BookLust

Care for some Tart?

A few months ago, I got this character in my head, and I couldn't get rid of her. She wasn't like a lot of the relatively cute stuff I do; she kinda reminded me of some of the comic strips I used to draw when I was a kid. They were totally uninhibited and completely lacking in taste. But they were a blast to draw. And so I let this gal in, and then I let her out.

I suppose that this is the closest I've come so far to creating something that I'd like to see in a graphic novel. It's not deep, it's not intellectual, it's not dark and it does not involve any lonely guys who masterbate too much 'cuz they can't find a girlfriend.

She's not as nasty as Bitchy Bitch, but she's definitely not as sweet as Tina from Tina's Groove. She's selfish and self-centered; not stupid but certainly not an intellectual; she's foul-mouthed and drinks too much and is probably a little too easy.

Behold my answer to the modern woman. Behold the new bad-assed broad on the block.

Behold Tart.

TGIF Illustration 2!

Almost forgot! I had a busy morning, but I made some time this afternoon to create this week's subject from Penelope.

Behold, "Snazzy".

Why George Orwell Apparently Matters to Me

You know those Quizzes everyone is doing these days. I like this one. Which Literary Classic are you? Apparently I am George Orwell's 1984. Hey. That's cool. Except that I consider myself to be one of the least politically-minded people on the planet. But I'll take it. I'd like to think I represent that hot babe on the cover. Heh.

Courtesy of Columbina.

Win One for the Chipper

So did Chip Kidd disappoint at the International Festival of Authors? Heavens, no. The man was in his element. He must be a blast at parties, because this guy loves an audience. He is as diverse, as dynamic as delicious in person as all the many book covers he has designed in his career.

My date for the evening was the adorable cartoon/design chum Johnny, who is just as, if not more delightful than The Chipper, and in fact has a unique talent for attracting the most bizarre of characters in the city of Toronto.

So before the event started, I was telling Johnny about this other book cover design guy that I had heard talk before, a certain Mr. Bill Douglas from The Bang, who is our resident Canadian book design guru. So I'm telling Johnny about how funny this Douglas guy is, and who ends up introducing Chip? Good ol' Billy-boy. It was a book-design love-fest night for me, I tell you.

Chip showed the crowd many covers he had designed in the past couple years, including the ones that the publishers nixed. It was interesting to see how he came to his final choice in some situations (often in a state of desperation, because the publishers would veto so many of his ideas, and he would say to himself, "I'm going to lose this fucking job". Yeah. Right, Chip. They're gonna fire you).

One of the best stories of the night, I think, was when a woman in the audience asked him about the placement of the two L's in Daniel Libeskind's recent memoirs. Apparently Kidd did not enjoy the process of designing this particular cover, mainly because he was forced to use these two specific photographs for the design, and quite frankly, both photos are really stupid and uninspiring. But Chip made it work.

So to answer the woman's question, Chip leaned into the microphone and said in a deep and haunting voice, something like "You clever woman." See for yourself. Apparently neither Libeskind nor the publishers noticed it.

You might be wondering why I drew Chip Kidd quoting the Wicked Witch of the West. That's because was well as being a very talented deisgner, The Chipper can also do really good impressions of said witch, and while reciting psalms, I might add. Who knew?

I asked Kidd to share some of his experiences while designing the book Peanuts: The Art of Charles Schulz. He stopped being a ham for a few mintues, and told a lovely warm story about his experiences working with Schulz's widow and his family, about going into Schulz's studio, and about how much he loved Schulz's work, and how he wished he could have met him.

One of my favourite book-cover designers talking about one of my favourite cartoonists. It don't get much better than that.

In The Shadow of No Ashtrays

Just kidding. There were plenty of ashtrays at Toronto's International Festival of Authors last night, where I had the pleasure of witnessing Seth interview Art Spiegelman.

Man, can those dudes smoke! Spiegelman out-nicotined Seth though, for sure. I sat in the front row because I had never seen either cartoonist talk before, so I wanted to get a good look at both of them. It was an amazing experience, but by the end of the night, I had a whopper of a headache from all the smoke. I'm convinced that I shortened my life by at least 6 months just from attending last night's talk.

I must confess that other than Maus and In The Shadow of No Towers, and the occasional New Yorker cover, I knew little about Spiegelman's work. I still haven't read Maus II. Thankfully Spiegelman talked about his early days a bit, mostly about RAW, and the kind of cartooning he wanted to publish. He also discussed his work for the New Yorker, what it was like working for Tina Brown (his comments were hilarious), and of course his work on Maus and In The Shadow of No Towers. He had a PowerPoint presentation which displayed a wide range of his art on a very large screen behind him.

From what I have seen of Spiegelman's artwork, I love it. He's got that great mix of being a very talented designer as well as a clever cartoonist. And I love his wide range of styles. As a person, he comes across as warm, down-to-earth, witty, intelligent, self-depricating and slightly neurotic. Everything I love in a cartoonist. I didn't know that he had a difficult relationship with his father, or that his mother committed suicide. A sincere artist who has had a lot to deal with in his life.

I gotta say this. Seth kinda creeped me out. He dresses in those funny suits, and his hair is slicked back and he wears those funny James Joyce type glassses, and he just appears like he is not entirely comfortable in his own skin. But he was pleasant and an intelligent interviewer. And I also have to say that as attractive and skillful as Seth's artwork is, it just doesn't rock my world. Am I the only one who feels this way? There seems (to me) to be something missing from his art; it's often dark, but I really don't get much emotion from it. Spiegelman, on the other hand, is full of emotion. All in all, it was a great evening.

Oh, and one more thing. To the person who brought their young screaming child to an event that started at 8:00 in the evening, where we were all warned beforehand about the excessive smoke, and came to hear Art Spiegeman talk, not your fucking screaming helpless child, I don't give a rat's ass if you couldn't find a baby-sitter. If you couldn't care about all the people who paid for this event, at least care about your tired crabby child who had no choice about being in a smoke-filled room. Thank God someone took it upon themselves to make you leave. You didn't deserve to hear Art Spiegelman talk you dumb fuck.

TGIF Illustration!

Actually, when you work at home, the days kinda lose their meaning (you know, I hate Mondays, Hooray it's Hump Day, Thank God it's Friday). But I'm celebrating this Friday 'cuz there's this gal named Penelope who has started this cool thing called "Illustration Fridays". Every week she names a new theme for the next week, and then on that Friday people post their illos. I love creative games like that; it's fun to see what's inside everyone's head. This week's theme was "Fiesta". I kinda cheated, 'cuz this is an old illustration, but I really wanted to be a part of it, and hopefully in the near future I will post a current illo for whatever theme Penelope suggests. Great idea, Penelope!

Remembrance of Comic Art Past

I bought a new book yesterday. Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, gangsters and the birth of the comic book by Gerard Jones. The title pretty much explains it. It's the real dark history of the the birth of the comic book, created by "a generation of young men – working-class Jewish misfits, mama's boys, con men and racketeers". I am assuming that it's the non-fiction version of The Amazing Adverntures of Kavalier and Clay, which I loved. So far Men of Tomorrow has not disappointed, and I can't wait to find out more about the early days of comic books. But it got me thinking about something else. For those who are lovers of cartoons and comic books, and who love reading fiction and non-fiction about this artform, have you not noticed that in the past few years there have been quite a few books which hark to the past, the "golden years" of the art form? Here are a few that I have read, and have enjoyed:

Funny Papers and Derby Dugan's Depression Funnies, the first two books of a trilogy written by Tom De Haven. The third book in the trilogy, Dugan Under Ground just didn't appeal to me, but maybe one day I'll read it. If you have a fascination with the birth of the comic strip, and the dirty newspaper war with Hearst and The Yellow Kid, then you will love the first two novels in this trilogy. Excellent writing. It hurt to read the end of these books; just wanted more.

The Funnies by J. Robert Lennon. A hilarious and insightful novel into the world of being a syndicated cartoonist. Here's a little blurb about the book: "In the unbreachable box of the comic strip, we could be charming and obedient, and we would stay that way, year after year." Carl's will has left nothing to Tim, a talent-free installation artist, except the "Family Funnies" themselves. If he can draw the strip in three months, then all rights and proceeds are his; if he can't, he gets nothing at all. Tim studies his father's craft, and he learns not only about cartooning but also about his father, families, even the small, redemptive miracle of work itself.

Of course, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. It's a thick, meaty story very similar to the sad true tale of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman.

Then there is Chabon's The Escapist, which is a collection of comic book stories about the fictional superhero from his Kavalier and Clay novel. I really wanted to like this, but I didn't. Some things should just be left to the sacred world of the imagination.

This one I haven't read yet, but I know I will soon. Give Our Regards to the Atomsmashers! Writers on Comics, edited by Sean Howe. About the book: Howe has lined up a remarkable bunch of essayists, including Luc Sante, Greil Marcus, Jonathan Lethem and Brad Meltzer, to write about their favorite funny books. Many revisit the comics of their youth with amused distance—the Marvel vs. DC rivalry, the wonders of Jack Kirby's cosmology and Steve Ditko's crabbed mysticism.

Those are just a few titles. If any of you guys know of others I have missed, I'd love to know about them.

But as I read all these titles, I have to ask myself: Why the need to look back into the past world of comics and cartooning? Why this harking back to "the golden age"? I fear that in part it is because at least in the world of comics (I can't really speak for comic books) there is not enough quality work out there to fulfill our basic human need for story, for mystery, for imagination, for awe. We have nowhere to look but back, and that makes me sad.

Mixed-Up Media

A silly new feature. Mixed-Up Media will be an opportunity for me to poke fun at well-known literary/artistic/media types who sometimes take themselves a little too seriously. I'll probably be picking on a lot of Canadian media-whores, so apologies in advance to any folks in the U.S. who read this blog, and have no idea who I am talking about.

For those who haven't heard of him, Russell Smith has written four novels and a collection of short stories, and is a columnist for the Globe and Mail, writing about art and media and men's fashion. He is Toronto's resident aging intellectual dandy.

About Last Night...

So just before the hubby goes to bed he comes into the computer room to kiss me goodnight, and as he's kissing me he says, "Goodnight, Hamish."

Thing is, my name isn't Hamish. That's the name of one of our cats. The male one.

So, like, should I be worried? That my husband has a thing for our cat? Or the fact that he's groovin' on the male one?

Should Hamish be worried?

Cover Me With Love

The delightful Readerville has their Most Coveted Covers and the wonderful Foreward has Covers I Love Today. So what do I have? Another new semi-regular feature.

Every now and then I will post a book cover design that just "lassos the moon", as George Bailey would say. So c'mon you book cover designers. Cover me with love.