans. I considered correcting the colors and doing some fancy footwork in Photoshop (what we used to call "production art"), then thought, "naaah."
I decided on four of my favorite characters.
First, Dr. Strange.

I was going for a more urgent tone than this conveys. It's OK, but more mood would have been good. Possibly grayscale/monochrome if I work with the Doctor again?
Next, Omaha, of course.

I might like this one best. While it's much looser than Reed's best work, or even some of my own scattered pieces using the character, I think the tone is right. I freely stole the design and palette from one of the final cover variants of Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise.

Next, Concrete.

Mildly frustrated by this one. I included the title since not everyone knows the character and the cards are being distributed randomly to attendees, but I think it really hampers the overall tone of the piece. The lettering is too cartoony/ baloony. I deliberately left in most of the pencil marks. I think the intent of the cast shadow in the floor stones doesn't work as well as it might.
Still, I've begun to see Concrete as something of a Buddha figure, and this plays into that, obviously.
The whole thing is grayscale, though it looks blue in the scan.
Finally, CHEW!

The Omaha card elicits the strongest idyllic expression from me, but this just makes me smile! I'm about three issues behind, but CHEW remains one of the funniest and most demented comics out there. The earth tones got seriously bumped into the red in the scan. It was much browner in the original. So be it.
Join us tomorrow (actually later today) for the final installment of Best Comics of 2012.

Best Comics of 2012 No. 2: Doug Wildey's RIO

Again, back to a book of reprints.
But there's so much new work here, and the old work is reprinted with such skill, it all feels new.

 

A bit of background:

Doug Wildey was a real life cowboy and adventurer who just just happened to be one of the best damn comic artists to come down the pike. While he's drawn and written war comics, The Saint comic strip, Tarzan, Archie, romance, mystery and horror, he's best known for two things: creating Jonny Quest and doing spectacular Westerns.
Oh, he was also the inspiration for the character of Peavey in The Rocketeer. Creator Dave Stevens was a friend and a huge fan.
Some of his work, like his characters for the short-lived Atlas/Seaboard line in the early 1970s, Kid Cody and the Comanche Kid, had short runs with sad distribution- odd in this particular case, when you consider that the Atlas company was started and run by Stan Lee's brother Larry Leiber.
After Wildey's strip Ambler folded in 1974, he returned to work on his Western magnum opus, Rio.
The first of three published graphic novels (at the time called "continuing stories") appeared in Eclipse Magazine no. 1, August 1983. The sequel appeared in Eclipse Comics, the followup anthology. This story was later reprinted by Comico, another spectacular 80s comic company that died too soon. A third story was later printed by Dark Horse as two single comics.

Wildey worked on two more Rio stories that never saw print. Until now.
There are a total of five stories in this book, plus some brilliantly handled supplemental material.

The new volume, a delight for those of us who love books (more on that below), is printed almost entirely from the original art. The colors are so much more vibrant than in the original printings. I suspect Wildey was working in color marker and watercolors over inks, based on the markmaking visible on some pages.

Rio is a mystery man, a reformed outlaw pardoned by President Grant, an ex-lawman, making his way in a matter-of-fact manner. He doesn't bemoan his fate. He just lives it.

The stories are classic Western stuff: buffalo hunts, railroads, mining, gambling, and a cast of supporting characters including incredibly fleshed out interpretations of Jesse James, Doc Holliday, and the Earp Brothers, who act like real jerks this time around.

Here's a choice bit of the Jesse James story.

In this story, Wildey shows contempt for the hypocrisy of the "civilized" people in the West. After Jesse is exposed and forced to leave town, it is revealed that the late sheriff had a clandestine arrangement with Jess to protect the town in return for safe haven. After gunslingers and ne'er-do-wells invade the town, the righteous folk who drove Jesse out beg Rio to help them. Given their shabby treatment of both Jesse and him, Rio simply rides on.

Two of the tales in this book are incomplete, and are presented in their state at the time of Wildey's death in 1994. Below are samples from those stories.

Even in this rough state, the quality of the art, writing and overall storytelling is readily apparent. I'm particularly charmed by the silhouette of the dog following Rio in the last page, the one that ends the stories in the book.

The book also contains some lovely portrait work of the title character.

The design of the book itself deserves comment. One of the challenges of reprinting older material is getting it right, and this is an arena in which IDW shines. While their Artist's Edition series is out of my price range, I do drool every time one is announced or released. One of the local stores (sadly, one that never seems to have a sale) has a copy of the Simonson Thor volume, and I get to visit it longingly every time I stop in.
But the Rio volume is comparatively affordable, especially if you do as we cheap bitches do and combine discounts until it's 30% off. Still able to patronize local comic stores and save a buck at the same time- yeah!
Rio, the Complete Saga is very well designed. The border elements on the above plates are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The above front cover scan doesn't show it, but there are decorative elements on the cover that reinforce the tone of the book. See this more complete image of the back cover for an idea of what I mean.

 

The right choice for a typeface. Nicely handled background pattern. Edge stripping reinforced by faux straps, simulating an old trunk. Clipped corners simulating an old school photo album (ask your mother or grandmother about those!).
And that's just the cover. The inside is even more striking, as alluded to in the above pages.
When choosing the Best of... annually, I try to avoid the traps to which many other such lists seem to fall prey. I don't list what I think are the most important, artistic (whatever that means) or profound books. I don't care about cutting edge stuff, unless it's well done. And I am SO bored by adults who deliberately try to draw like little kids!
What I care about is a book that will continue to pull me back to it a year, two years, five years or more later.
Since I've been reading my copies of the original Rio albums since they first came out, it's clear to me that this is such a book.

Tomorrow: The Best Comic of 2012.

Oh, and here's Wildey's interpretation of Jonny Quest, from a Comico miniseries offering his interpretations of classic TV episodes, just because it's so cool!

 

Best Comics of 2012, No. 3: The Moon Moth

Only three to go for this year's countdown.
I was first epxosed to the work of SF writer Jack Vance in the Canadian groundlevel SF title Andromeda #4, edited by Dean Motter.
I must apologize for not having the foresight to scan my copy of the cover for this post. You're denied the lovely wraparound cover!But here's half the image...

The title also featured stories by A.E. van Vogt and James Tiptree, who we came to know as Alice Sheldon before her tragic suicide.
At any rate, Andromeda was one of a handful of ambitious and mostly successful titles in the groundlevel movement of the 1970s and 1980s.
I had no idea what to expect when I picked up this issue; I'd been buying the series and elected to stick with it. What I found- well, here's a synopsis from an Amazon review:
"The Narrow Land" (1967): Ern the crested water baby, having hatched from an egg, must try to find his way in a strange world, consisting of a strip of land and sea bordered by a wall of storm and a wall of night. Unusual for Vance in that the protagonist is not human.
The elaborate world and flowing language blew me away. I resolved to read more Vance but let it slip.
Don't pelt me with rocks and garbage. I'll get there. I just finished Cornell Woolrich's The Bride Wore Black, which has been on my list just as long!
I was both pleased and curious to see this new adaptation of a Vance work on the shelves at The Source in St. Paul. Being a poor woman, I got it from the library.
And I was enthralled with what I read and saw.

A murder mystery set on a world bound by a strict caste system, the story is compelling. Our hero is tasked with solving the murder without violating the complex social taboos of the society into which he is plunged.
The caste is twofold. The status of an individual is set by the mask worn and by the instrument played. Each has a specific meaning and the violation of either or both is an offense of the highest order.
Here are some of the instruments and their meanings:

And some exposition showing the tension of the writing:

Moon Moth is one the masks worn by the offworlder as he tries to solve the mystery and bring the killer to justice.
It's a very clever device. How can you know for whom you search when everyone is masked? Similar to the telepathic device in Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man in some respects....
Illustrator Humayoun Ibrahim brings a wonderful blend of pragmatism and imagination to his storytelling. A BFA graduate of School of Visual Arts, this is his first mainstream professional work. His work shows infulences of classic SF illustration, notably the work of Frank R. Paul. His next book, Decelerate Blue, is due out in September 2013.
While this book demands attention of the reader, if the reader engages, it's more than worth it.

This spread offers more exposition on the structure of the societal structure of the planet Sirene, our setting. There's a nice empathetic device here- the protagonist struggles to learn the elusive system as the readers do.

The publisher, First Second, is the graphic novel imprint of Macmillan, and offers a wide range of stories. Many of their titles are aimed at younger readers, but they also include some Eddie Campbell works in their catalog, along with the collected edition of Sailor Twain, listed in last year's Best of...series.
I hope more Vance adaptations are forthcoming. This is quality work in every way. And the only credited author is  Vance himself. Though 97 years of age(!), Mr. Vance is still with us, and may well be the last surviving Grand Master from the Golden Age of Science Fiction (I consider Harlan Ellison to be a Silver Age or New Wave author, depending on which set of arbitrary terms you choose to use).
But I digress yet again. This is a fulfilling, challenging read, illustrated with panache and great control, well worthwhile.
Tomorrow, No. 2 in the Best of 2012, high adventure from the Old West, finally given its due!