Tuesday, 23 July 2013
Monday, 22 July 2013
'What You See May Not Be Real'
Awesome.
Wenling's art work is... WTF disturbing at times. He's a provocateur, an instigator, much like the Chapman brothers. Fascinating the way driving by a car accident is.
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| WTF |
The Amazing James Turner!
No, the other one.
James Turner does delightful, zany comics across the pond, in Jolly Old England, that then get distributed back across the other side instantaneously. Much faster than comics syndicates four hundred years ago, which took, like, years. Check it out!
Hear his words of wisdom here.
Behold: an example below. This is fresh, hilarious stuff. Just what you'd expect from a James Turner.
James Turner does delightful, zany comics across the pond, in Jolly Old England, that then get distributed back across the other side instantaneously. Much faster than comics syndicates four hundred years ago, which took, like, years. Check it out!
Hear his words of wisdom here.
Behold: an example below. This is fresh, hilarious stuff. Just what you'd expect from a James Turner.
Saturday, 20 July 2013
Friday, 19 July 2013
Thursday, 18 July 2013
In Praise of Alex Coleville
"My work is pessimistic but my life is happy. I see the human condition as tragic." -- Alex ColevilleAn official war artist who went on to paint unnerving scenes of domesticity, Alex Coleville's meticulously rendered, finely composed works have always entranced me. He's one of Canada's greatest artists. Check out his work.
I 'met' him once at a talk he gave at the AGO a number of years ago. Tremendously nice fellow. Very grounded.
I remember a photo of the underlying grid structure he used to compose a painting. Yes, everything is related to everything else, as it should be. But with Coleville, the relationship between elements is balanced to the millimeter, placed with the utmost care. No other Canadian composed so finely. Okay, fine, maybe Christopher Pratt.
Coleville, and his vision, will be greatly missed.
Cheeky Time
Crush the barriers of good taste!
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
Hell 101: Interview with James Turner, author of Rebel Angels
Rebel Angels is an upcoming graphic novel from Slave Labor Graphics (SLG) Publishing about a counter-revolution in Hell. Ten
thousand years after Eve bit into that juicy apple and Satan took on The
Big Guy, the demon masses are wising up and asking, "What were we
thinking?" Join fallen angel Balthazar on his quest for meaning and
redemption in a mad, morally inverted world where hope is a sin.
The first volume is 240 pages of finely illustrated mayhem, as the Machiavellian schemes of Hell's ruling class descend into anarchy and chaos. Many comics feature demons. Few are set in Hell itself.
You can get the first issue from Comixology for FREE right here.
Not convinced? Read reviews by ComicSpectrum and AtomicSam.
Need more? Check out the SLG interview with James Turner below.
Q: What were your sources of inspiration?
JT: I've been working long enough to self-reference. Yay! Rebel Angels merges the flat, graphic look of Nil: A Land Beyond Belief with the more cartoonish, multi-dimensional Warlord of Io. To regress even further, Nil was influenced by my love of architectural drawings and blueprints, while Warlord of Io drew from Frank R. Paul, the unsurpassed herald of the Retro-Future.
On top of that, I slathered influences like Piranesi's Prisons etchings, Bosch, Bruegel, Winsor McCay, and Louis Le Breton. Several demon designs are directly based on creations of Bosch and Breton. I wanted to establish an infernal visual verisimilitude that way, even if only on a subconscious level. It's fun to spot them, too. And of course there's a little John Martin in there.
Q: Many things parody or poke fun at modern tendencies and institutions such as the 'Seven Deadly Sins Stock Exchange' or the 'Department of Internet Forum Commentary'. Is Hell meant to represent the worst vices and excesses of modern life?
JT: Oh absolutely; our flawed institutions are enormously funny. It also makes sense that internet trolls are really demons. It's obvious when you think about it. Who could possibly be so nasty, or have so much time on their hands to spread it? Background signage was ubiquitous throughout Nil, but people complained it slowed down the narrative. If I can find a way to put it in without being disruptive, I'll ramp it up in future volumes, as Hell industrializes and develops a more sophisticated advertising industry
Q: Why do you think stories involving demons, angels and sin are so timeless and appealing?
JT: Because those stories are all about us! Same way sci-fi is about problems in the here and now. It's a way to explore the nature of people in a more 'arch' fashion using powerful metaphors and symbols. We add preternatural elements to stories in order to emphasize and externalize emotional truths. I see angels and demons in that light
Q: Your world building, backstory and cartography of Hell is extensive – where did you get the idea of Hell as a bloated hypocritical bureaucracy with feuding ideological factions?
JT: It was a natural direction to go in given Milton's description. He describes the Fallen Angels as being a diverse group, united only in their opposition to God. After the fall, some just sat atop mountain peaks in Hell discussing philosophy, for example. Entire populations with completely uniform yet utterly despicable political views only exist in the worst propaganda based caricatures. Think of Orwell's Two Minute Hate. So any charitable look, any honest look, would have to go beyond that.
As far as bureaucracies go, their nature is to expand. Hell has been around since before Adam and Eve, so they've had plenty of time to become obscenely bloated. Think ten thousand years of passing municipal bylaws.
Q: Will The Big Guy Upstairs -God- make an appearance in future installments of Balthazar's infernal antics?
JT: My outline doesn't, although that may change as inspiration strikes. It can be capricious. The book evolved a lot during execution. South Park has a very funny version of Him, not bearded-man-on-a-cloud at all. But it will all depend on how the book sells. That's the nature of the industry.
Q: Out of all the demons of Hell, what made you pick the Balthazar as the main character?
James Turner: Balthazar started out as demon detective Muk, a character from Nil: A Land Beyond Belief.
Back then Rebel Angels was a direct sequel to Nil, in which two demon detectives return to Hell with revolutionary memes and bring down the regime. Unfortunately people found demon detectives confusing, so while I took out that angle, I kept the updated designs for Muk, and renamed him Balthazar. He's a seeker, trying to find purpose in a world where spiritual meaning is essentially proscribed by the regime. I thought that was an interesting angle to explore, in between all the fighting, sex, farts, and explosions.
Q: Some people find Milton's Satan is a more compelling character than his God. Do you also identify with the scrappy underdogs, the demon grunts of Hell who trade a heavenly tyrant for a hellish one?
JT: Absolutely. Look at Arab Spring. Revolutions never turn out the way you want. Throughout history the hopes and dreams of the people are subverted, sabotaged by the raging ego of a manipulative tyrant. Plato talked about this in The Republic, thousands of years ago. Same old, same old.
That being said, revolutions always make for interesting times. Like World War II, the setting of countless movies, TV shows, video games, cartoons, comics, documentaries, etc, revolutions are a great canvas to paint drama upon.
Rebel Angels has action, explosions, battles, sex, and jokes galore against a backdrop of epic epicness. Take that, History Channel!
The first volume is 240 pages of finely illustrated mayhem, as the Machiavellian schemes of Hell's ruling class descend into anarchy and chaos. Many comics feature demons. Few are set in Hell itself.
You can get the first issue from Comixology for FREE right here.
Not convinced? Read reviews by ComicSpectrum and AtomicSam.
Need more? Check out the SLG interview with James Turner below.
 |
| City of Dis |
Q: What were your sources of inspiration?
JT: I've been working long enough to self-reference. Yay! Rebel Angels merges the flat, graphic look of Nil: A Land Beyond Belief with the more cartoonish, multi-dimensional Warlord of Io. To regress even further, Nil was influenced by my love of architectural drawings and blueprints, while Warlord of Io drew from Frank R. Paul, the unsurpassed herald of the Retro-Future.
On top of that, I slathered influences like Piranesi's Prisons etchings, Bosch, Bruegel, Winsor McCay, and Louis Le Breton. Several demon designs are directly based on creations of Bosch and Breton. I wanted to establish an infernal visual verisimilitude that way, even if only on a subconscious level. It's fun to spot them, too. And of course there's a little John Martin in there.
Q: Many things parody or poke fun at modern tendencies and institutions such as the 'Seven Deadly Sins Stock Exchange' or the 'Department of Internet Forum Commentary'. Is Hell meant to represent the worst vices and excesses of modern life?
JT: Oh absolutely; our flawed institutions are enormously funny. It also makes sense that internet trolls are really demons. It's obvious when you think about it. Who could possibly be so nasty, or have so much time on their hands to spread it? Background signage was ubiquitous throughout Nil, but people complained it slowed down the narrative. If I can find a way to put it in without being disruptive, I'll ramp it up in future volumes, as Hell industrializes and develops a more sophisticated advertising industry
Q: Why do you think stories involving demons, angels and sin are so timeless and appealing?
JT: Because those stories are all about us! Same way sci-fi is about problems in the here and now. It's a way to explore the nature of people in a more 'arch' fashion using powerful metaphors and symbols. We add preternatural elements to stories in order to emphasize and externalize emotional truths. I see angels and demons in that light
Q: Your world building, backstory and cartography of Hell is extensive – where did you get the idea of Hell as a bloated hypocritical bureaucracy with feuding ideological factions?
JT: It was a natural direction to go in given Milton's description. He describes the Fallen Angels as being a diverse group, united only in their opposition to God. After the fall, some just sat atop mountain peaks in Hell discussing philosophy, for example. Entire populations with completely uniform yet utterly despicable political views only exist in the worst propaganda based caricatures. Think of Orwell's Two Minute Hate. So any charitable look, any honest look, would have to go beyond that.
As far as bureaucracies go, their nature is to expand. Hell has been around since before Adam and Eve, so they've had plenty of time to become obscenely bloated. Think ten thousand years of passing municipal bylaws.
Q: Will The Big Guy Upstairs -God- make an appearance in future installments of Balthazar's infernal antics?
JT: My outline doesn't, although that may change as inspiration strikes. It can be capricious. The book evolved a lot during execution. South Park has a very funny version of Him, not bearded-man-on-a-cloud at all. But it will all depend on how the book sells. That's the nature of the industry.
Q: Out of all the demons of Hell, what made you pick the Balthazar as the main character?
James Turner: Balthazar started out as demon detective Muk, a character from Nil: A Land Beyond Belief.
Back then Rebel Angels was a direct sequel to Nil, in which two demon detectives return to Hell with revolutionary memes and bring down the regime. Unfortunately people found demon detectives confusing, so while I took out that angle, I kept the updated designs for Muk, and renamed him Balthazar. He's a seeker, trying to find purpose in a world where spiritual meaning is essentially proscribed by the regime. I thought that was an interesting angle to explore, in between all the fighting, sex, farts, and explosions.
Q: Some people find Milton's Satan is a more compelling character than his God. Do you also identify with the scrappy underdogs, the demon grunts of Hell who trade a heavenly tyrant for a hellish one?
JT: Absolutely. Look at Arab Spring. Revolutions never turn out the way you want. Throughout history the hopes and dreams of the people are subverted, sabotaged by the raging ego of a manipulative tyrant. Plato talked about this in The Republic, thousands of years ago. Same old, same old.
That being said, revolutions always make for interesting times. Like World War II, the setting of countless movies, TV shows, video games, cartoons, comics, documentaries, etc, revolutions are a great canvas to paint drama upon.
Rebel Angels has action, explosions, battles, sex, and jokes galore against a backdrop of epic epicness. Take that, History Channel!
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Monday, 15 July 2013
Churchill's Bomb Friendly Bunker
When most governments build bad-ass bunkers, they slather on the reinforced concrete and steel until they can laugh off A-bombs.
The enemy expects that. Hell, their bomb makers depend on it for their research budgets.
Crafty old Churchill did the unexpected: he built a bunker that isn't bomb proof. There's a sheet of metal over it, sure, but that's just for show. They weren't really trying. One direct hit would have caved the whole place in.
The British were entirely depending on the Luftwaffe not knowing where it was. So they put it in downtown London. In the government district, beneath a major government building, just where the German's would never expect it to be but would be bombing anyway.
The top floor is a comfortable height, filled with narrow winding passageways lined with cubbyhole rooms for operations and senior staff, but the sub-basement is a tall man's nightmare. This is where the quarters were. It's a claustrophobic labyrinth. Harry Potter had it better under the stairs.
The whole complex is far less cinematic looking than depicted on film and TV. Odd how that so often turns out to be the case, isn't it? Set designers know their stuff. I admit to being a little disappointed at the map room.
Still, it was fascinating to see the real thing. Walk the same halls. It was a hub of history, that little bunker, where momentous decisions affecting the entire world were made every day.
And they had wonderfully fresh tea and nice cakes in the cafeteria.
Much of it has been left as it was the day the war ended. Well. The dummies are additions, not mummified wartime personnel imprisoned behind plexi-glass, although admittedly that'd be cool. Something to consider for the next war.
Why take these pictures? I'm so glad I asked: it's an odd habit I picked up in Art College and have never shaken. Whenever I go anywhere, I'm always on the look out for reference material.
Why?
Because back in the Long Long Ago, before the internets, it was so hard to find. And you'd have to significantly alter, rotate, and change any source material you did find. Fortunately, I rarely do realistic renderings, so the problem is far from acute for me. But I still remember how useful having my own source material was.
These pictures are the product of that lingering impulse. There's far better available on the net today, obviously. The shots aren't great, but for my purposes, they don't have to be. I'd re-light and alter them anyway, but they do show certain details and perspective.
If I ever set a Rex Libris scene in Churchill's bunker, I have the reference material covered.
Thursday, 11 July 2013
Hell 101: Modern Interpretations of The Infernal Realm
Hell pops up all over the place, from Constantine to Buffy to Spawn, in modern culture. Films, TV, games, comics, music: Hell's everywhere. It's a damn popular stop for storytellers, and with good reason.
It's got fire, sin, punishment, horrific monsters, and interesting people in distress.Hell's inherently dramatic.
Visually, Hell has become a collection of well loved tropes. I stayed away from modern interpretations while working on the book to avoid contemporary influences, but now that it's wrapped up...
World of Warcraft imagery set in Hell (or what seems to be a terrestrial equivalent) is so ubiquitous and widely referenced it's hard to tell what's original and what's fan art. Some is that good.
What Dreams May Come channeled the sensibility of Maxfield Parrish. It's breathtaking visually, but the story unfortunately couldn't keep up with the surface bling.
South Park has a hapless Satan living in sin with Saddam Hussein. It's a painfully dysfunctional relationship, and before long you begin to feel sorry for poor old Satan. He's just looking for real intimacy! C'mon! Ditch Saddam already.The video game Doom transferred Hell to outer space and pitted pixelated demons against space marines. Kind of like an interactive version of Event Horizon, but with big f'in' guns.
And then there's God's Demon by Douglas Wayne Barlowe, the renowned painter. Heck, he's one of the greatest fantasy artists ever. He's not only created a series of paintings set in Hell, but written a novel about a demon who rebels and seeks the forgiveness of God.
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| Dealing damage to demons in Doom |
Damn.
His is a very dark take on the matter, with wild creature designs that'd look at home on the silver screen, facing off against Viggo Mortensen and beating up Keanu Reeves. Surprised it isn't higher profile.
It could sit in a museum along with John Martin's paintings.
No good idea hasn't been done, as they say.
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| Wayne Barlowe's Hell |
My upcoming graphic novel, Rebel Angels is a tongue in cheek satire, however, while Barlowe's book sounds dead serious. The first seventy pages can be downloaded for FREE from Comixology here.
Both are based on Milton's Paradise Lost, although I squeeze in Dante's Inferno for good measure. There's a kitchen sink in there too.
Even more recently, Seymour Chwast has adapted Dante's Inferno into graphic novel format, and it's awesome.
So there's lots of demon comix to choose from.
Rebel Angels, the graphic novel (long comic book), will be available at fine local comic book shops next spring from SLG Publishing. Pick up a copy, give it a read, and find out if Hell really is other people.
Wednesday, 10 July 2013
Monday, 8 July 2013
2013 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition
I did a quick run through of the visual feast that is the TOAE (Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition) at Nathan Phillips Square on Saturday. Roughly 300 artists participate every year. High profile notables like David Blackwood, Ken Danby, and Joanne Todd all did, back in the day.
The usuals (Rotter, George A. Walker, Debra Tate-Sears, etc) were there, with more good stuff.
The same but different.
If you didn't make it out, here are some highlights (I go so you don't have to!):
The usuals (Rotter, George A. Walker, Debra Tate-Sears, etc) were there, with more good stuff.
The same but different.
If you didn't make it out, here are some highlights (I go so you don't have to!):
Oleg Lipchenko
Picked up his book Freudoscope, which plops our favourite cigar obsessed psychiatrist into famous paintings, including The Garden of Earthly Delights. Wonderfully rendered, playful illustrations with a mischievous edge. He's best known for his award winning Alice's Adventures in Wonderland illustrations, published by Tundra Books. Julie Roch-Cuerrier
Bizarre collages that merge animals with fashion illustration. Quite striking visually and full of fun. More of her work can be found at Art Is More.Scott Bergey
Reminiscent of Paul Klee (One of my art heroes), his warped, boisterous abstracts are wildly free and creative. You'd never know he has no formal art training; his work is better than many who do. On top of that, he's an airline pilot.John Shea
Specializes in tightly rendered watercolour paintings of houses that use the surrounding snow to add a bold, abstract quality. Schweet!Elly Smallwood
On the far side of tightly rendered is Elly Smallwoods. Her tightly framed portraits are executed with wild, mad brushstrokes that stop you in your tracks.Sab Meynert
Delicate yet bold, Sab's work struck me as highly idiosyncratic and definitely worth a look.Leyre Arroyo
A Spaniard, her work seems to mesh Picasso with children's illustration. I think I liked her collage the most, but all of it was distinctive.Alice Vander Vennen
This sort of work usually isn't my cup of tea, but Vander Vennen's is so good it won me over. Reminds me of Native North American art, but set on clean, antiseptic white.
John Ovcacik
Flat and graphic yet tightly rendered in minute detail, it reminds me of Alex Coleville and Christopher Pratt. Only more abstract. As sharply composed as they are rendered.
Friday, 5 July 2013
EXCLUSIVE: My Breasts Came From Mars!
Welcome to the biggest hit of 2013: My Breasts Came From Mars!
High concept all the way, baby: a young woman goes in for a breast implant, but gets more than she ever bargained for!
It's got explosions, boobs, fast cars, catch phrases, sex, more boobs, gun fights, fist fights, cat fights, alien invasions, and a heart rending love story that will leave you sobbing. What more could you want?
Take a gander at the cover and order your copy today! Order ten!
Check out our exclusive one-page preview if you aren't convinced, dear readers, because you will be:
High concept all the way, baby: a young woman goes in for a breast implant, but gets more than she ever bargained for!
It's got explosions, boobs, fast cars, catch phrases, sex, more boobs, gun fights, fist fights, cat fights, alien invasions, and a heart rending love story that will leave you sobbing. What more could you want?
Take a gander at the cover and order your copy today! Order ten!
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| Top that Michael Bay! |
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