Comic Book Resources

Straight for the art | Cuaderno de Frases Encontradas

From Berrio's 'Conversations'

Even if you can't read Spanish (and I totally can't) this sketchblog by Juan Berrio, based on snatches of overheard conversations is still worth checking out. (via)

Straight for the art | Allan Sanders' superheroes

Sanders' Superheroes

Get your weekend off to the right start by checking out this collage of superheroes by illustrator and animator Allan Sanders. (via)

Straight for the art | Jeffrey Brown’s Haruki Murakami

Jeffrey Brown’s Haruki Murakami

Hey Oscar Wilde! It's Clobberin' Time!, the blog that posts portraits of authors by comic creators, recently posted one of Haruki Murakami by Jeffery Brown. You can see the back story on it, also by Brown, over at Kevin Church's blog.

Straight for the art | Monster Mashups

Monster Mashups

Dean Haspiel points us to Monster Mashups, a collaboration between Tim Hall and Jen Ferguson "depicting the lesser known aspects of some of the most notorious creatures in the Western lexicon of horror." Haspiel says:

Tim Hall (writer) and Jen Ferguson (artist) began collaborating late in the summer of 2009, when Tim became aware of Jen’s peculiar art and vice-versa: a working friendship was born. Tim Hall had begun “Uplift the Positivicals,” a new “comic without comics” (somewhat like Hazel Motes’ “Church of Christ Without Christ” in Flannery O’Connor’s novel “Wise Blood”) on Act-i-vate.com, a webcomix collective founded by mutual friend and artist Dean Haspiel. Tim asked Jen to illustrate some of his most demented passages, which turned out to be the perfect assignment for the artist, who years earlier had nearly been booted out of an illustration program at Pratt and sworn off anything that involved “assignments.” Tim’s first request of Jen is that she draw a plushie’s fantasy: a Paddington Bear bed with mechanical arms. After this intriguing first request, stranger ones followed.

By the Hurrying Hordes of Holborn: McCarthy's Dr. Strange/Spider-Man promo

Fever promo

Mark Kardwell shares with us an "idea sketch for a 'Coming Soon" type of advert" for Fever, the upcoming Dr. Strange/Spider-Man miniseries written and drawn by Brendan McCarthy. This Marvel Knights series is due in April, McCarthy told Kaldwell.

Paul Pope, Dustin Harbin do Dune

Dune art by Paul Pope

Cartoonist and Heroes Con creative director Dustin Harbin is obviously a comics guy. But even for sequential-art partisans, every once in a while the literary spice must flow. Thus Harbin has created the Dune book club, a weekly discussion of the original science-fiction classic by author Frank Herbert, hosted on Harbin's blog. In addition to thought-provoking posts and comment-thread chats about the book, which Harbin calls "probably my favorite novel ever," the book club is also something of an art club, with Harbin, Paul Pope, Patrick Keck, Peter Lazarski, Pen Ward, Thomas "Smo" Smolenski, and Evan Dahm all providing luscious comics and stand-alone illustrations based on the book. (Pope, another big-time Dune devotee, had already drawn a scene from the book in the style of a Wednesday Comics page.) Personally, I'm waiting for someone to take a crack at a sandworm.

Straight for the art | Kelley Jones' Great Pumpkin

Great Pumpkin by Kelley Jones

Zack Smith, who writes for Newsarama and Independent Weekly, sent over this awesome Great Pumpkin art that Kelley Jones drew for him in 2001. Marc McKenzie colored it.

"It was for a humor piece I wrote featuring the by-now-old gag of the Pumpkin being a demon and wreaking havoc," Smith said in an email. "The only gags I recall as semi-entertaining were Linus getting sucked through a time vortex and winding up in 'Army of Linus,' and a bit where the Pumpkin caused horrible things to happen in other comic strips (Dolly in THE FAMILY CIRCUS needs an exorcist to get rid of 'Not Me,' FUNKY WINKERBEAN is...the exact same depressing strip it always is). I was 21. It seemed funny at the time."

Thanks for sending it over, Zack!

Straight for the art | Rob Steen's monster sketches

Whispering Grass by Rob Steen

Artist Rob Steen, who draws the Flanimals series of books written by Ricky Gervais, as well as various comics like Elephantman and Afterlife, has a sketch blog where he posts all sorts of creepy and kooky creatures. Go check it out.

Via

Straight for the art | Huizenga's 'Fielder'

Panels from 'Fielder'

Kevin Huizenga has a two-page strip in the Italian magazine Internazionale and gracefully decided to share the comic, sans dialogue with the rest of the Internet.

Straight for the Art | Davis' fairy tales

One of Davis' fairy tale pictures

I like Eleanor Davis' work. A lot. So when I come across this collection of fairy tale illustrations she's doing for The Guardian, well, how can I not share? (via)

Straight for the art | Scott Morse shares his APE commissions

Hellboy

Artist Scott Morse shares on his blog several commissions he did at APE last weekend, including this one of Hellboy.

Straight for the art | Yokai diagrams

Can't translate the Japanese, sorry

Yokai are types of traditional Japanese folk monsters that many manga-ka like Shigeru Mizunki incorporate into their stories. Few provide as many awesome cut-away diagrams of their monsters as Mizunki does in his book Yōkai Daizukai, which the site Pink Tentacle offers some amazing samples from.

You've become an ice sculpture Charlie Brown!

Not content with dominating the vast world merchandising, the Peanuts empire will now take on the competitive and ever-controversial ice sculpting arena, with a new exhibit that will open on Nov. 20 in Nashville, TN. Entitled ICE!, the exhibit will re-enact scenes from A Charlie Brown Christmas using 2 million pounds of ice carved by artisans from Harbin, China. No, I am not making any of this up.

The promo video is above. You can read the intro from the official press release, which I nicked from Daily Cartoonist, after the jump.

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Straight for the art: Al Columbia's 'Toyland'

Hey cats and kittens! Are you as excited for the upcoming release of Al Columbia's Pim and Francie book from Fantagraphics as I am? Sure you are! Until then, however, you'll just have to tide yourselves over with this stunning painting Columbia did titled "Toyland." A printed version of the work can be found in the latest copy of Diamond Comics.

Straight for the art | Haspiel's Bored to Death sketches

from Bored to Death

HBO's new comedy Bored to Death features a lot of art by artist Dean Haspiel, from the opening sequence he illustrated to the sketches by the character Ray Hueston, played by Zach Galifianakis and inspired by Haspiel himself. Now HBO has a page where they're collecting all of the artwork by Haspiel/Hueston.