Just the most incredible graffiti video I’ve ever seen.
Art
The Doctor isn’t the only one who has an anniversary this year, it’s also the Upper Norwood Library in Crystal Palace’s half century and my friend David Vallade has done some celebrations designs. The library has been faced with cuts and possible closure from the Council in recent years but are still there thanks to the support of the local community. They’re running a Dr Who-themed fun day for the family today (details online) so go and support if you’re in the area or just go and support them any day of the week.
Another Council to take on the Doctor comes via the always brilliant Scarfolk blog, with a pairing so obvious I’m amazed it hasn’t been done before.
Love this cover for French electro duo Christine – what a great image. Their music is banging chopped and screwed electro club music with some killer cutting and flashes of cult movie soundtracks like The Bionic Man. Not all my bag but you can check out some of this EP here (my favourite track, ‘No Way’ isn’t previewed unfortunately). Here are a couple of previous single covers too, love that logo and they like eyes it seems.
Son of the legendary Vaughn – and no small legend himself – Mark Bodé will be having a show with artist Cheó in West London next week. Alongside their own work will be some of Vaughn’s too and it opens next Thursday, 21st of November, for a private view at the London West Bank Gallery, 133-137 Westbourne Grove, London W11 2RS (nearest tube Notting Hill Gate). More info here
My friend David Pickett sent me links to these great illustrations by Benoit Godde – you can check out more of his work HERE. Below is – I believe – by an artist called Kait Kybar, titled ‘Stalker’, but I don’t know anything else about it. Top work though.
I was hipped to a blog today called Kirby-Vision, a place where artists can indulge their inner Jack Kirby fantasies or just pay homage to the King of Comics. By far the best find was the incredible work of Giorgio Comolo who, not only nails Kirby’s style, but also takes the characters somewhere else by his own hand.
He definitely joins the ranks of Shaky Kane, Tom Scioli and Edmund Bagwell as an artist who can invoke the spirit of Kirby in a fresh way. Not to say he’s the only one though, plenty of others measure up.
Mike McMahon on Hellboy this December apparently, even if this is a one-off then it’s a match made in heaven (or should that be Hell?). Mignola and McMahon go Mexico for a follow up to the Hellboy in Mexico story, out in Dark Horse Presents #31
Found in one of my kids’ books, love the poem and illustration.
Two creatives I love on one project: Jonny Trunk‘s faultless curation for his Trunk label and Julian House on cover art duties. ‘Classroom Projects’ is out later this month, more info here.
Boris Tellegen aka Delta has work in three new shows this month:
Rennes – Groupshow at Les Ateliers du Vent “Teenage Kicks”
Sept. 7 – Sept 29, 2013 – 59 Rue Alexandre Duval 35000 Rennes
Paris – Groupshow at Backslash Gallery “(de)constructions”
Sept. 12 to Oct. 31, 2013 – 29 rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth, 75003 Paris
Opening on Thursday 12 September, from 5 to 9 pm / closed from Sept. 24 to Oct. 4 included
Amsterdam – Groupshow at Mini Gallery “Col.la.ge”
Sept. 14 to Sept 28, 2013 – Nieuwe Looiersstraat 68-1, Amsterdam
Opening 13 Sept.
It’s here, Jim Mahfood, Scott Mosier and Joe Casey‘s D.I.S.C.O. Destroyer cartoon – available on iTunes and MTV‘s new Liquid Television (I think these are probably both N. America only at this point though).
I’ve been following Scottish concept artist Ian McQue on Twitter for some time now (he’s English you know, he just lives in Scotland). He has a thing for flying tug boats, future tech and the odd robot now and then.
He posts the most incredible images and calls them ‘doodles’, ‘sketches’ or ‘speed-paints’. It’s good that people with this much talent are also humble. Check out more of his work on CGHub or his blogspot (but he posts a lot more on Twitter).
Just saw this on a blog – 2011 Mondo poster apparently – but look at that gorgeous type! Wow. By Aaron Horkey and Vania Zouravliov Title: Dracula Size: 23.75″ x 36″ Edition of 330 Mondotees Numbered Edition Screenprint. Just too many talented people out there. Long gone and $500 minimum on eBay…
Love this old sleeve design for The Yellow Moon Band album by Luke Insect I discovered the other day. The record isn’t bad either although it only seems to be available on CD.
Nice interview with Nick Egan over on the Album Cover Hall of Fame blog about the design process for Malcolm McLaren‘s ‘Duck Rock’ LP. Easily one of my favourite records of all time along with being a pivotal influential moment in my musical upbringing. With artists such as Dondi White, Keith Haring and Vivienne Westwood‘s wares vying for space on the sleeve it’s a wonder it all hangs together but somehow it does. I wish the interview had gone into the making of the ‘Duck Rocker’ boombox a little as I’d love to know who made it and where it is now.
The mystery revealed: Ron West – who made the original Duck Rocker(s) posted this on his Facebook page at the end of 2020. It’s lost its horns and the graffiti is in a drawer but that is a copy of the original from the LP cover. Apparently Malcolm lost the original in the States and asked Ron to make a copy for promo purposes.
Sold on the cover art alone. Richard Norris and Luke Insect‘s new Dark Seed project gets its first sleeve. Pre-order HERE. Comes with a free fold out poster too!
Love this cover for a new comp of French Cosmic and Electronic music. Very Phillippe Druillet, if not cribbed directly from one of his works. See the tracklist and pre-order here.
Ralph Steadman at 77 is a retrospective currently running at the Cartoon Museum in Little Russell St., London, WC1A 2HH. Featuring over 100 of his works, most of them originals, from Punch, Rolling Stone, Private Eye and the Observer. His book illustration work is also featured with some of the incredible Alice In Wonderland/Through The Looking Glass images (see below), Leonardo, Fear & Loathing and various children’s books.
Seeing the originals of some of these classic (for me) images was amazing, his line work is incredible but it was nice to see the amount of white out where he hadn’t quite nailed it every time too. The real treat though, was seeing some of his earlier 60’s work that I wasn’t familiar with, a few incorporating colour imagery collaged into the background (see top). Another was an illustration of the infamous Rolling Stones drug bust but my favourite of all was a square print from 1967 called ‘Bedlam’. This circular design of what looked like a board game was unlike many of his works that I’d ever seen, tightly (typo)graphic with all his usual unhinged, unkempt flair reigned in.
Seeing original work like this is one of my favourite past times, with a connection in scale and technique that is rarely captured in the books the pieces were made for. The imperfections and corrections, staining, yellowed paper and sometimes pasted-on additions fascinate me in the same way as a making-of documentary. An artist’s early work, his or her formative years, are always the most interesting for me, the style signposts slowly emerging whilst others are discarded as they find their own direction. Steadman found his fairly quickly and has been mining the same vein for decades now but he’s one of the few that have kept pushing himself into new areas, thus keeping the ‘shock’ factor intact. After the satire and bile of the 70’s and 80’s caricatures he and Gerald Scarfe became known for he moved into promotion for Oddbins, the off-licence, and then on into children’s books, neither of which you would ever have dreamed his material suitable for.
The exhibition runs until September 8th so there’s still a month left to catch it. Entry ranges from £5-3 and children are free. The upstairs houses original art from a lot of classic children’s comics at the moment, the Beano and Dandy being well represented but also a couple of pages from vintage 2000ad too: a Mike McMahon Dredd and a stunning Massimo Belardinelli Dan Dare splash page. By coincidence, Dave Gibbons’ ‘Whaat!?’ piece from the Image Duplicator show also currently resides there too at the moment.
I got into a conversation recently about comic book opening pages where type and title became part of the landscape which reminded me of the king of this; Will Eisner. I can’t claim to be an expert but I always found The Spirit opening pages that I saw to be endlessly inventive with the idea being ripped off numerous times over the decades.
Speaks for itself really, Shaky Kane redesigns the Orbital Comics bag.
The bag is in black & white but, if you pick up the latest issue of the free paper Your Days Are Numbered (cover, left), you get a colour version in the back (above). This is a decent quarterly freebie, printed A3 size and available in various places by the counter or where they put flyers.
Featuring original comics, interviews with creators and reviews, it’s one of the good ones to look for. The latest issue has interviews with David Hine & Shaky Kane, Gustavo Duarte (who also does the cover) and Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba.
Also inside is this great ad for Gosh! Comics by Ben Newman (below) which, along with the new Orbital bag by Shaky, means that Forbidden Planet really need to step up with their promo artwork.
