sketchbooks
Grab a pawful of early and rare Bill Watterson art
Bill Watterson: The College Years
Face it, tiger-lovers — you just hit the jackpot: Check out this terrific gallery of early and rare art by Calvin & Hobbes cartoonist Bill Watterson. Included are pieces from the Kenyon College yearbook and student newspaper, covers from the political-cartooning journal Target, Watterson’s own editorial cartoons from the Cincinnatti Post, illustrations for an essay in The Comics Journal, self-portraits, a collection of Calvin & Hobbes sketches, and much more. The site design indicates that this is about a million Internet years old and thus many of you may have seen it before, but I sure haven’t, and it’s great way to see whole new side of Watterson — and a demonstration that his chops were ample even at a tender age.
(via Andrew Sullivan and Gavon Laessig)
- December 7, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
Who has the best sketchbook in Brooklyn?
Drawbridge Sketchbook art by Nathan Schreiber
That’s what organizers of King Con and members of the Drawbridge sketch blog want to know. So they’re sponsoring the King Con Drawbridge Sketchbook Competition, held as part of the Nov. 4-7 Brooklyn convention.
To qualify, entries must contain work from five different artists, and have one sketch made at at King Con 2010. The winner, who will be announced on Nov. 7, will receive the Drawbridge Sketchbook containing art by Dean Haspiel, Tim Hamilton, Simon Fraser, Reilly Brown, Nick Abadzis, Robin Ha, GB Tran, Joan Reilly and Nathan Schreiber.
“King Con and Drawbridge see the competition as a way to give back to the sketchbook collectors who commission work and support their favorite artists,” Schreiber writes on his blog. “As comic conventions grow and transform the fundamental relationship the cons are based on – that between creator and fan – runs the risk of being drowned out. The Drawbridge Sketchbook competition reaffirms this connection between creator and fan, and showcases the depth of talent and community at King Con. We’re hoping artists and fans use the competition to make and collect some amazing work!”
- October 19, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Sketchbook: Ben Towle creates some characters
A character evolves in Ben Towle's sketchbook
Ben Towle has been working up his characters for his next graphic novel, In the Weeds (which sounds like it will be set behind the scenes at a restaurant), and he shows off his thought process at his blog. The book presents some challenges:
About half of the book takes place in a restaurant kitchen and this presents a prickly problem in that everyone will be dressed the same. It’d be really easy here to fall into an “Alien 3″ situation here where you’ve got a bunch of (mostly) white guys running around in the same outfit and you can’t tell who’s doing what or saying what unless you’re seeing a close-up of their faces.
It’s interesting to see how much the characters change as he refines them.
- October 6, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Themed convention sketchbooks
The Royal Tenenbaums, by Matt Wagner
One of the more unique aspects of comics conventions in the United States is the general amount of creativity bursting at the seems. One of the biggest signs of this is the generosity that most artists have for doing rough sketches to attendees.
Generally artists will do these for free, or for a small fee, but if you can get your hands on one it’s well worth the effort. I’ve been collecting sketches for several years at cons, and I thought myself the norm until I first glimpsed the themed sketchbook of Oni Press Editor-in-Chief James Lucas Jones.
In 2002, Jones began having artists and friends in the industry contribute to an ongoing sketchbook centered on the characters from the 2001 Wes Anderson film The Royal Tenenbaums. It’s been years since I’ve seen it, and it’s probably filled to the brim and Jones moved on to other themes. But it always sticks in my mind as one of the first themed con sketchbooks and one of the best. Here’s a sample:
- September 3, 2010 @ 12:45 PM by Chris Arrant
SDCC Wishlist | Hipp’s Stray Days, Moon and Ba’s print and much more
by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba
Down to the wire here, so let’s do a round-robin of a few more cool items you can get at the San Diego Comic-Con this year …
• Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba are bringing a new limited signed giclée print, which you can see to the right.
• Buenaventura Press is having a going-out-of-business sale at booth #1734. Alvin Buenaventura will be there, selling the last copies he has of Kramers Ergot 7, Boy’s Club by Matt Furie, The Gigantic Robot by Tom Gauld, original art and more.
• Gene Luen Yang has a new T-shirt he’ll be selling at the show.
• Terry Moore is bringing The Complete Paradise TOO — “a 360 page softcover book filled with hundreds and hundreds of my comic strips and cartoons, from high school to SIP to all the Kixie strips and Plato and Lizzie the axe-murderer… all for just $30.”
• Scott Morse will have a TON of items for sale at the show; you can find them here and here.
• Both Josh Howard and Humberto Ramos will have sketchbooks at the show. Sean Galloway, meanwhile, has a Spider-Man print.
- July 21, 2010 @ 04:13 PM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Jamie S. Rich’s Audrey Hepburn sketchbook
by Chynna Clugston
March winds and April showers bring convention season, and with that, the opportunity to fill your convention sketchbook with some nice, new stuff. You’ve already seen Sean’s David Bowie sketchbook, and now Spell Checkers writer Jamie S. Rich talks about how he started his Audrey Hepburn one. You can find more of his sketch collection here.
- April 26, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Jeff Lemire’s Emerald City ComiCon commissions
Spider Jerusalem by Jeff Lemire
If you’ve ever had the good fortune of getting a convention sketch from Sweet Tooth and Essex County writer/artist Jeff Lemire, you’ve learned two things: 1) He can draw pretty much any character, from Doctor Octopus to David Bowie; 2) He goes all out on those suckers. If you haven’t gotten a Lemire sketch of your own, let this gallery of commissions Lemire drew at the Emerald City Con (courtesy of Top Shelf’s Brett Warnock) school you on what you’re missing. Pictured are Spider Jerusalem from Warren Ellis’ Transmetropolitan (above), Robin, Doctor Doom, Nightcrawler, the Golden Age Sandman, the Sweet Tooth cast, and even a character from Lemire’s upcoming Top Shelf graphic novel Underwater Welder. Feast your eyes, folks.
- April 26, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Straight for the art | Sean’s David Bowie Sketchbook, MoCCA 2010
David Bowie by Niklas Asker
I’ve been collecting David Bowie sketches from comics artists at shows and cons since MoCCA 2007. What can I say? He’s my favorite superhero. In that time I’ve amassed drawings of the chameleonic musician from 97 different artists, and adding to the collection is always a high priority for me at every show. I had exceptionally good luck at this year’s MoCCA — you better hang on to yourself as we flip through this year’s haul!
Niklas Asker (above): Oh man, look at that, just look at it. How can a sketch be shiny? Niklas Asker pulled it off with maybe the most elegant and sexy Bowie of the batch–no surprise, if you’ve seen his graphic novel Second Thoughts.
- April 15, 2010 @ 12:40 PM by Sean T. Collins
Straight for the shirt | TV on the Radio’s David Bowie charity t-shirt
TV on the Radio's t-shirt for the Yellow Bird Project
“Okay,” you ask, “what does a t-shirt featuring a drawing of David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust, by TV on the Radio lead singer Tunde Adebimpe, being sold to raise money for Haiti relief efforts as part of the Yellow Bird Project, have to do with comics?” Glad you asked! Adebimpe is a part-time cartoonist (and a pretty good one at that), and his drawing of Bowie came directly from my David Bowie sketchbook, in which famous comics folks like Bryan Lee O’Malley, Kate Beaton, Randall Munroe, David Mack, Paul Pope, Cliff Chiang, Adrian Tomine, Seth, Gary Panter, Charles Burns, Los Bros Hernandez, and many many many more have been nice enough to offer me their take on the Thin White Duke. Be a hero, just for one day, and buy the shirt!
- March 11, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Straight for the art | Jim Woodring’s sketchbook
from Jim Woodring's sketchbook
Jim and Frank creator Jim Woodring, comics’ master of dark psychedelia, has posted a selection of drawings from his moleskine notebook to his blog, and they are pretty much mindshattering. I seriously don’t even know where to begin, other than to say that the images above may be the least strange in the batch.
If that’s not enough, you can always take a look at our exclusive preview of Woodring’s upcoming graphic novel Weathercraft, which hits this spring from Fantagraphics.
- February 26, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
Straight for the art | Ben Herman’s Beautiful Dreamer sketchbook
Beautiful Dreamer by Richard Howell
A chance encounter at Tunde Adebimpe’s table at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival led to my discovery of Ben Herman’s impressive collection of Beautiful Dreamer sketches. In his sketchbook’s pages, the lovely telepathic New God from Jack Kirby’s Forever People is given her due by Dan DeCarlo, Dick Ayers, Ramona Fradon, Gilbert Hernandez, Mark Bode, Tania Del Rio, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Danielle Corsetto, John Bogdanove, Todd Nauck and many more. Go feast your eyes, and check out Herman’s entire assortment of ComicArtFans.com galleries — his Star Wars and Avengers sketchbooks are nothing to sneeze at, either.
- December 8, 2009 @ 01:16 PM by Sean T. Collins
Straight for the art | Cameron Stewart’s convention sketches
Batwoman sketch by Cameron Stewart
Incoming Batman and Robin artist Cameron Stewart has posted a selection of sketches drawn for fans during his recent European tour with Karl Kerschl and Ramón Pérez, and the results are … uh, what’s the visual equivalent of “mouthwatering”? I don’t think it’s “eyewatering,” but this little gallery — heavy on the Bat-characters but boasting a few mutants and supporting Spidey castmembers too — may well bring a tear to your eye over the fact that you don’t live in Europe and thus couldn’t get one yourself.
- December 4, 2009 @ 01:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
Straight for the art: Tintin sketchbook
O'Malley's Tintin
One of the highlights for me at this year’s SPX was having Top Shelf’s Leigh Walton show me his impressive Tintin-themed sketchbook featuring art by folks like Bryan Lee O’Malley, Jeff Lemire, Kate Beaton, Jeffrey Brown and many others. Thankfully, Walton has put up a Flickr set of the sketchbook, so that all from near and far can revel in it. Great snakes, what fun!
- November 9, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
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)
- November 6, 2009 @ 12:30 PM by Chris Mautner
Venditti shares ‘The Ugly Truth’
The Ugly Truth
While some folks collect sketches of comic characters (like the Watchmen) from artists at conventions, Surrogates writer Robert Venditti collects sketches of himself — or of his baby picture, to be precise. And he’s started sharing them every Monday at his blog, starting with one by Jeffrey Brown.
(Speaking of Brown, don’t miss his Wolverine vs. Hulk strip over at the Top Shelf blog).
- August 25, 2009 @ 08:41 AM by JK Parkin