James Jean
James Jean publishes catalog for new exhibition, sells out quick
Just as an addendum to Wednesday’s news when we ran a link to the modern art blog Arrested Motion’s preview coverage of the new James Jean exhibition at New York’s Tilton Gallery: they have now posted a couple of pages of images from the show’s catalog, published by Pressure Printing in a signed-and-numbered limited edition of 1000 that sold out in less than two days — well, it was an extremely handsome edition, packed full of beautiful new work, priced at only $38! Presumably when these start showing up soon on Ebay, they’ll be going for considerably more than that. Join me in consoling yourself for missing out on this bargain by checking out the gallery of beautiful artwork below. Continue Reading »
New James Jean exhibit opens at New York’s Tilton Gallery
James Jean‘s new solo exhibition “Parallel Lives” opens today at the Tilton Gallery in New York City. It’s great to see the former Vertigo staple continue to make a splash in the fine art world with his amazing work. The art blog Arrested Motion has a three-page preview of the spectacular show, with many shots of Jean and his team installing giant multi-canvas/multi-media pieces. See some examples below.
James Jean takes over Hong Kong’s Blitz gallery
We’ve mentioned ex-Fables cover artist James Jean’s esoteric post-comics endeavors before (here and here, to be precise). Following up on last month’s announcement that he’s launching a range of designs at Hong Kong’s Lane Crawford boutique, images of his mural at the store’s Blitz gallery have now appeared at his website, and have since spread like wildfire across the Internet (detailed close-ups below). What has perhaps been less spotted is the coverage of Jean’s work in situ at Blitz by the art and design Tumblr Curious Fiend, from two weeks ago. Their photography reveals how Jean designed a space to display his creations that is as beautiful and intricate as the work itself.
Art Barrage | Space men, moon maids & more comic art in odd places
Following up from last week’s opening of their joint exhibitions at New York City’s John Levine Gallery, the contemporary art magazine Hi-Fructose has an image-rich, wholly enthusiastic review of the twin shows of Ashley Wood and Jeremy Geddes.
Another sometimes-comics artist, James Jean, is again producing work in unexpected formats (remember his delightful wooden wedding invitations?). Check out that work, and more by street artists Joe & Max, sculptor Tim Bruckner, Tim Maclean and more, below.
James Jean designs insanely intricate wedding invitations for friends
Former Fables cover artist James Jean seems to have left comics entirely to pursue avenues in illustration and fine art. He recently posted on his blog some intricately detailed wooden lasercut wedding invitations he designed for some friends in Los Angeles: one born in the year of the ox, another in the year of the snake. Continue Reading »
Nine books, nine years: An incomplete history of AdHouse
some of AdHouse/AdDistro's recent releases
A hearty and heartfelt congratulations to publisher Chris Pitzer on the ninth anniversary of the formation of his fine line of comics, AdHouse Books (and more recently its distribution wing, AdDistro). Pitzer is marking the occasion by telling the stories behind nine of the company’s releases, and the result is a mix insight into the kinds of challenges any small-press comics publisher must face, and the qualities that make this particular small-press comics publisher such a valuable one.
With an output ranging from high-end art books like Paul Pope’s Pulphope and James Jean’s Process Recess to thoughtful graphic novels like Josh Cotter’s Skyscrapers of the Midwest and Adam Hines’s Duncan the Wonder Dog, it’s tough to say exactly what “an AdHouse book” will be like, but with Pitzer’s attention to design and reproduction behind every one, you generally can count on it being gorgeous. And as the stories told by Pitzer about books like Pulpatoon Pilgrimage, Skyscrapers, Duncan and so on indicate, the chances are also good that he’s gone to bat for a largely unknown and unpublished talent. That’s an admirable thing for a publisher to do once, let alone over and over again for nearly a decade.
Comics A.M. | Fantagraphics’ first Pogo collection finally goes to press
Pogo
Publishing | Mark Evanier, who is providing editorial assistance on Fantagraphics’ long-awaited Walt Kelly Pogo collections, notes that the first volume has gone to print. “My friend, the lovely Carolyn Kelly, lovingly supervised the loving restoration of her lovely father’s lovely strip and she also did the lovely design of this lovely book and its lovely dust jacket and the lovely imprints under that lovely dust jacket. Sure sounds like a labor of love to me. Not that the contents need any help but the strips are supplemented by a foreword from writer (and friend o’ Walt’s) Jimmy Breslin and essays/annotations by Steve Thompson, R.C. Harvey and myself. If I were you, I’d read all that text stuff after I read the strips themselves about eleven times.” [News from Me]
Comics | Todd Allen runs through some of the “actual changes” to the DC titles come September, noting the eight new (or fairly new, or returning after being absent) writers, plus four who have been “poached” from Vertigo. [Indignant Online]
Comics | Martin Wisse takes The Atlantic to task for publishing an “utterly dull and middlebrow” list of 10 nonfiction graphic novels they called “masterpieces.” He notes that when commenters call out the author for not listing any works by Joe Sacco, she responds that she “chickened out” on including Footnotes in Gaza because “the topic is so polarizing.” Tom Spurgeon has commentary as well, noting, “It’s galling that an author can admit to not including something for publication because they were afraid of Internet reprisals and not be automatically fired and/or laughed out of town.” [Wis[s]e Words, The Comics Reporter]
Straight for the art | James Jean’s Ennio Morricone concert poster
Concert poster by James Jean
This gorgeous poster created by artist James Jean for the April 10th performance of composer Ennio Morricone’s music The Royal Albert Hall is being sold as a limited-edition print. The ATP Concerts website states the price is “available on request,” but a commenter here was quoted $133.88 for a print shipped to the United States — which, really, is less expensive than I thought it’d be.
(via Super Punch)
Oooh, another sale! With a Stan Bush soundtrack!
Johnny Hiro #1, from AdHouse
Your wallet may still be smarting from the beating it received at the hands of SLG and Buenaventura’s big bottom-line-boosting sales, but there’s no rest for the weary: Now the impeccably designed comics of indie publisher AdHouse Books are getting in on the act.
Click over to AdHouse’s holiday-season sale (initially announced right here on Robot 6!) to find killer deals on comics ranging from Joshua W. Cotter’s book-of-the-year candidate Driven by Lemons to serial Eisner Award-winner James Jean’s lovely sketchbook The Hallowed Seam: Process Recess Vol. 3 to Fred Chao’s multiple Eisner-nominated “adventure-scifi-love story” Johnny Hiro.
And to get you in the mood for saving money, why not watch this preview video for Driven by Lemons, set to the unforgettable strains of Stan Bush’s “The Touch” from Transformers: The Movie? After all, if you buy that comic, you’re a winner, you’re nobody’s fool.
Straight for the art | Minty fresh James Jean art
Coming soon from Giant Robot are three different packages of mints designed by artist James Jean. Check out the other two designs by following the link.
Straight for the art | James Jean’s Kindling preview
Kindling
Drawn! has an early look at Kindling, a series of 12 prints by James Jean and published by Chronicle Books. The editor of the project says in the comments that the book will be available for sale at Comic-Con next week.
With one last cover, James Jean says farewell to Fables
Jean's covers to "Fables" #81, Vol. 9, and #49
Vertigo’s Fables #81 hit shelves this week, marking the final issue for award-winning cover artist James Jean. On his blog, Jean breaks down the process for this last cover, a nod to the Pietà featuring Red Riding Hood and Boy Blue, with plenty of references to other covers he’s created for the series since 2002.
At Geekanerd, Degan bids farewell to Jean, whose “covers for Fables were easily the most beautiful, most poignant, and at times, the most sexy.” It’s a nice retrospective, with plenty of commentary on individual covers.