Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

Big Rabbit’s Bad Mood by Ramona Badescu and Delphine Durand

The most charming kids book I read this year (original review). Delphine Durand’s illustrations are pure joy, and could melt the heart of anyone who forgot how much fun drawing can be.

Pictorial Webster’s: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities by John M. Carrera

A beautiful love letter to engravings, bookmaking, and language from bookmaker John M. Carrera, Pictorial Webster’s collects the original engravings from 19th-Century dictionaries into a new pictures-only dictionary (original review). Pictorial Webster’s satisfies my hunger for visual list-making that probably grew out of picture book dictionaries from my childhood, and now extends to things like Blackstock’s Collections and the work of Tom Gauld.

The Gigantic Robot by Tom Gauld

And speaking of Tom Gauld, his The Gigantic Robot was another instant favourite of the year. His usual mix of subtle humour and minimalist drawings are used here to tell a parable about war, futility, and decay. It may not be a meaty book, but Tom manages to say more with 15 single-panel pages than some cartoonists do with entire graphic novels. Visit Tom Gauld’s website.

The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb

R. Crumb’s visual, literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis is certainly the most impressive comics project of the year, if not the decade. I usually try to avoid such hyperbole but, even though Crumb claims to have treated this adaptation as an impartial word-for-word illustration job, we must appreciate the context of such a book. That context is not only one of Crumb’s kingly status in the pantheon of underground comics–psyche-driven comics of sex, drugs, desire, and the antiestablishment–but a modern world in which the origins of life on earth are a highly-politicized battle between Darwinian Science and the Hand of God. In this context, a literal adaptation of the bible’s first book–a story of how we came to be–is a statement in itself.

Gig Posters Volume 1: Rock Show Art of the 21st Century by Clay Hayes

Quoting my original review:

Anyone familiar with GigPosters.com knows it’s the site for modern music posters. And with the CD going the way of the LP, and its cover art with it, these posters are fast becoming some bands and artists’ primary means of representing their music visually.

The Gig Posters book features over 700 posters, 101 of which are full-page. And it’s a true poster book; each page is perforated and ready to be torn out and hung on your wall.

It’s a terrific resource for how contemporary designers are fusing illustration, typography, and reinvigorating the world of the poster.

Naïve: Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphic Design by Robert Klanten & Hendrik Hellige

Inspired by the likes of Saul Bass and Charley Harper, the contemporary artists featured in Naïve all embrace the virtues of modernism and minimalist design–simplicity, restriction, patterns, and shapes–and even if the work was made with the aid of a computer, the pieces all boast an aesthetic that seems to say, “this was made with my own two hands.” Like the Gig Posters book, this is an invaluable source of inspiration for designer-illustrators and printmakers, featuring favourites of mine like Tad Carptenter, Matte Stephens, Linzie Hunter, and Nate Williams.

Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life (Popular Edition)

That brings us to Charley Harper himself. There’s not much I can say about this smaller affordable version of its larger, more expensive counterpart, that I haven’t already said in my initial review, but I can once again stress that if you had put off purchasing the original behemoth of An Illustrated Life because of its size or pricetag, you have little reason to avoid adding it to your collection any longer. Charley Harper’s work is modernist, abstracted illustration at its best.

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli

I’ll start by stating that I didn’t love the story, or the characters in Asterios Polyp. But I am a sucker for formalism in comics and artists that play with the medium itself. Usually, cartoonists’ forays into form-bending rarely sustain full-length stories. But in Asterios Polyp we may have the first true formalist graphic novel–a story actually about style and duality that exploits form, motif, colour, and line to their fullest, in a way that could only be achieved in comics.

George Sprott: (1894-1975) by Seth

Seth’s serialized story for the New York Times Magazine is collected here in a gorgeous volume, which makes the wait for the next Clyde Fans book a little more bearable. Mixing mid-Century Canadiana with death and the passing of time, Sprott is pure Seth through-and-through. The panels are rich in the warm, monotone colours befitting a tale of nostalgia and the oversized pages allow Seth to showcase some of the best-designed page layouts of his career.

Never Learn Anything From History by Kate Beaton

Fans of webcomics darling Kate Beaton finally got a book this year, collecting Kate’s hilarious comics featuring historical figures (if not historical fact). Kate’s expressive characters are up there with the best of Jules Feiffer’s work, and it is always a good day when my RSS reader gives way to one of her comics. Guaranteed to be the only book on your shelf featuring Tesla, Napoleon, AND Stompin’ Tom Connors!

Stitches: A Memoir by David Small

In this memoir, illustrator David Small tells the harrowing story of a childhood spent with unloving parents and the cancer they unintentionally gave him, and subsequently kept a secret from him. A quick but engrossing read, Stitches features some of the most vivid images of childhood to be realized on the comics page, and several truly stunning wordless sequences–appropriate for a story of a child who loses his voice, and finds it again in his ability to draw.

Monsters by Ken Dahl

Monsters almost didn’t make the cut this year, and only because I didn’t read it until just a few days ago, when it quickly secured itself a position on this list. Ken Dahl/Gabby Schulz’s semi-autobiographical graphic novel about herpes is a cautionary tale for, as Jeffrey Brown writes on the back cover, “anyone who has had sex, is going to have sex, or wants to have sex.”

Honourable mentions: Jeffrey Brown’s Funny Misshapen Body, R.O. Blechman’s Talking Lines, Denis Kitchen’s Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics into Comix, and R. Sikoryak’s Masterpiece Comics.

See Also: Last year’s lists: Matt’s Picks / John’s Picks

At long last, VIZ has translated GoGo Monster by Taiyo Matsumoto for North American audiences.

The book – which weighs in at about 450 pages – is a more mature and reflective work for Matsumoto, who is probably best-known in North America for Tekkonkinkreet (Review here) and his violent, gritty, graffitoed comics.

Instead, GOGO Monster has a more pastoral and haunting pace. The story takes place in a rural schoolyard, where a schoolboy, Yuki, claims to have access to a mirror dimension, the “other side”, which is inhabited by monsters.

Matsumoto’s dialogue flits around the page in a manner that is both poetic and distracting – like a conversation with a child. His pen and ink lineart has graduated from being exciting and innovative (Tekkonkinkreet) to simply masterful.

A note to booklovers: VIZ is to be congratulated on putting out one of their most beautifully produced editions yet. This hardbound volume comes with a Japanese-style cardboard slipcase and and even a printed design on the fore-edge of the book.

Buy GoGo Monster on Amazon

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The TV Show, animated by Sugimoto Kousuke and featuring the music of Takayuki Manabe, features a creative use of colour as a variety of narratives, nested within each other, soon begin to meld together. And what a fun video it is.

Mary Blair

I saw this concept art by mid-century animation designer Mary Blair on the wall at Illustration House the other day, and I was blown away by its jewel-like beauty. The colours really are as lovely as the jpg shows. According to the catalogue (you have to click through a few pages to find the full list), it was made for Disney’s 1948 Melody Time. The estimate is only about $2000, which is pretty low for original art by a very well known and loved artist, in my opinion. Oh and there’s a second one being offered too – but I’ll leave that for you to find on your own!

Gyo Fujikawa

I am also enamoured of this cute little illustration by Gyo Fujikawa. “Who?” you may ask? Fujikawa was another female illustrator working at approximately the same time as Mary Blair. She too worked for Disney, before turning to freelance and making children’s books. This image here is from her 1957 Child’s Garden of Verses. Fujikawa came to my attention recently because she appears to be the first woman illustrator to actively take part in the administration and volunteer activities of the Society of Illustrators, circa 1951, which is doubly impressive given her Japanese American background and it being right after the War.

Disclaimer: I hang out a lot at Illustration House. Yes, this is a shameless plug of sorts. But the artwork’s worth it.

“For some reason or other,” wrote Richard Taylor in the October 1950 issue of American Artist magazine, “the general public seems to have the erroneous notion that the drawing of funny pictures is not a serious business.”

All this week on my blog I’ll be showcasing the work of some exceptional mid-20th century cartoonists – and accompanying their work with excerpts from Taylor’s 1950 article.

(Above, a Hank Ketcham illustration that predates Dennis the Menace by one year).

I just added a bunch of new prints to my online shop. The above print (of the Mile End neighbourhood in Montreal) was originally commissioned as a bookbag for Drawn & Quarterly. And below is another one that a lot of people like. Check out my shop to see more prints.

All the pieces are printed with super-expensive Epson inks on archival watercolour paper. Each print is titled, numbered, and signed and shipped in a protective sleeve and shipped priority mail. You can also buy the prints from my Etsy shop if that’s how you roll.

Have you ever heard of Evaline Ness? She was an illustrator of many children’s books during the mid-20th century period. At a time when most illustration was still being done in a style of literal realism, Ness was among that group of stylistic pioneers whose work still influences the look of illustration today.

She also has the unusual distinction of having been married for a time to the famous FBI agent, Elliot Ness.

The Bloombury Auction House in New York has an upcoming auction featuring a collection of children’s books signed by Evaline Ness, her Caldecott medal for Sam, Bangs and Moonshine and some never before seen sketchbooks and dummies all of which come from her family collection.

The sale will take place at Bloomsbury Auctions New York on Wednesday, December 9th, but those who won’t be able to attend can view nearly a dozen pieces from the Ness collection in my Evaline Ness Flickr set.

Clients from Hell is “a collection of anonymously contributed client horror stories from designers.” It’s aggravating, cathartic, and very fun to read. A recent highlight:

“I understand that you prefer to use photoshop, but we don’t feel like that program is universal enough. If you could do all of the design work in Microsoft Paint it would be easier for us to edit what you do and give you an idea of the changes we want.”

I haven’t simultaneously shuddered and laughed this much in a long time. You can also follow along on twitter.

Romanian illustrator Matei Apostolescu creates amazing and colorful toys out of polymer clay. See more of his work here.

(via Super Punch)

This compelling image, from Spacesick’s previously blogged “I Can Read Movies” series, is available for a limited time in t-shirt and poster form from Nakatomi. Can you name the film without clicking this link?