Cartoonist, animator and story teller Dash Shaw's animated music video for band Sigur Ros entitled "Seraph" will be shown at next year's Sundance Film Festival. This six and half minute film will appear in the animated short section of the festival. For those of you not attending, feel free to watch it here from home in your jam-jams.
November 18th - Waxahachie, TX. HIDDEN BEHIND THE STARS featuring the artwork of Esther Pearl Watson opens up this Sunday on the plains of Texas at Webb Gallery. From 3-7pm on Sunday November 18th, you can rock out with music by Quintron and Miss Pussycat while gazing at amazing paintings by Ester. At 7pm, see a premiere screening of Quintron and Miss Pussycat's new movie "The Mystery in Old Bathbath."
Esther Pearl Watson is one of Webb Galleries favorites. Her work is fantastical, beautiful, witty, colorful, dark and autobiographical all at the same time. Many of the works depict her childhood, of growing up with a father obsessed with the idea he could build a flying saucer and sell it to NASA or Ross Perot. Her newest body of work addresses perception and legibility of painting with the addition of surface texture and sculptural elements such as starry fabrics and sculpted meteorites. She grew up in the DFW metro-plex, but currently resides outside of Los Angeles.
Esther Pearl Watson earned her MFA at California Institute of the Arts in 2012 and a BFA at Art Center College of Design. Her work has been exhibited at Nancy Margolis Gallery, Billy Shire Fine Arts, Lesher Center for the Arts and Oakland Museum of California. This is her first exhibit following her Masters Graduation from CalArts.
In addition to paintings, Esther will also have copies of her two Fantagraphics graphic novels, Unlovable, loosely based on a teenager’s diary from the 1980s found in a gas-station bathroom. Tammy Pierce is one of the most unfortunate teens and unabashed malcontents on the other side of the 80s. Serialized in the back of Bust Magazine, Watson has an incredible talent for humor in frantic, scrawled drawings. Adding paint and gouache to the mix just make everything cuter. Hope ya'll can come out! (my apologies to other non-ya'lling Texans).
Webb Gallery - downtown Waxahachie, Texas 209 W. Franklin 972.938.8085 www.webbartgallery.com
Children reveling in piles of leaves, the sharp intake of breath with the brisk morning chill. Just the other day, I was gazing out the window at the prismatic display of fall, we love the colors and splendor even though it represents the slow annual death of our tree friends. But thank god for that because Richard Sala is creating some gorgeous new work inspired by this time of the year.
"Autumn and Evil" is a alphabetic collection of 26 drawings (if you go by the English Human alphabet) Sala is gradually posting on his blog. Drawings for letters A-I have gone up so far. It's hard not to love his dirty denim color-palette, asymetrical demon faces and ladies who rock thighs of size. Gargoyles and Forgotten Ones lurk above and below. A fan of 'J' myself, I hope to see a Jersey Devil next!
Consider all this Sala's lead up to his next book from Fantagraphics, DELPHINE, which is slated to be thrilling and chilling readers in bookstores this February. Can't wait? Order a copy of The Hidden for a frightful Halloween.
Artist Dan Schultz dropped by Fantagraphics Bookstore store last week anxiously awaiting the arrival of Dungeon Quest Book 3 by Joe Daly. (Soon, Dan. Soon.) While discussing his enthusiasm for the comic, he conjures up a picture of his amazing Millennium Boy action figure fashioned from plastic. Then he pulls up an equally awesome array of original pop art. Remarkable. Really. Keep an eye out for this guy.
A curated selection of Seattle’s finest contemporary drawing.
Remarkably, artists were selected by the unjaundiced eye and not chosen because of their reputation in either the fine art or cartoon art world, ahem.
Artwork was chosen by proximity, spiritual connection and contribution to the Northwest Tradition as pioneered by the likes of Morris Graves, Mark Toby, Peter Bagge and Jim Woodring.
Remarkably (yes, again), the artwork featured in SKID ROAD TO FLOATING WORLD is a mixed miasma of drone drawing, figure drawing, pattern cartooning, metamorphic automatism, cartography, illustration, totem drawing and good ole rain soaked mysticism.
We will also have advance copies of Jim Woodring’s new graphic novel, CONGRESS OF THE ANIMALS, available for sale.
We will also have advance copies of Jim Woodring’s new graphic novel, CONGRESS OF THE ANIMALS, available for sale.
LISTING INFORMATION:
WHO: Skid Road art collective, artists in attendance TBD
WHAT: Art exhibit & book release for Jim Woodring’s CONGRESS OF THE ANIMALS
• Review: "The graphic novel, it turns out, is a form especially well-suited to the noir genre. Maybe this isn’t surprising — comics have always run the gamut of moods from goofy to autobiographical to just plain smutty. But it still gives a shiver of pleasure to stumble upon a graphic novel that captures the hardboiled tone of classic noir as perfectly as West Coast Blues, Jacques Tardi’s adaptation of a 1976 crime novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette. ... The plot includes bursts of bruality, dark realizations, alluring women and grizzled observations from its antihero — all the best conventions of noir, in other words, preserved and reborn in a fresh new medium. File it next to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler." – Molly Young, We Love You So
• Review: "I had a significant crush on The Death Of Speedy Ortiz the summer I was 20 years old, reading and re-reading the serialized story with a passion I had never brought to a single comic story before then. ... I thought it was wonderful that summer I read it 10,000 times, and I remain convinced it's a special story every time I've picked it up since." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter
• Review: "One of the many, many things I like about Kevin Huizenga's work is that a lot of his comics are about things that are not likely candidates for visual representation, and he manages to make them fascinating to look at anyway. Most of [Ganges #3] is about the process of perceiving one's own consciousness--the sort of hyperconsciousness of your own mind that happens when you're trying to get to sleep and can't--which is potentially the least interesting thing anybody could draw. And it looks fantastic..." – Douglas Wolk, The Savage Critics
• Review: "[Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938] is gorgeous. ... [Hal] Foster is frequently cited as an influence on other great cartoonists, and part of it is his precise line and the way he builds a convincing world from authentic architecture, clothing and armaments. That's part of the appeal, but Foster also excels at staging. ... Unlike daily strip collections, the full, weekly Prince Valiant page ends up a brisk, headlong read... Prince Valiant is something I picked up expecting to admire. I had no idea I would love it. – Christopher Allen, Comic Book Galaxy
• Review: "Although far from all the artists represented in the new anthology From Wonderland with Love are so experimental with form and content that you must ask yourself if this can really still be termed comics, it is truly the cream of the crop who are assembled here. This collection offers a great perspective on how broad and versatile the talent pool is in Denmark." – Torben Rølmer Bille, Kulturkapellet (translated from Danish)
• Review: "Charles M. Schulz is my favorite cartoonist, so I was excited to see that the 12th volume in the [Complete Peanuts] series has an introduction by the legendary Billie Jean King... This is a important series of books which I give an ‘A Plus’ and I think it would be the ultimate part of a Peanuts fan’s collection!" – The Catgirl Critics' Media Mewsings
• Interview: At Largehearted Boy, author Jami Attenberg talks to Ellen Forney, saying "This mixture of openness and strength makes her work... extremely powerful and relatable, and probably very necessary for your bookshelf." From Ellen: "Sometimes I have to reflect and remind myself that I do have many more skills and more experience in my repertoire at this point, and to appreciate that the challenges don't freak me out so much. Still, some challenges are exhilarating and some are a pain in the ass."
• Commentary: At Comics Comics, Dash Shaw comments on and posts a transcript of a panel he was on at TCAF earlier this year
• Things to see and buy: Puzzle paintings by Tim Hensley for sale via Buenaventura. I got one of an earlier edition from Tim at Comic-Con for a steal and it is a glorious thing
• Things to see and buy: The 2010 Jim Flora calendars are in
• Tunes: At Stereogum, "How Wrong You Are," the new song and video from Robert Pollard's Boston Spaceships
Pressure Printing has announced a new limited-edition print titled "Haniwa" from Rock Candy artist Femke Hiemstra. Go to their blog for more info and lots and lots of photos, from art in progress to print in progress to finished product.
Appropos of nothing comics, Beasts! contributor Heiko Mueller has an art show coming up here in the States this fall and "Gangland II" (pictured here) seems to be a culmination of everything that's inspiring about Heiko's work. I couldn't talk about this piece without talking about every anxiety and fixation on death that I have about the passage of time. I'd have to tell about the ghosts I had in my room as a child and nobody wants that here. Heiko captured time itself like I've never seen it captured. Check out his Flickr page HERE.
Cartoonist, animator and story teller Dash Shaw's animated music video for band Sigur Ros entitled "Seraph" will be shown at next year's Sundance Film Festival. This six and half minute film will appear in the animated short section of the festival. For those of you not attending, feel free to watch it here from home in your jam-jams. 
