As I hold in my hands the Genesis West Artist's Edition of Red Nails, I find that i had misgivings about certain aspects of the packaging: The one sided pages, the glossy paper used, the unnecessary slipcase, but it did not occur to me just how much this would be discussed, with such anger, online.
I should have known better.
This is what the internet is made for. And never suffer a geek, whether sci fi or comic or fantasy, not given what they want, especially if you get really, really, REALLY close to what they want. (Mos Eisley is no longer a one horse town? great, but do i have to have Han shoot second to get the bigger town? Really?)
Case in point here are the rise of the artist's editions by IDW. Never, in my life, would i have thought that anyone would get their hands on the art, get the money to reproduce comic art full size, and get enough buyers to actually not go bankrupt producing that book. Clearly I was wrong. Ever, happily, oh so wrong. That first Simonson one took me, and I think, a lot of folks by surprise. After all, someone was actually taking a chance of catering to a fairly niche market. And it worked. Yay for us.
There is a charm to the original art that, I thought, only came across when you were holding the originals in your hands, looking at the margin notes and the erasures and white-outs, and i certainly didn't think that many of us had that gene. IDW has proved me wrong on that account.
Now lets be very upfront on this: if this book doesn't come out, you and I NEVER EVER will see the Red Nails originals. And I seen and held a lot of original art, more than most, since i started collecting originals back in 1989. We would, NEVER, get to see this artwork full size in original form. So, I kept that in mind when i slipped the book out of its case.
Now, i do have some of the IDW books, and I do like that format. I don't think that the glossy paper is ideal, but its OK when you get down to it. Partly this book just suffers from IDW delivering so much bang for the buck with regards to production values and their choice of material. We've gotten used to seeing artwork on bristol and it looks "like is should". So, no, its not the ideal format in my mind, but its OK in every aspect other than the non-facing pages.
Slipcase I really don't want? Glossy paper? Borders to the artwork? Fine. But do not, on any other editions, give me one piece of artwork with nothing on the back. Its a huge waste of space and money and that is the one thing that would stop me from getting another Genesis West book. Yes, I bought this, and will love having it, but you're not getting my money again without that adjustment. This book, with facing pages, should have been "Song of Red Sonja" and Rednails and the piece that Barry did for the Marvel 1975 Calendar and then we'd be talking something worth the money.
Lots o' little stuff here, wasn't using the white charcoal on this page. Started drawing with my little mechanical pentel, a holdover that I used for years, and it looked really nice of the toned paper. Next thing i knew, i had a bunch of little sketches on the page.
the title says what it means. or, perhaps, a little Egon Schiele.
yes, I'll say it again, Galactus by Sienkiewicz.
The great Michael Jantze gave me the gift of an original Norm strip yesterday, and its a beaut. I'm even featured in the last panel in the black t-shirt. My wife and kids think that he absolutely captured me and I'm enclined to agree with them. To see the strip up close, go here! If the jam section has enough room at the back of the newest Norm Graphic Novel I may have a piece in there as well. I wait with baited breath.
Getting back to it, and going to try to do the sketch a day thing... we'll see how long a slow artist like myself can keep this up.
As difficult as it may be to do so, try to return to the halycon days of 1989, when the Rob Liefields and Jim Lees of the world were starting to push superhero comics into a new artistic paradigm, and when how novel the concept of finding anyone to actually follow up Alan Moore on Saga of the Swamp Thing would be. And a sweet little goth book showed up on the stands with some very interesting covers. And it was really anything but sweet.
Got back from APE 2013 and ready to get back to work! in fact, I'm utterly psyched to be at my board again, the quality of work was so much higher at this year's show. Great, great stuff.
Finished the new cover for what will be the second Carnival story, and wanted everyone to get a peak at it without trade dress and tones... just pure black and white! A wraparound cover to make things interesting.
This post by Valerie Gallaher is one of the funniest and most dead-on things that I've read in a long time. I'm so sorry to be so late to the game to have missed linking to it when she first posted it. Valerie is smart, courageous and damn funny. And yes, I recognize myself in some of this. It was why i created my "What do comics owe you? Anything? Nothing?" post, just to have a little public therapy.
Working hard to have part 1 of my new book ready for APE 2013 in San Francisco. If you're going, please be sure to stop by table 824 and say "Hullo!" to Alex Sheikman and myself.
As I hold in my hands the Genesis West Artist's Edition of Red Nails, I find that i had misgivings about certain aspects of the packaging: The one sided pages, the glossy paper used, the unnecessary slipcase, but it did not occur to me just how much this would be discussed, with such anger, online.
There is a charm to the original art that, I thought, only came across when you were holding the originals in your hands, looking at the margin notes and the erasures and white-outs, and i certainly didn't think that many of us had that gene. IDW has proved me wrong on that account.
Just wanted to post this because, well, Dave was great. The Nightcrawler is actually pretty generic and the face is a bit long, but the Storm... well, Dave clearly has actually looked at women and captured the languid sensuality of her body language. The delicacy of her left hand in the grass is a small be delightful touch. Well done Dave. Miss ya.
