ARCHIVE PAGE 17
February 2007
Handy
Hannah Moore: Stricture on the Modern System of Female Education
From 1802. Notice the "f" letters are actually a "s".
February 29, 2007
Bleach #17
It is curious how the manga audience and the traditional American comic book audiences are divided into separate camps. The similarities between manga and American comics are enough that they're obviously from the same medium, and the basic mechanics of storytelling are the same. An outsider would hardly see significant differences. Yet, all the same, one group reads one, and another group reads the other.
This artwork here by Tite Kubo from Bleach #17 shows the clean white space manga seems to prefer, and the heroic (and poetic) importance of a single scene distributed throughout the panel and all its elements. An American (superhero) comic would focus all the heroic posing (and whatever poetry there is) to the figure of the superhero.
Manga centralizes the hero (or lead character. Some of these main characters are not heroes in any real sense) in the broad strokes of the story as a sweeping narrative that carries everything forward in it's path. In American Comics, a single characters decisions (usually the superhero or the supervillain, or both) makes everything else happen. Manga seems to show destiny as inevitable, manifested through character (i.e., character is destiny), whereas American comics reflect older religious ideals about free will and the impact of decisions against what would otherwise be inevitable (i.e., free-choice versus predestination). But both Manga and American comics hold the character of the hero as central.
Related: Manga Index at Comic Book Brain
February 18, 2007
One of my paintings. To see more paintings, go here.
First page to a 6-page comic story. This will appear in the comic book Crash Helmet #2
Martin Zapater - - the lifelong friend of Spanish artist Francisco de Goya (1746-1828).
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Bat Cling
February 16, 2007
You'll notice the caption says the painting is lost - - probably it was stolen by the Nazis (along with thousands of other artworks) during the German invasion of Poland. Many Gottlieb paintings were recovered, but this is one of the most important ones still not accounted for. It's probably hanging on a wall somewhere wherever ex-nazi9s and their families have hidden.
I have updated a page on the painter Maurycy Gottlieb. To view the page go here.
Snowland
February 12 2007
If you want to see some of my other artwork, go here.
February 13, 2007
Clouds over Richmond, Virginia - - we're due for snow, or rain, or both.
Spiderman: Bloat
Archive Page 17 updated on February 9, 2011
