Tuesday, January 29, 2013

penjing arrangement


This is an arrangement of miniature 盆景 penjing on furniture, scanned from a booklet whose English title is China - a Land of Beauty Shanghai, published in 1978.

I can read this as an abstract comic (a pretty ambient one) or a visual poem.

Carlos Matuck of Brazil has done some desenhos (drawings) of Chinese scholars' stones, one in particular looking like comics: 5th one (2nd row, 2nd drawing) here.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Resyk Page 2


Here's the second page, finished last night.

This page, combined with page 1 and presented as a double-page spread, can be found here, at the Intercorstal blog.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Might as well be abstract, part 3

[NOTE: this is still a work in progress. See notice at the end]


Almost a year ago, I made two posts here on Ditko and Jack Burnley, respectively, where I showed some of their pages that, as the titles of the posts suggested, "might as well be abstract."  To some extent, this is what I also did in my article on Ditko and abstract comics (in Smith and Duncan's Critical Approaches to Comics), where I discussed two other pages from Spider-Man that I'm sure readers of this blog are sick and tired of seeing.  I've been meaning for a while to continue this series of posts on comics that, while representational, strike me as having some of the formal qualities that we see in abstract comics. 

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

'just thinking'

digital drawing, 11"x14" each panel



Resyk Page 1


First page from my latest project, using sheets reclaimed from a paper recycling bin.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Four pieces from 2008





These are all pieces that fell through the cracks between bigger projects.  Top to bottom:  "On the Beach," "A Day by the Ocean," "Flutters (in a Specimen Box)," and "Continental Slide."

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Zona 2, by Carlos Maiques





Like Zona 1, this comic was inspired, according to Carlos, by Andrei Tarkovsky's film, Stalker.   http://carlos-maiques.blogspot.com/

Monday, January 14, 2013

"Such hours; atrocious," by John Nguyen


John, according to the only bio he gave me, "is an exploring student." This piece, like Erika Leggett's, was made for Zack Dubuisson's Design I class at Lamar University.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Friday, January 11, 2013

"All connected" by David Prudhomme

A nice two-page comic by David Prudhomme that descends into, then rises out of, abstraction. Thanks to Alvaro Pons for the heads-up!

Thursday, January 10, 2013

"Inflaton"







This piece was originally published in Catch-Up, vol. 1. no. 2, which is now out of print.  Thanks to Mark P. Hensel and Jeff Hipsher for inviting me to participate!

You may notice it is the first piece I've done that has more of the traditional, "moment-to-moment" morphing mode of some abstract comics.  This is because I made it by drawing the panels on consecutive pages of a square-ruled notebook, starting each drawing from what I could see through the paper of the page beneath.

Monday, January 7, 2013

five out of ten

digital drawings for an abstract comic accordion book


Erika Leggett, "The Dramatic Process"








Erika is a graphic design student at Lamar University in Beaumont, TX.  She made this comic in Zack Dubuisson's Design I class.  (Zack is a former student of mine at IU Bloomington, where he got his MFA.)  Zack's assignment specified an eight-page abstract comic, with each page having a 3 x 3 grid.  We will feature here a couple more of the resulting works in the upcoming weeks.  Erika writes that she "enjoys actively depicting scenes and emotions inspired from her own life with a variety of two-dimensional media forms, including but not limited to drawing, painting, and photography.  The comic was inspired by the process of doing a play and all the emotions that process creates."

Sunday, January 6, 2013

New strip up at Carousel Mag's 4Panel

I missed this one when it was first published, but I seem to have a new strip up at 4Panel. Just click on the pic:


I also have another strip in the same series in their new print issue, Carousel no. 30.  Get it here.  Seriously, if I may say so myself, their 4Panel section is currently the best regularly published avant-garde comics anthology on the market.