29.7.07

Ken Riley - Illustrator Western Painter 4

This wraps it up with that Ken Riley Reader's Digest job  There are a few more spot illos that I left out... Speaking of Queen Elizabeth, I read Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida - Freaky - We get into the dark, tragic phase of Shakespeare's plays - His father died, Queen Elizabeth died, maybe his wife had an affair - did this affect his plays? It's all conjecture but this one's ending is pretty weird and dark - it's about the Trojan War and is sort of a take on Homer's Odyssey, yet he didn't base it on Homer, but on the medieval Trojan War compilations and additions - 

26.7.07

Revue Lire, France - Hugo Pratt special

http://www.lire.fr/enquete.asp/idC=51245/idR=200 Hugo Pratt gets a cover feature in a French literary magazine currently on the stands. He's basically my role model for what a cartoonist can achieve. I've read a lot of his stuff, they have them all at the library, but it was all in a bit of two-month burst, so the stories are now all one big blur. I do remember feeling that this was more of a literary experience, the stories had a more literate, erudite, mature bent. I got into Robert Louis Stevenson because of Pratt... All I remember is that he lifted Harvey Kurtzman's 'Jivaro Death' in Two-Fisted Tales directly into one of his Ann of the Jungle stories... Corto Maltese in Siberia, which takes place during the China-Russian war, and features Rasputin (not the historical Rasputin) stands out as a favorite. Fort Wheeling is another favorite, story-wise.

24.7.07

Ken Riley - Illustrator Western Painter 3

This was quite a big Ken Riley job - lots of illustrations in this story - dig the pastel colors...

21.7.07

Ken Riley - Illustrator Western Painter 2

Some more Ken Riley and more flamboyant colors - normally he has a fairly earthy and rugged color palette -

9.7.07

Frank Cho - Inking samples Liberty Meadows

Frank Cho - that's some cool inking - great line - he knows when to go thick and when to go thin - the lines really flow with all kinds of subtle changes of thickness and tapering - he knows when to go tight and slick and when to keep it loose and sketchy - he knows when to throw in some black, he can go realistic or cartoony - he keeps it clean and clear but his line still has warmth and character; and he keeps it dynamic lively - so yeah that's some cool inking -done with Micron Pigma pens (size 02, 05, and 08) .