sputnikcomics

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Ang Nawawala poster by AJ Dimarucot, EverywhereWeShoot!, and myself.

We made a movie. This is the poster. :)

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see you there!

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Superman by Keron Grant

Just look at that awesome illustration! Comics (especially superheroes/action stuff) needs more of these extreme angles and hyper-distortion! I remember when Morrison's JLA was new, people were ragging on Howard Porter's art. So okay, maybe he wasn't the best artist in the world, but I do remember him doing these crazy angles, wild page layouts/borders and extreme foreshortening, just to make the pages pop, make the action feel like it's going for your face, and I appreciated them. Most superhero comics don't have half the energy and wild go-for-broke antics those issues had.

Keron Grant's come a long way from his work in the '90s that I can remember. This here piece is my new wallpaper.

- ramon

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Batman by Rafael Grampa

- ramon

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Awesome comics writers/husband-wife Matt Fraction & Kelly Sue DeConnick

- ramon

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Ivan Brunetti, photo by Kurt Lauer

Here's another one, of one of my cartooning heroes.

- ramon

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Ellen Forney, photo by Mike Urban

It's rare to find good author photos of cartoonists.

- ramon

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Here's a lovely page from Nico Nemiri, who's got one of those breathtaking, graceful styles that look effortless. Sketchy lines shaping space, a minimum of clutter and just the right tones that limn surfaces. Notice how the panels move the reader's eye. The colors tell the story just as much as the compositions do, with a dreamy, gauzy quality.

- ramon

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Sorry to be so busy, but here's a link I couldn't pass up sending your way: CBR blog Robot 6's rundown of their favorite comics covers from last year. Some genuine loveliness in there. Mostly from Diamond's Big 5 publishers.

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AWESOME COVERS

Uptight # 4 by Jordan Crane

One of my favorite image-makers, Crane is the silkscreen master. I bought a poster of the cover of Uptight # 3. Three levels working on this one.

- ramon

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Daniel Raeburn has made all four issues of his zine about comics, The Imp, available for free download. This is a swell resource. Back in the day, this was the most information on Daniel Clowes & Chris Ware I could find. When the Chris Ware monograph came out, it was by Raeburn, and much of it was repurposed from his Ware issue of The Imp. He's also a good, fun writer about comics, well-informed without seeming elitist, and that style of writing used to be in short supply. Now it's a little more common, especially online, but I can't help but wonder how much of a role The Imp played in influencing those writers. Add to that, Raeburn's got a good eye for design, as well.

- ramon

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AWESOME COVERS

Incognito: Bad Influences # 1 (variant) by Sean Phillips

Made to look like the cover of one of the pulp paperbacks that are its main influence, this cover of Incognito is a beaut. Check out the distressed wear and tear and that type treatment. Scrumptious!

You're all reading Incognito, right? From the excellent Criminal team of Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips?

- ramon

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Dave McKean's hour-long talk/presentation at OFFSET 2009. McKean's one of the best artists full stop. Not just in comics. Even within comics he's known more for his illustration work on covers, but seek out his books Cages and Pictures That Tick if you can. Amazing stuff. And, of course, his work with Neil Gaiman like Violent Cases, Signal To Noise and Black Orchid. Most especially, Mr. Punch, which is a stone-cold classic in my book. Any opportunity to see/hear the guy speak at length about his work and process should be grabbed.

- ramon

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The guys who gave you "Catching Up," Ed Brisson & Simon Roy, are back with another sweet little blunt kick to the head of a crime tale. "Skimming The Till" can be found here. Take the time to read it; the twists and turns are worth it.

- ramon

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Recording of a panel from the recently concluded San Diego Comic-Con called "Understanding, Making and Teaching Comics" with Scott McCloud & James Sturm. Definitely the two best people to talk about this topic. McCloud is the medium's eminent theorist and literally wrote/drew the books on the topic, and Sturm founded the Center for Cartoon Studies.

- ramon

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Zac Gorman's put up the entirety of "The Magician and The Snake" online for us all to enjoy here. A very short story illustrated by the mighty Mike Mignola and co-written with his then-7-year-old daughter Katie, it won the Eisner the year it was published for Best Short Story. Thus making Katie the youngest Eisner winner ever. Reading it, one gets the joyous sensation of spontaneous creation that can only come from a child's imagination, where it's not second-guessing itself with things like "realism" or "plot logic." Just, "what's next?" and "what's cool?" All great stories, I believe, still start like this. We just have to tap into that pool of imagination without bringing the "adult" parts with us. We can temper the inspiration we bring back, but we'll be able to surprise ourselves again.

And for such a short tale, it still has an emotional punch. Giving that panel with the kite a sad sting, and especially that last page, is a skill of Mignola's I'm always in awe of, even with such a flight of fancy as this. Remarkable.

"The Magician and The Snake" will be included in the forthcoming book The Amazing Screw-On Head & Other Curious Objects, collecting Mignola's non-Hellboy-related short stories over the last several years. Needless to say, it's gonna be good.

- ramon

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scott pilgrim's finest hour

is finally in Sputnik. My guess is if the first batch hasn't sold out by this Friday's big Manila Design Week shebang, it'll all go that evening, so hop to it! Resolution!