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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)

At last, a reason for Twitter's existence

Neill Cameron, who some of you may remember from his A-Z of Awesomeness, has started a new project, entitled Hashtag Funnies. The rules are pretty simple. Every day Cameron draws a strip based on or inspired by that day's trending topics on Twitter. The only catch is the strip can only take up one hour of his time. Those constraints have led to some rather inspired and hilarious strips, like the one above. Be sure and visit Neill's blog to read the rest.

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.

Video of the day: Cameron Stewart drawing Catwoman

Show of hands please! Who's interested in seeing the award-winning Cameron Stewart draw a picture of Catwoman using Manga Studio? Ah, I thought so.

There's another video of him drawing the Prince of Persia at this link. A you can see the final version of the Catwoman piece here.

Everyone's A Critic: A round-up of comic book reviews and thinkpieces

Sandman

Let's try to run through some of the more notable links of the past several days. My apologies if this is old news to you or I missed something.

• Kicking things off, I should note that the gang at the Hooded Utilitarian are offering an in-depth analysis of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. In order: Noah Berlatsky, Ng Suat Tong,  Tom Crippen and Von Marlowe.

• Ken Parille looks at the work of his fellow blogmate Tim Hensley, specifically his Wally Gropius series: "I can’t think of another cartoonist who approaches space -- and what we might call 'spatial color' -- in such a rigorously strange way."

• Abhay Khosla talks about comics by way of crime novels:

So: a year from now, if we’re unlucky and Vertigo Crime no longer exists, and some so-and-so is screeching that “None of youse fools on the internet people could have done better because we are geniuses who thought of EVERYTHING” … I would suggest that maybe one thing they could have done differently is launched their crime line with crime fiction…? Just a silly thought.

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Cool things to bookmark: CARzy

If, by some odd matter of happenstance, your love of comics just happens to coincide with a love of automobiles and all things pertaining to them, then you should by all means check out CARzy, a blog devoted to car-related comics and cartoons, particularly from such late, lamented magazines as (you guessed it) CARtoons. The blog is run by Nelson Dewey, who contributed 2,000 pages of material to these magazines (or so he claims). I found the above image by perusing his portfolio.

Straight for the art | Cho's 'Noise' cover

Cho's 'White Noise'

Illustrator and cartoonist Michael Cho recently revamped the cover for Penguin's edition of the Don DeLillo classic "White Noise." He talks at length about the process of putting the cover together and how he worked with editor Paul Buckley and Delillo to arrive at this final image.

I gotta say, I like it a lot better than the original cover.

(found via the Ephemerist)

Cool things to bookmark: Project Waldo

Panel from 'Project Waldo'

Video game artist Nate Simpson is having a go at making his very first comic and blogging about the experience:

Sometimes it feels like I'm running a marathon while tied to the starting line with a bungee cord. Each step takes more effort. I'm like Steve Martin in the Three Amigos, held against the prison wall by weighted chains. "Gonna make it! Gonna make it! Gonna make it! Notgonnamakeit notgonnamakeit notgonnamakeit!"

(found via Drawn)

Cool things to bookmark: Debbie Drechsler's new blog

Image from one of Drechsler's notecards

Artist Debbie Drechsler (Summer of Love, Daddy's Girl) has a new blog up, which is mainly worth noting because a) she's got a online store where you can puchase some very nice notecards; and b) she's started a wonderful new sketch blog, entitled Just Around the Corner, where she draws the various plants she finds lurking in her neighborhood. (found via flog)

Good things to bookmark: Ye Gods!

Dick Tracy Monthly

My love for all things Dick Tracy is such that I can't not draw your attention to the Ye Gods! He Collects Dick Tracy blog. Did you know Chester Gould made a little cemetery to memorialize all his deceased villains? (found via Mike Lynch).

Straight for the art: Newspaper cartoonists' autographs

Barney Google

John Adock has an interesting collection of artwork and autographs from such notable folks as De Beck, Ernie Bushmiller, Milt Caniff over at his blog.

Straight for the art: Baker's 'Dexter'

Scene from Baker's 'Dexter'

Kyle Baker did an animated cartoon for Showtime based off of their popular live-action series Dexter, and he's got the screenshots up on his blog to prove it. No word on when this goes live, but I'm stoked to see it. (found via Beaucoup Kevin.)

Craig Yoe is blogging again, everyone can relax now

Kirby's Mickey

The editorial force behind the upcoming Art of Steve Ditko (to name just one of his numerous projects) has launched a new blog called Super I.T.C.H. (International Team of Comics Historians) and debuts with an appropriate image considering yesterday's news:

Back in 1991, I did a coffee table art book “The Art of Mickey Mouse”, I got artists from around the world to do their interpretation of “The World’s Favorite Mouse.” One of the first people I called was Jack Kirby. He and his wife Roz were very excited about the idea. He sent me two drawings, as I recall, and I chose this one. I colored it “animation style,” with the black line on an overlay and  the background colors underneath. Jack’s contribution was part of a touring exhibit of art from the book throughout Japan. So, Marvel is called by some fans “The House that Jack Built” (not, in my opinion to take ANYTHING  away from the brilliant genius Stan Lee’s more than vital part.) And here’s Jack doing Mickey! Is this weird, or what?

Straight for the art: Nate Powell's Autopilot

See My Brother Dance isn't some new YouTube craze, but the blog of one Nate Powell, who won a lot of raves last year for his stunning graphic novel Swallow Me Whole. The site's full of the usual sort of news and updates, but also lots of nice art, including the above limited edition poster. (found via The Beat)

Brian Chippendale is now blogging

Ignore the profane name under the "about me" section. The owner and operator of the new Marvelous Coma blog is none other than Brian Chippendale, artist behind such noteworthy avant-garde comics as Maggots and Ninja. What, you may well ask, would a creator of such idiosyncratic, highly acclaimed work want to talk about on the Internet? How about ... Daredevil!

Daredevil #100

DD #100 volume 1 is a set up issue. an origin issue. and even a reflection of period stereotypes. It has virtually nothing in common with DD #500 except the presence of the red costume. In #100, written by Steve Gerber and illustrated by the one and only Gene Colan(the work, inked by Tartaglione, is not Genes best), DD is the wise cracking pre-Frank Miller version. This era of DD gave the hero, and the comic, the ability to stretch out of character, to veer off the dark dirty city streets into flights of fantasy. It allows DD to joke about the world. A virtue virtually gone in current DD characterization. Issue #100 acts as an origin summary, as DD recounts a few bits of his history to a Rolling Stone reporter, until a mass hallucination hits the Rolling Stone office and the streets of San Fransisco. This is 1973 Marvel Comics.

(found via the Beat)