COMIC EVENTS _ Nashville Public Library Lecture

This Saturday, May 12th, I'll be co-delivering a lecture at the Nashville Public Library with fellow Archaia creator Janet K. Lee that traces the history of comics, aka "sequential art," alongside the development of the artform. The lecture is also a pre-cursor to a weekly summer workshop we'll be teaching for aspiring comic creators ages 12-18. More information below.

For the poster, we decided to map a general comic history across six panels and staged in front of the library itself. Below are closer shots of my contributions. (I think Janet completely embodied McCay's art in her Little Nemo panel)

DESIGN _ Fake Criterion Covers

The Criterion Collection is known not only for their deep and lovingly restored film library but also for elevating the level of design with their DVD covers. Forgoing close-up photos of movie stars, the Criterion aesthetic instead incorporates illustration, typography, and/or unique film stills. Design as story. Check the 2011 portfolio by real deal Criterion designer and art director Eric Skillman to see what I mean.

Just for fun, I mocked up some Criterion covers of my own a little while back as part of a message board challenge "Design a Criterion Cover for a Non-Criterion Film." Some examples below:

GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (1992)

Art: A photocopy from an art book on Robert Longo's famous "Men in the Cities" series

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981)

Art: A "smiling" bust of Griffin Dunne's decomposing character, Jack

BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)

Art: My Illustration

POPEYE (1980)

Art: Top, an EC Segar "Popeye" comic strip. Bottom, movie Colorforms that were licensed with the actors' likenesses.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)

Art: Production painting and title treatment from the "making of" book

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)

Art: Production design of the relief on the side of the Ark of the Covenant

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)

Art: A digital collage I did in the spirit of the Surrealism of Polish movie poster art

Side note: only after seeing these together do I see that I must have been going through a "yellow" period