04 November 09
Loving the Retro Pop-Art Beautiness of Kevin Dart
Check out more of Kevin’s work on his site.
Comics
16 October 09
Maidens, Moons, and Monsters
You’d have to be a seasoned comic art aficionado to recognize the name Alex Niño. Even when he was his most prolific you’d have had to be reading comics like Heavy Metal, Creepy, and The Savage Sword of Conan in the 70’s and early 80’s. Unfortunately all the innovative comic art at that time was pushed to the fringe titles. And Niño’s work was clearly before his time.
This November the Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn (of all places) is hosting a month long exhibit dedicated to his work. I’m hoping to trek out and catch some of this amazing work first-hand.
November 4th - 30th
Opening reception November 4th - 2-4pm (no mention if the artist will be present)
Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, CUNY
Art Gallery - Arts & Science Building
2001 Oriental Blvd, Brooklyn, NY
24 August 09
Wall Murals from Surface View
I caught a little blurb for this in this month’s Wired.
Surface View is a UK company that has licensed various photo and art collections and made them available as customizable wallpaper, blinds, or pre-sized canvases.
The comic panels caught my eye, but there are many other amazing collections ranging from the Royal Photographic Society to The National Gallery to Getty Images.
Maybe I can convince the wife to get one of the Silver Surfer ... for our son’s room, of course.
Get the larger customized ones here and the ready-to-buy canvases here.
posted to
Comics,
Inspiration
07 August 09
Digital Comics Coming of Age with Longbox
A few weeks ago QuickSilver Software Longbox, Inc. announced that their LongBox Digital comics reader would be forthcoming. Longbox is being called the iTunes for comics.
Demand for this type of service is being generated by several factors.
- Printed comics are expensive ($2.99 and higher). LongBox issues are .99
- Your local comic shop can’t carry everything. And some comics quickly sell off the shelf.
- Customer expectation. Everything is becoming available digitally: music, movies, TV, books, news.
A few weeks ago I met the first person I know who reads all his comics on his computer. He truthfully told me that he downloads them all illegally as he can’t afford the print editions.
Longbox has its own proprietary format (LBX), but it will also support the CBZ and CBR open formats. Meaning that my acquaintance will still be able to read his bootlegged copies, but maybe he might consider purchasing legal ones that now cost a third of the price.
I have to be honest that between being a collector in my younger years and now a casual reader, it’s hard to imagine replacing the experience of visiting the comic shop and the tactile experience of flipping through a beautifully printed edition with a computer screen.
But Longbox’s announcement combined with the success of the Kindle and the recent rumors of the Apple tablet are clearly signaling to me that digital comics’ time has come (or near enough).
And while hesitant, I think I’ll be a convert.
Cnet has a good write up. Interesting to see the user comments there too.
30 July 09
MoCCA Art Festival Review
In celebration of once again missing the circus that is the San Diego Comic Con, I’m posting a long overdue review of an entirely different kind of event.
In June 2002 a buddy of mine, who’s really into comic books and does a lot of design work in the field, dragged me out to this indie comics convention. As I had associated indie with underground (you know, the R. Crumb-type books) I wasn’t too excited to go.
I was pleasantly surprised.