Blue Moon Blog

I’ve loved the comics art of Sean Phillips for years, since first seeing his stuff on Hellblazer, a title on which I was astounded hear he didn’t pencil. Still can’t believe it. But after reading his insightful and self deprecating blog, there’s a hint to his creative process. It seems he draws in blue marker a guide from his small thumbnail roughs, from which he goes directly to ink. I love the the idea of streamlining and speeding up the process, but you have to be good enough, as Phillips is, to pull it off. Because of the approach, he’s able achieve a looser, more expressive and energetic dry brush look. Great stuff. And he can paint, too.

I just received in the mail this week his self published (through lulu.com) book, Blow Up, a 400-page collection of sketches, comics panels, paintings and layouts, all enlarged and blown up to see the detail and true nature of what makes his art tick. Probably more for the die-hard fan, it’s well worth picking up. And if you’re among the uninitiated, I’d start with the superb Criminal, hard-boiled modern noir comics written by Ed Brubaker.

Remember those cars from the Jetsons? Everyone’s always asking when we get our flying cars? Well, the Aptera may not fly, but it looks to me like the car of the future is very nearly a thing of the Here & Now.

Taking it all in at the Aptera site, one can’t help but be impressed, with the design, technology, execution and presentation of this vehicle which seems to me much more of and event than the Segway ever was going to be. It’s based more on a jet than a car, qualifies as a motorcycle, being on three wheels, goes over 85 MPH, costs about the same as many cars, and the hybrid model gets 300 mile per gallon. There’s an all-electric model, too.

They’re reservable now, and will be in production Fall 2008. For now they’re available only in certain areas of California, but when they figure how these things will drive on snow and ice here in MN, I’m likely to snap one up.

Jamie Cullum is a twenty-something, jazz-punky, piano-playing Brit crooner, who writes his own stuff, covers standards and utilizes the occasional hip-hop loop or sample. If you can watch his live concert from Blenheim Palace and not emerge a fan, then he’s just not going to do it for you. From that concert, here’s his take on one of my favorite songs of all-time, Brian Wilson’s God Only Knows, with a Beatlesque, Eleanor Rigby-like arrangement by Geoff Gascoyne:

His video for the hip-hoppy Get Your Way (with a sampled interlude from a Joe William’s tune) looks like “Jamie and His Purple Crayon” by way of Chuck Jones’s Daffy Duck classic cartoon, Duck Amuck:

On his two major studio albums, he handles well old standards like Singin’ in the Rain, as well as Hendrix’s The Wind Cries Mary and Radiohead’s High and Dry. My favorite of all his covers is the great Cole Porter tune, I Get a Kick Out Of You. Though I prefer the studio recording, this live take is also good and offers an even more rhythmic approach:

I’m eager to hear his next album — when, Jamie?

If you like comic books, horror, X-Files, are a conservationist or a Bigfoot enthusiast, you’ll like this first collection of Proof, available any day. I’ve written here before about Proof, as it’s co-created by long-time pal, Alex Grecian. This full-color, low-priced collection (of the first five issues) is a great place to hop on the bandwagon and get up to speed on a series that’s making waves and gaining attention. I just received in the mail the fun and creepy seventh issue, right in the middle of the second story arc, which features and antagonist who likes to hunt and eat dinosaurs…among other things. Eew!

Order Proof:Goatsucker at this link to support this blog, and if you’re quick, you may still qualify for Amazon’s 5% pre-order discount.

I’ve just received the script from Alex for a seven-page Proof back-up story. I started thumbnail layouts last night, and will announce here when this story will appear.

Update (5/9/08): Just got word from Alex the book is delayed for a few weeks due to printing/scheduling issues. That’s the bad news. The good news: there’s more time to pre-order and save 5% on the already-low price if you order through amazon.com. Click the link above to order at our Blue Moon amazon store and they’ll throw us a few shekels.

Here’s a kick-start for a Monday, the latest single video from The Raconteurs:

The “side project” of Jack White, of the White Stripes, The Raconteurs teams White with Brendan Benson. I’ve tried, but can’t get into The White Stripes — too rough for me — but have loved Brendan Benson’s stuff for years. These two together really click, especially their recent second release, Consolers of the Lonely, fleshed out with a five-piece band that really rocks. Benson brings out White’s melodic side (who knew he had one?) and White brings out a raw edge in Benson not heard in his solo releases. Sure, these guys wear their influences on their collective sleeve with this project, there’s something new and vital and all their own. I can’t stop playing it.

The comics show Sunday was a lot of fun, if a little chilly. Seems fitting, as the two-day show last October was sweltering and sweaty. Go figure. That’s Minnesota weather for you. I got a good reaction to the Bedbugs ABCs mini-comics, and to Bedbugs in general. Now I’m brimming with ideas and plans for our li’l yellow pals, with an eye towards the to-be-expanded-and-enlarged two-day show this October 4 & 5.

My daughter, Emily joined me and sold out of her homemade Funky Munky Kookies. Friend and superhero artist, Doug Mahnke has the empty cookie bag to prove how fast they went.

Good ol’ Zander Cannon was on hand, as usual, with his similarly-named studio mate, Kevin Cannon (not pictured). Both guys are always so nice to do sketches for my girls — thanks, guys! Zander has the dubious distinction of being a Trollords fan; thanks for the early support, Zander! These two are beginning another graphic novel project, so have three that will be released in 2009. Look for Kevin’s Far Arden, coming out this Friday, and read their Big Time Attic blog, always a treat, including Kevin’s report on this very same show.

I just realized I’ve known MCAD teacher and 11-year Batman inker, Terry Beatty for almost thirty years! Where did the time go, Terry? Mostly spent at the drawing board, I guess. I’ve been a guest to a couple of Terry’s classes and caught up with a couple of his students at the con. Terry’s got a blog, too, and shows off some mean sculptures at Terry’s web site.

Joel “Mojo” Moen was one of the first fans I met after moving up to Minnesota from Chicago fifteen years ago. I’ve always enjoyed chatting it up with Mojo, now for several years as a pro inker himself. He’s currently inking a story penciled by pal and fellow storyboard artist Peter Krause.

Sam Hiti was kicking back near the end of the show. A bold a prolific cartoonist, he’s busy on a 250-page graphic novel. Order his Tiempos Finales and other books or sketches at the Sam Hiti web site.

Many other folks were at the show, but I didn’t have my camera handy for shots of Dan Jurgens, Gordon Purcell, Jeff Limke, Cedric Hohnstadt and others. Maybe this Fall?

I don’t always rightly know what their singing about, but I can listen to the music of Supergrass for hours. These three Brits (including two brothers) have been around for over a dozen years, much better known on their own turf than here in America. Their funny and surreal video for the catchy, Stones-like Pumping On Your Stereo made an impression, but beyond that, I don’t think they’ve had a hit in the U.S. After years of searching for a song from the Dead Man On Campus soundtrack, I finally discovered it. I haven’t seen the movie, and have read the soundtrack collection isn’t very good, but I’ve always liked We Still Need More (Than Anyone Can Give).

It begins with that churchy organ, soon joined with soaring vocal harmonies, a drum rolls in, and we’re off for a ride. Good stuff. Glad to hear the song again, thanks to this imeem.com music service, which I hadn’t come across before. Though there’s a download link, it doesn’t seem the song is available at iTunes or amazon.com, so I finally ordered a used copy of the CD for a couple bucks at half.com. Also, Supergrass has a new album out: Diamond Hoo Ha, which returns them to their louder sounds of their earlier days. This is the cover to one of their new singles, Bad Blood, a thumping good rocker.

Learn and hear more of the band at the Supergrass myspace page.

I’ll have a table and will be available to sign books and do sketches once again at this year’s annual Minneapolis Spring comic book convention, next Sunday, April 27th. Though I haven’t had comic work published within the industry for some time, it’s always nice to chat with fans, old and new alike, and catch up with local talent, most of whom are friends.

I’ll have on hand and will be previewing art from upcoming comics and childrens book projects, so stop on by to say Hi and check it all out.

I swiped a photo of myself (with good ‘ol pal, writer Len Strazewski) from Cedric Hohnstadt’s blog, who wrote about the show last year.

These names together may sound like a vaudeville comedy team or partners in a law firm, but of course are fictional counterparts. The title characters of Citizen Kane and The Great Gatsby, these two great American works of art of the twentieth century, have a lot in common. Both works, from different angles and in different ways, examine dark corners of the American Dream. Both characters are searching for something: either something lost, or something imagined, never had, that money, in the end, cannot purchase.

Each man starts from humble beginnings, only to come into great wealth. Kane, with the Colorado Lode, a gold mine that by chance is discovered on the Kane property when he’s a child. His fortune becomes his by happenstance, pure luck, be it good or bad. With Gatsby, he comes by it in suspicious and no doubt criminal fashion. Neither has earned their fortune by good, old-fashioned hard work. Kane tries to do the best he can with what fell in his lap, out of guilt, perhaps, to justify the oodles of money he’s inherited; while Gatsby’s riches buy him nothing real, all empty and unsatisfying. These men, in straining to recapture something from earlier in life (while on the surface achieving much), end up falling miserably short from what they desire most.

Both men are trying to recover something lost in or from the most important women in their lives. In Kane’s case, he’s lost his mother’s love. Mrs. Kane’s actions are never explained entirely, and are somewhat cryptic, but it’s clear at least that their newfound fortune in part has caused the separation. He uses his money at first ostensibly for noble purposes, to do good for others, but then later to buy people’s love, a fool’s errand. In the case of Gatsby, he’s trying to gain the attention of, and win back his first love: one Daisy Buchanan. Remembering their earlier time together through an idealistic and gauzy lens, no matter how hard he tries, and even after he’s reconnected to the now-married Daisy, he’s doomed to failure, and worse. Daisy has moved on, or could never live up to Gatsby’s romanticized an glorified vision of her. She’s either corrupted, or was never deserving of his love in the first place.

Money or possessions are not enough for Kane to replace his mother’s love or his lost childhood; it can not fill the void. And the women he marries are poor replacements, either because of love gone sour and/or Kane’s misplaced priorities. For Gatsby, his wealth is but a tool to attract and recapture Daisy. He may not feel guilty about how he’s acquired his fortune, but his quest is tainted by dirty money, and with it, he can never buy into the life in a way he or others view as legitimate.

These men are ambitious and achieve much, but come up short in their ultimate goals. It’s up to the viewer/reader to decide whether it’s because they’re damaged, misguided, compromised or corrupted, or some combination thereof. It seems the respective creators intended their works to be read as indictments of capitalism, but one wonders how either man would have fared having come about their money in more deserved or legitimate ways. Regardless, it’s clear at least there are potential dangers in life when it comes to matters material. One may find disaster in not reaching that which they strive for, or perhaps the real danger comes when they’re reached after all.

A word on the creators

Though they share much thematically, the style and tone of these respective works is markedly different. Kane is loud, energetic, boisterous, masculine and herky-jerky. Gatsby is rich, poetic, lyrical and intricate and refined. These traits say more about the creators than they do necessarily about their fictional characters. In the conception, writing, direction and finally, performance, Orson Welles embodies Charles Foster Kane. In many ways, Kane bears more resemblance to Welles himself than to William Randolph Hearst. Though now infamously known to be patterned after Hearst, Welles had a lot to do with shaping the character of Kane, and had Mercury Theater pal John Houseman babysit initial scriptwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz during the first drafts, both of whom had good knowledge of Welles’s personality. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Gatsby also is semi-autobiographical, with many of Gatsby’s attitudes, longings and choices mirroring those of his creator.

If you’ve not read or seen these masterpieces, you owe it to yourself to give them a try, and if you have, they’re both worth repeated looks, as the depth of meaning and superb execution become even more apparent.

A Special Thanks: to friend and writer Alex Grecian, who first suggested to me the connection between these two characters and works.

“With his perfect, lean-hipped, powerful body, Heston is a god-like hero; built for strength, he is an archetype of what makes Americans win. He represents American power — and he has the profile of an eagle.” - Movie critic Pauline Kael, 1968

That’s part of what made him such an icon. His look and aura made him appear larger than life. How many others could fill those shoes, all those great icons he portrayed? But he was a very good and solid actor, too. Had to be, to pull off those big roles. And he did well more subtle roles, just watch his performance in the western, Will Penny, if you don’t believe me.

I saw on a blog last week after Heston died:

When I read “remembered chiefly for his monumental, jut-jawed portrayals of Moses, Ben-Hur and Michelangelo,” I wondered, by whom? I’m pretty old but I’ve never seen those movies. I was alive when they came out, but too young to go to movies like that, and they weren’t the kind of movies I was ever interested in over the decades I’ve spent catching up on old movies…I think most people younger than 60 remember him chiefly for “Planet of the Apes.”

Ask the man on the street to imitate Charlton Heston and I bet he’d say “Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!

Well, certainly he is also remembered for Apes, but he was already quite well known by then, having won an Oscar for Ben Hur a decade earlier. I’m fifteen years younger than this blogger and grew up watching those movies when they ran on TV at least annually. My parents saw all those movies on the big screen when they were first released, and passed on to the next generation an appreciation for Heston and his peers, and for those movies from an earlier period. By the time Apes showed up, I was already a fan. It was one of the first movies I saw on the big screen (I was six), which only paved the way for me to love Chuck (please don’t call him Charlie).

A word on the art above: I initially struggled with a few pencils, overworking them and not quite grasping his likeness. Frustrated, I jumped in to ink. The brush saved me. I inked boldly and quickly and achieved the look I was after, finding more of the likeness along the way. The scanned inks were than colored in Photoshop, and I played with “chalk” brushes for the background, but am not sure if I overdid it. What do you think?

This has turned out to be a long post, so you’re probably wondering when I will make an end?

When I am finished.