Jason T Miles pointed this out to me. I am sincerely honored to be part of the Comic Book Database but I'm way, waayyy more thrilled to have my lifelong dream realized of being cover artist for Tony Millionaire's Billy Hazelnuts! Which isn't to take away from the fact that I was a cover artist for Peter Bagge's legendary Hate comics before I ever learned to drive, nor that I lettered the entirety of the Beasts! anthology (I bet you thought those were typefaces, didn't ya???). Internet: I love you and your, shall we say, Facts!! * [Note to CB…
Vaguely Speaking of Mr. Ed.
In Barcelona, Spain, there lives a man who seems to be a fountain of creative energy. Possibly a horse. A man or a horse who compulsively creates art with a diversity of style and intent. I find him hugely inspiring– one of these men or horses that imbues every little scrap of paper he touches with honest-to-god life. Some of it very polished and commercial, much of it feeling dashed off in an intuitive dervish. Sometimes it's like someone who speaks only in semaphore trying to speak braille. But my view is biased since I can't speak Spanish and…
Notes on Scanner Quality and Jpgs 3
Adam Grano is upset with me being too blanket-statement-y in my post on scanners. I'm like that. I just wanted people to be aware of what to look at in their scans. Adam has a better idea of what to look for in a scanner brand. Here's his scholarly response: "I don't deny that some cheap scanners are shitty. I was just arguing that the pinup scans look more affected by jpeg compression than JUST a shitty scanner. I'd wager that if he upped the resolution a bit and sent you an LZW compressed tiff, it'd look a lot better….
The Terrorists Have Won, and Other Links.
Mike Baehr pointed out Tim Hensley using ComicLife in the links roundup a couple of weeks ago but he failed to mention how Fantagraphics' Righthand Man, Eric Reynolds, has even stopped drawing and now makes all his comics in the Macintosh program. Such a convert, he even got his mom into it. Seriously. I've seen her comics but I won't post those. It wouldn't be right– and you probably don't even know who Mr. Blackwell is anyway. Well, in spite of his flaws, I recommend all fans of comicdom check out Eric's massive Flickr archive of His Life in the…
Notes on Scanner Quality and Jpgs 2
Concerning my earlier post about Scanner Quality: Here is a photograph scanned with a $100 home scanner I bought because it sat up vertically on the desktop, taking up less space. It is worthless. Above is a 1.5 inch section of photograph I scanned at 300 dpi and saved uncompressed, showing all the same jagginess and lack of nuance that I talked about below. Somebody at Fantagraphics doubted that cheap scanners had anything to do with this binary phenomenon but, yes, they do. They are the devil's work. As I said.
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Notes on Scanner Quality and Jpgs.
I should make time for posts like this more often but here's a little rundown on why people shouldn't use cheap scanners to archive material. Take a look at this scan of an original old pin-up page that was sent to me this week, compressed as a jpg. At a glance it looks great with the watercolor paper really showing its tooth. (Technically the page has also not been laid down flat enough and we're getting an uneven light but let's overlook that.) Above shows the full art which was scanned large–about 11" tall at 300dpi. Looking closer you can…
Another DeCarlo post.
Throughout the late midcentury, Dan DeCarlo was simultaneously defining the look of tight-sweatered Riverdale girls in Archie comics for little Billy while drawing titillating Riverdale-esque women losing their sweaters in Humorama magazines for Bill senior. Like Playboy being produced by Disney, the utter American-ness of it resonates deeply and rather disturbingly. It's the ultimate subversion to see these Archie girls squeaky-clean and wide-eyed in a slick, crass, Man's World of viral virile impotence. And I can't stop admiring DeCarlo because of and in spite of it… [Ha. I misspelled 'virile.' And, no, I'm not going to explain myself.]
Mark Newgarden: Ultimate Yard Sale
If you're anywhere near Brooklyn you would be crazy to miss a yard sale that includes Mark Newgarden (creator of the Garbage Pail Kids, etc.): COLOSSAL Multi-Family GARAGE SALE! So big, it's practically an entire Flea Market! This weekend! Saturday, October 4 & Sunday, October 5, 10am – ? A MOUNTAIN OF TREASURE INCLUDES: Collectibles, Antiques, Art Books, Kid’s Books, Vintage Paperbacks, All kinds of Books, Old Magazines, Advertising, Comics, Paper Ephemera, Posters, Maps, Records, Record Players, CDs, Vintage Toys, Old Squeak Toys, Vintage Games, Projectors, Vintage Film Boxes, Old Cameras, Electronics, Vintage Women's Clothes, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's &…
Tijuana Terrorist
Greg Zura, sales manager for a decade here at Fantagraphics, you forgot some of your stuff when you quit to pursue writing*. We found this Tijuana Bible portrait of Osama Bin Luba behind your desk. *Sort of.
