The Dogs Howl, But the Caravan Moves On: New Panel

Just finished up Page 5, inked a panel for Page 6 last night. Feeling good, Louis!

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Dave Cooper’s Organic Penwork Destroyed by Hack

Here’s a small Dave Cooper study I did, from Suckle: The Status of Basil:

Good Lord, my scanning sucks. Pen and ink on watercolor paper.

Dave’s one of my favorite artists working. His paintings are jealousy-inducing. Check ’em out on his site (some NSFW).

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New Kenwoode Panels!

It’s just two, and, of course, I’m missing a page because I wasn’t sure if I liked the way I inked it, but two have been added against all odds, and they can be found here.

It’s the little things, really.

I’m going to commit to a panel a day (two down!), which is really harder than it sounds. Dave Sim did a page a day during the years of Cerebus; that’s just unbelievable. I think that’s a good recipe for losing your Sean Hannity.

Yes, that is Cockney rhyming slang for “sanity.” (And no, I’m not casting aspersions on Sim’s mental health- I’m a huge fan. He’s the Lance Armstrong of comics.)

UPDATE 09.20.09: Added panels 3 & 4 to Page 5- so far, I’ve drawn and inked 5 panels in 7 days. Not the daily goal I’ve been shooting for, but getting better…!

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Machinarium Looks Gorgeous

I’m not a big video game player (at least not since my Donkey Kong days- the Glory!) but occasionally I fall into one like Alice down a rabbit hole. The SSX series completely had me for about 2 years, I enjoyed the hell out of the lo-fi World of Goo, loved the ambition and scope of the  claymation-meets-Edgar Allen Poe CD-ROM The Dark Eye, even if it was fairly static and uneventful.

And BioShock made my head explode.

Above is the trailer for Machinarium, by Amanita. It’s a point and click game for PC and Mac, and the world is just beautiful. I think this is where games need to go: creating not only interactive worlds, but lush, designed worlds with a unifying artistic vision, even down to a cohesive pencil-style and design. Imagine Dave McKean’s Mirrormask as a playable game. Shane Acker’s 9 might’ve been more successful as a game, although I haven’t seen it, and should just shut the hell up until I do.

These are exciting times for creators to be alive.

Boing Boing has some really nice sketchbook pages from Amanita’s Jakub Dvorský and Adolf Lachman, as well as some stunning screengrabs. Check it out, y’all.

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American Mythology pt. 2

grand ole' party!

Here’s another one from McNaughton. The amount of historical ignorance at play here is like hot garbage.

For some odd reason I am personally offended at the inclusion of Lincoln in with this band of valueless twats. Any reference to ‘The Party of Lincoln’ by the contemporary Republican party is tantamount to a lie — as if Lincoln and today’s Republicans are part of any sort of contiguous ideological thread. It completely overlooks the great reversal of the 30’s and the development of the Southern Strategy. It’s like saying, “Dr. Jekyll MUST agree with the practices of rape and manslaughter — he shares a ripped tweed jacket with Hyde, DOES HE NOT???”

The gathering depicted would actually make for an interesting conversation, ala “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.” Of course, there’s the issue of where in the McNamarian arc of personal growth and regret each of these guys would land.

Depending on when in his life the Eisenhauer depicted hails from, I’m pretty certain Dwight David would be scowling at some things the rest of the gang might be saying. Not that all of them would be in the same part of the same page either — Reagan the charismatic naif, Bush Sr the former head of the CIA (& probably not naive about very much at all),  and Teddy the lusty warmonger. Nixon, legendarily bitter, mendacious, and socially awkward. Could HW Bush resist piping in with a mouth full of pretzels? (I confess to having not even a caricature of Gerald Ford to draw on.)

Nonetheless, I think Bush Sr’s post-presidency activity allows for the inference that *perhaps* he has reconsidered the impact of his life’s work. But without question, Lincoln — with his pained conscience and his talk of ‘the angels of our better natures’ — would have found the company of these men repellent.

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American Mythology pt. 1

This is a fine piece of modern deist illustration that turned into mock-fodder for the liberal blogosphere.

First is the boingboing post, with some pretty funny, informed, and cutting remarks (image is link):

a pretty piece of p0rn

Here’s the work on McNaughton’s site, with his defensive rebuttal to his critics, but more importantly, the unintentional hilarity of his rollover descriptions of each figure in the painting.

And finally, here is the subversive hack of said rollover captions by Short Packed.

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Giles Timms Video for Ceri Frost’s “Dead All Along”

This song almost sounds like an outtake from The Damned’s Anything album (not one of their critical faves, but I loved it). Huge reverbs, poppy and to the effin’ point, man. Nicely done.

And the video is really beautiful: organic, lush, and the amount of depth is really staggering. It’s a nice Gorey homage without seeming like a rip-off. This scene with the spirits reminds me of a children’s book on ghost stories I used to have; man, I wish I knew the title of that book.

Hats off to Mr. Timms. Hire him and pay him lots of money, Hollywood! Now!

Dammit you hacks!

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