FLOG! Entries for Jacob Covey

Comics, design, and so on.

covey

I wish I had time to Flog all that I'd like to Flog but until I manage to write some decent design-related posts (as if anyone wanted my take on the history of the illuminated Bible up through the Wolverton Bible), here's a quick bit of editorializing promotion for a few talented people:

• There's a new interview with Andy Smith over on James Morrison's Caustic Cover Critic book cover blog (which is a good place to hang out if you care about such things). Andy is a UK illustrator who does a lot of distinctive book cover design work. He also makes silkscreened comics by way of a kids-book format (one illustration per page/spread). The work is lively and really satisfying to hold. Frequently his books use typography as a narrator's voice but also as a kind of character and setting. I'm always impressed with people who can pull off messy, loose drawing styles with total confidence and Andy manages to do it with deceptive sophistication. These are comics meant to be a joy and they are.

• Last weekend I had the chance to put up Mome artist T. Edward Bak in our guest room and I really enjoyed talking with him about the research for his in-progress graphic novel about the life of G. W. Steller. With all the self-indulgent Kickstarter projects that feel like sad panhandling, Bak's book is a standout for what makes that site a great resource. Anyone who wants to support comics as a legitimate form of reportage/biography should fund this project on principle alone. Bak is doing a remarkable amount of background study to make this book not just some accessible story of an easy-to-glorify character but one that presents a new perspective on a legendary naturalist explorer. Sign on here.

• Then there's Lizz Hickey. I love the artwork of Lizz Hickey so if she wants to make a comic book out of copperplate etchings, then I can get behind her need to raise money for such an expensive endeavor. I'm not going to try to describe her work. She's unique, very unique.

• T. Edward Bak and I were also talking about the Facebook posts of Art Chantry. Chantry is an icon of contemporary graphic design and a wealth of popular culture knowledge (especially of the blue collar variety) as it relates to design. He's had a big impact on me over the years and his lengthy and entertaining Facebook posts are well worth enduring whatever makes Facebook supposedly evil.

• And speaking of Chantry, Mikey Burton did this smart poster for one of Art's speaking engagements. Mikey does some great design work and I was excited to talk to him recently about xerox transfer process but all he did is tell me I should quit it because it gave him spontaneous nosebleeds. What a killjoy.

Culture Corner Is Coming...

covey

All the proofs have been approved and on press right now is our latest collection of Basil Wolverton's work. Archiving every "Culture Corner" strip ever printed alongside every extant original sketch for each of those strips, this book is a fascinating document of the artist's process. It also inlcudes a large number of rejected or otherwise-never-printed sketches for the strip, as well as Wolverton's hand-written log of these things.

In short, it's all very incredible.

Culture Corner was a lot of fun to work on and I'm once again grateful to Monte Wolverton for trusting me so fully with the task of designing a book of his legendary father's work.

TjuMmbNleT

covey

Everybody's doing mash-ups of one kind or another these days but nobody does a character mash-up like Jeremy Eaton's inspired cartoon jumbles. So when he started taking custom orders I jumped on it with "Original TMNT" vs "Archie TMNT." It's absolutely the best Christmas present I ever bought myself.

Jeremy does these with a beautiful combo of tones, from the tint of the paper to the hues of the wash. You can order your own Spider-Bat or whatever you like in the sidebar of his blog.

Dink.

covey

Rabies Singer

covey

I admire the smart punk aesthetic of Raymond Biesinger a great deal and I keep his small book "100 Black on White Illustrations" next to my desk to keep me motivated in dark times, to remind me why minimal color is best, and to reinforce my conviction that the computer is great but is bettered by analog techniques. He was in Beasts2 and now he's updated his site and has a blog.

Art Clokey, 1921-2010

covey

Art Clokey, creator of Gumby and a significant torch-bearer for stop-animation, passed away on Friday at the age of 88. In July of 2006, I was excited to have the opportunity to meet him and his son, Joe Clokey (above). Below are some photos I took of Gumby artifacts in the exhibit that was touring at the time, in celebration of Gumby's 50th Anniversary. Art Clokey was very sweet and the family was clearly excited to have their father getting this public recognition for his iconic creation. Gumby has a long life outside of the great film shorts, including a recent line of comic books from Bob Burden and Rick Geary. Plus he oversees the production of all of your favorite Fantagraphics books, hanging from a lamp on Adam Grano's desk here in the Art Department.

R.I.P. Mr. Clokey.

* I've posted a larger image of the exhibition photo on my Flickr page here.

Journey

covey

On the occassion of his 500th post, I want to direct Flog attention to the ridiculously hungry aesthetic mind of my pal Will Schofield and his blog, A Journey Around My Skull. Anyone interested in illustration and design (and photography and art and whatever is visually interesting that has existed somewhere in time, somewhere on the globe) should have this page bookmarked.

Equally impressive to any of the content is the sheer enthusiasm Will has for the work he features. This isn't link-blogging or pixelated attention-deficit syndrome, the guy is committed in a way that I wish I could be to anything. He seems to always be tracking down some 1970s Polish kids' book, or trying to unravel who is the (bizarre) Norman Rockwell of Japanese culture, or otherwise awaiting a dozen books from some foreign incarnation of Ebay.

Meanwhile, he works away at his day job editing for an intriguing independent book publisher (and surely, somehow, sleeping and eating) while carving out time to research, scan, and write up work that is almost uniformly obscure or under-appreciated. I honestly can't quite understand why he even does it, it's so damn generous. Please enjoy A Journey Around (Will's) Skull.

SEATTLE: Roq la Rue, Femke Hiemstra, Junko Mizuno

covey

TONIGHT sees the opening of a joint solo show from Femke Hiemstra and Junko Mizuno. See the Roq site for more info. If I understand the Roq blog correctly it appears that Femke's work is already sold out. Show runs through January 30th.

10 BEASTS! on sale at Tiny Showcase.

covey

Tiny Showcase has their "10 Beasts!" print set on sale for the holidays (along with most of their many other prints). At half price, it's a steal for ten pieces from ten great artists.* It should be noted that unlike most of the TS prints, these are letterpressed and done so in many colors.

Heck, if you don't mind breaking up the set you can give a print out to ten lucky pals for the holidays or, if you're one of those "prepared" people, you could always have ten gifts on hand for those birthday announcements that pop up on your Facebook page, right?

Artists who made new work for this set include Souther Salazar, S. britt, Jesse LeDoux, Saelee Oh, Josh Cochran, Meg Hunt, Kenneth Lavallee, Keith Shore, Tony Millionaire and Jordan Crane.

*Note: I curated it but I do not have any monetary interest in this collection.

Herriman Thursday! 2

covey

No reason.

ART SHOWS!

covey

Dan Zettwoch organized a show of art based on movie villians, which sounds great. But more importantly he made this badass poster. OPENS TONIGHT in SAINT LOUIS.

And NEXT WEEK in CHICAGO Jesse LeDoux has a show of paintings at the Rotofugi gallery. I've seen a little of what he's been up to and I would not miss this if I were near that gallery.

Gahan Wilson Production Notes

covey

Back in June Fantagraphics Publisher Gary Groth and I were trouble-shooting ideas for packaging "Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons." Most of the ideas were unfeasible or enough of a gimmick that it felt distracting from the work. (Sure an iron maiden clamshell box is funny but do we really want the case to be that cumbersome?) As we axed ideas, so to speak, I kept returning to this classic gag of a man pressed under glass and was interested in how it echoed the idea that we're capturing the legacy of Gahan Wilson within this boxed set. A little research showed that we could make a slipcase with a plexiglass back so Gary and I agreed on the direction and I called up the legendary cartoonist to pitch him on the idea of drawing a self-portrait version of his old gag.

It turns out Mr. Wilson is a hilarious, engaging man to chat with but there was no convincing him to draw the portrait. He liked the idea just fine but felt that it was somehow impure to use artwork on the case that wasn't from the work inside. As my hopes faded I heard him suggest something I hadn't dared to ask: "If you want to take a picture we could do that." So the next minute I was on the phone to Gary. Would it hurt sales to have the grim visage of a trapped 79-year-old man staring out at the book buyer? Gary didn't care, he loved the idea more than he feared how it would be received. And it certainly wouldn't be ignored. So we had our solution.

The next trick was having no budget (aka Fantagraphics Budget) and the need for a photographer willing to travel out to Gahan's studio to pull off the shoot within a few weeks time. I wasn't optimistic, but remembering the work of Seth Kushner's NYC photos of cartoonists I took a stab at conscripting not just a decent photographer but a truly talented one. Seth generously agreed to our modest arrangement and treked out to Sag Harbor with his camera and a man-sized panel of glass. In no time we had these amazing portraits that nailed the concept. (Plus we ended up with some great unpublished outtakes like this one of Gahan cradling a "baby" skeleton.)

On the production end, Playboy graciously gave us a wide berth on the design-- their only major dictate being the point size and typeface used for the art pages of the book-- so the final piece was just to pull off the tricky production Gary and I were envisioning. Our printer, Imago, worked with me at length on getting everything right and their efforts really completed the book.

In the end, each book has a different Gahan portrait on the back cover so the framed image of the artist can be changed out and displayed on your shelf of honor. The front of the slipcase is pillow embossed (ie: the image is in layered relief, which doesn't photograph well here), the back cover is silkscreened plexiglass, and the book covers are all diecut with morbid icons, with matching tipped-in interior diecut pages.

To top it off, the Special Edition set is shrink-wrapped with a box of miniature reproduction cards sent from Gahan to Hugh Hefner and a glow-in-the-dark letterpress print reminding the owner, day or night, that the end of the world is coming.

Art of Sakai Exhibit

covey

Flickr user Moonage Daydreamer has a few photos from the Art of Stan Sakai exhibit (from early 2009) that I hadn't seen before. The anecdote posted with this photo is typical Sakai, one of the truly gracious men of comics.

Happy Halloween from Gahan Wilson!

covey

And, yes, that gag is on page 666 of our stupifying collection of the master cartoonist's Playboy work.

(Random) Herriman Thursday!

covey

Cost of a Green Slime / TCRI Ooze Crossover: $60m

covey

A dream of mine was dashed last week, when the TMNT property transfered hands (for $60 million) from a flesh-and-blood man, Peter Laird, to a corporate entity, Nickelodeon. What had seemed a plausible book idea that would storm the world whenever I, you know, got around to proposing it (A TMNT book in the vein of "Batman Collected" meets "Bizarro World" by way of Kramer's Mome meets the "Marvel Encyclopedia" and, of course, "BEASTS!"*) is almost surely a lost cause now.

My Argentian "Kalkers", my ceramic French mini-figures, that baby-turtles animation cell up above, and my whole lot of compulsively collected TMNT merchandise* is going back in the closet. Also going in the closet is my hope of convincing Dash Shaw to do a TMNT story that the original series should have made when Eastman/Laird decided to bring on outside artists who got "wacky" instead of exploring the complexity of the characters' personalities (ala the flicker that was the "Return to New York" storyline and more akin to the trend in the Marvel universe that has made such successful films possible).

Sure, Fantagraphics' Eric Reynolds had his fun at my expense: "Yeah, it'll be a shame to see them commercialized." But I'm not the only one here at Comics Cred Central who loves the Turtles. Fantagraphics office manger, Zuniga, is pretty broken up about this sale too. And this is a guy who's serious about comics--a guy who was personally invited out by the Wu Tang Clan at ComicCon but said "No, I've gotta sell comics."* I'm telling you, it's a shame what the property could turn into. Especially when a great book could still be made.

But hey, I'm optimistic and somebody at Nickelodeon showed up to work this week with a big pile of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tasks on their "To-Do" list and I want to make that person's job easier: I'm the graphic designer you need.* Note: I'm marginal at "wacky." Also "testestorone-fueled." But, man, have I got a book idea for you!

...I hope they at least get Chris Duffy involved. He's already in their payroll system and the man's been good to comics.

*not kidding

There's a picture of you in the paper. Of me? WEREWOLF?

covey

I always love when we get Jason art in the mail and I really love these sheets of translated text he sends for upcoming books. (Bad iPhone photo blurred so as not to create any spoilers.) A long time ago Jason allowed me to give away a small piece of lettering to the first Flog reader to respond to my posting of it. We should really try to do things like that more often, huh?

No, not today. But sometime.

Support Art for the Holidays.

covey

There are a dozen things each week that I'm not Flogging due to No Time. I hope to soon do some postings on recent and upcoming books that I've been involved with. Until then, I've made a habit of annually encouraging Flog readers to support artists with their holiday shopping and this year I'm digging into it a little deeper. Some of these notes are aimed at artists who are looking to connect with audiences and some are aimed at audiences looking to support artists.

• Chuck Close as recorded here has some thoughts about Art and its cultural importance. Especially relevant are "Justifying Public Art Expenditures" and "Advice to Artists During a Crisis". (Though, contrary to Close, I think the WPA projects of people like Lester Beall epitomize great art concepts aligning with popular public receptivity, making the 1930s/40s an amazing time for Art to speak to the mainstream. And in that way, we may be in a similar place with this economy. But I digress.)

• Economy tips for artists: Etsy. The only time I've used Etsy was to buy art, starting back when I bought a beautiful and ridiculously-cheap print ("Helpful") from John Hankiewicz on Etsy. And Souther Salazar does it right by offering up doodles and art that he doesn't otherwise have an art show home for. Work sells as quickly as it goes up and I know it means a lot to me to get to buy an affordable, small piece of art from him. I wish established artists would do this more often.

• Turns out Etsy also has a lot of poster artists offering work and Dan Grzeca has found a way to use it for unusual offerings like a tube of misprints for cheap.

• Aspiring cartoonists might be interested in the Kickstarter site and, specifically, Jamie Tanner's model for publishing his next book. By offering special offers to people who preorder the not-yet-made book, he's managing to make it a reality on his own.

• I finally acquiesced to Facebook and, sure enough, within a day I had people I went to high school trying to contact me. Man I hated high school. But I've noticed one thing on Facebook that was interesting: Martin Ontiveros making a request for a ride to the airport, saving himself $30, and offering the ride-giver a small piece of art. That's a great use of Facebook and alternative economy. (Tip to artists: if you use Facebook for getting news out to fans and "the industry," I quickly discovered that I end up hiding anyone who posts more often than a fifteen-year-old girl gone off ritalin.)

• Most of the artists who aren't utterly canonized have some online presence where you can buy original art or at least limited run prints. And a lot of artists like Steven Weissman and Zettwoch/May/Huizenga have affordable commissions available and set up to click-n-buy. Many of the bigger "names" will do commissions but you have to approach them about it... and pay considerably more. (Tony Millionaire told me his commissions start at $1,000 but I happen to know he also wants a radiometer. If you hand-forged him a giant one for his den then, hey, maybe you'd get a break.)

• My biggest holiday tip is obvious: find those links to buying art from your favorite artists and then forward the links to your friends, Santa Claus, and your mom. Especially your mom. (Seriously, I don't know what you get but I got a Tommy Hilfiger coat one year and burlesque-rocket-ship table lamps another and I'm about fed up with surprises.) You'll find tons of original art being sold in one place at the old stand-bys: Comic Art Collective and The Beguiling, among others.

• Lastly, you could just buy some books. Fantagraphics sells those all over this site you're looking at. Artists like their books selling.

Millionaire in the Northwest.

covey

...And speaking of Tony Millionaire, did you see Jeopardy last week? Where Tony's brother-in-law totally destroyed Wolf Blitzer? It was crazy.

The Groth Grail

covey

The Conrad Groth sketchbook is a mammoth thing: at least 12" square with thick glossy art stock and maybe a couple hundred pages to be filled. Fantagraphics Founder, Gary Groth, gets the best cartoonists in the world to do sketches for his young son and it is AMAZING. I can't imagine the pressure of sketching in it. There's no B-Team in this thing. And nobody who sees it can stop turning the pages to see what's next.

As Gary is preparing to leave for SPX, he brought in the book, bound for the hands of Gahan Wilson so I took these quick and shoddy iPhone pics of the Kane and Crumb pages, which I particularly like because of the personal relationships Gary had/has with these titans.

(Previously posted: R.Crumb sketch of one of Conrad's Pokemon.)