Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Don't Hold Your Breath: Nothing New from Brian Ewing
Words: Jared Gniewek
What is the purpose of the rock and roll poster? Is it simply to advertise a date for a rock n roll performance. Is it another way for music to exist in our cultural landscape? Is it a collectible? A tool to add gravity to the "cool factor" of musicians? It is many things far beyond something so trite as a commercial illustration.A well rendered piece of poster art becomes a supplement to the text of a musical performance. It becomes, over time, as important as album cover art. It adds a visual element to focus on in conjunction with the music. We codify the text of the music through this filter. A static video, it becomes a motif or sigil to evoke the connotations of a band. Some album covers and rock poster art are so much a part of a rock band that it is an image that instantly creates synapses. For example, when I see an image of Iron Maiden's mascot, Eddy (especially when drawn by the incomparable, Derek Riggs) I instantly hear the opening guitar to Number of the Beast. It is another way of understanding music, Of making music your own or of claiming ownership of music. Of making music a more integral part of the psyche.
The Squirrel Machine: Graphically Speaking
Words: Igor Glushkin
by Hans Rickheit is the story of two young eccentric brothers. Edmund is an inventor of bizarre trinkets and machinery, while William is a musician. They both live with their controlling mother in a small Victorian-like town at approximately the beginning of the 20th century. Delightfully strange and, at times, dream-like story regresses to their adolescent life where both boys pursued to invent weird musical machines made out of dead animals and steam-punk-like ornaments.Monday, July 26, 2010
Jim Shooter's Secret Origin, In His Own Words - Part Two
Words: Christopher Irving . Pictures: Seth Kushner
“I tried to continue to not be on anybody’s side. I thought it was my job to make the comics good, and I was on their side.
“First of all, I hired several editors to do the job I’d been doing alone. I got assistants for each of them, and slowly started to give governance over things. I got great editors. I got Roger Stern, Louise Simonson (Louise Jones at the time), Larry Hama – and some really great people.
“One false start was Rick Marshall, who was hired to edit the magazines. The President of the company, Jim Galton, ordered me to fire him after he made a series of expensive mistakes – the final one costing Marvel $60,000. Then we got Archie Goodwin to replace him, which was a coup. I used to work under Archie, and now he was going to work for me? I told Stan ‘Let’s trick him. I don’t need to teach Archie anything, so let’s hire him, and tell him that he’s reporting to you. Just tell him.’
Friday, July 23, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
My Life with Charlie Brown: Graphically Speaking
Words: Christopher Irving
, edited by pop culture historian extraordinaire Dr. M. Thomas Inge, gives these nuggets of wisdom buried within sometimes repetitive and only but-so revealing of Schulz’s personal essays.The essays cover the gamut from Schulz’s thoughts on religion (in and out of the comic strip), his recollections of his life and of his philosophies as a cartoonist. At the forefront of his thoughts on the strip form was his desire to see the comic strip break out from the ghetto the general public and newspapers had shoved it in as a lowly art form, and to see it elevated to the same level as other popular arts, such as television.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Jim Shooter's Secret Origin, in his Own Words - Part One
Words: Christopher Irving . Pictures: Seth Kushner
It’s a rainy day outside Grand Central Station when Jim Shooter emerges, wearing a black suit and towering over the other umbrella-wielding New Yorkers.
Shooter is easily one of the most controversial figures in comic book history: first cutting his teeth as a teenage comic book writer for DC Comics, he rose to become Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics in 1978 and renovated the so-called House of Ideas, overhauling the entire comics line and organization, revitalizing Marvel into a changing force in comics in the 1980s. To some, he was a visionary who pushed comics to grow in the early '80s, while to others, he was a difficult Editor-in-Chief. But right now, he's a man enjoying a cup of coffee.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
A Few Words and Pictures About Harvey
Words & Pictures: Seth Kushner
There are many people paying tribute to Harvey Pekar today; some whom knew him far better than I, and others who are much better with words. But, as someone who has been affected by Harvey's work, I felt the need to pay tribute.
I didn't know Harvey very well at all, not personally at least. I knew him as many did, through his work, and the great film, American Splendor. I first met Harvey in February 2009 when he was speaking at YIVO here in New York. When I first heard about the event, I immediately got on the phone with Jeff Newelt, Harvey's editor on SMITH Mag's Pekar Project to ask for access so I could take his portrait. I'm always looking to make an iconic portrait of my heros and Harvey was certainly among them. Meeting Harvey, I was almost expecting him to look like a R. Crumb drawing, or maybe like Paul Giamatti, and I was surprised by how much he looked like, well, Harvey Pekar. I only spent five minutes with him, but I got what I needed and was happy to have made the photo above, among others.
The second time I met Harvey was at the King Con in Brooklyn last fall. Christopher Irving and I were granted a session to profile him for GRAPHIC NYC. I got to know him a little better that time. My plan was to merge Christopher's interview based essay, with fumetti (photo comics) to make a sort of photographic American Splendor. Because I did the shoot previous to the interview, I didn't know what he was going to say, so I knew I had to get a variety of expressions out of him in order to make the piece work later. I explained to Harvey and he immediately understood, and playfully displayed a range of emotions, as I called them out. "OK, now angry," I said and he put on an exaggerated sour puss. Most amusing was when I asked for his happy face, and a smile crossed his lips, his eyes lit up, and suddenly I realized I never saw Harvey Pekar smile before. Perhaps, in his role as America's favorite curmudgeon, he was just expected to be that all the time. But, his smile was genuine. He was a happy guy.
Feel free to view the whole fumetti profile, but for now, below are the last three pages, where Harvey discusses the then-current stated of his career.
Harvey Pekar, a seemingly ordinary guy from Cleveland, a former file clerk, made an indelible mark on comics, influenced several generations of comics creators, and died too soon. His volumes of published work (and more to soon be published) will live on to inspire future generations. He will be greatly missed but he will not be forgotten.
Monday, July 12, 2010
R.I.P.: Harvey Pekar
Word just came in that autobio comix innovator and American Splendor author Harvey Pekar passed away in his Cleveland home. Needless to say, we here at Graphic NYC are saddened by the loss of a comics genius and send our condolences to Harvey's wife, Joyce Brabner, and all of his friends and family.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Dash Shaw in L'Uomo Vogue
Dash Shaw appears in the latest issue L'Uomo Vogue, the "Next Generation All Stars" issue, courtesy of GNYC's own Seth Kushner.
More photos after the jump.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Seth Kushner's CulturePOP Season-1 Finale
The final installment of Season-1 of CulturePOP: "Photocomix Profiles of Real-Life Characters" is coming Monday 7/12. It will be a giant-sized 12th episode on author/media theorist Douglas Rushkoff, titled "Taking Back The World."
In the meantime, please check out any of the previous eleven photocomix profiles you may have missed:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
