Joelle Jones – Fables: Legends in Exile Commission
VERY pleased with this one. In my previous post I mentioned I had a few goodies coming in soon, and here is some original art from the amazing Joelle Jones! What’s notable about this piece is that it’s the first commission I have received (I have commissioned others prior to this one, but they are still in progress). Like in that last post regarding Action Comics#29, this is new ground I never thought I’d get into, as previously I had a policy of strictly buying published art. The subject of this commission, however, had something to do with my change of heart. I have mentioned that finding a perfect Fables page has been problematic and I got tired of seeing the same pages over and over up for grabs. I decided to query artists to do what are essentially film one-sheets for the series arcs, and I thought (and was proven right) that Joelle was perfect for this leg of the project, considering the nature of Legends in Exile being a throwback mystery, and the skills Joelle has shown in works we’ve covered at BSC, like You Have Killed Me.
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Rose Red for that Ass
You have to love Fables. For a series to be around that three digit figure in issues and having no arcs that anyone of adequate taste can describe as subpar is not a feat that many runs in comic history can claim (no matter what Spider-Girl fans will tell you!). Getting a new trade of Fables is among my favorite reading situations over the last few years, and I’m always on the lookout to nab original art from the series. I’ve remarked in the past I’ve found some difficulty in this, because while perfect for the story at hand, when confronted with examples of the original art itself (and I say this as compliment though it doesn’t seem like it) they don’t always grab me as individual items that I find myself eventually pulling the trigger on. In some fashion, it makes me think that perhaps the optimal comic book reading experience doesn’t lend itself to optimal OA purchasing options outside of one’s personal nostalgia zone (Fables is a read that I found as an adult). I find myself much more readily buying panel pages from books of my childhood., and more often than prefer splashy pages of my more current vices .With that in mind, I do get an extra satisfaction when I am able to grab a Fables piece.
The Current Original Comic Book Art Want List – Unofficial
Just a list of 10 pieces of art that I currently look far. None of them are (yet) serious big ticket items so they are all obtainable, and especially so if you consider most of my wants aren’t page specific. While certainly there are uber-high dollar items that I know would interest me, I purposely left the list to items that I actively look for on a semi-daily basis. In fact, I will admit that I’ve left some examples of specific pages off (because I’m paranoid!). I’m not including artists who are currently working on commissions for me.
The Only Good Gundam. . .
Yesterday I mentioned some of my favorite artists in passing in James Jean and Amy Sol, and many of them can be seen in the pages of my favorite art magazine, Hi-Fructose. I touched on the magazine briefly at BSC last year and as I was going through their sweet site yesterday I noticed this bad ass image of a Gundam that’s a part of Rob Sato’s exhibition, “Junk History”. While on a fundamental level I’m against Gundam (basically for not being Macross/Robotech!), I have to admit that this piece is all kinds of awesome–and I can pretend that tin can is the remnants of a beat down delivered by Max Sterling (with the help of some very simple and mundane multiverse jump point).
Variety, Trade, or Death (or No Hooks, Chum)
I was working on another post here that kind of morphed beyond what I wanted it to be and as of now may appear at Throne World instead as a Jan-ken-pon installment in some condensed form (if I can get it to a point that I’m pleased with–it’s some thoughts about Bendis and the Avengers). One of the off-topic asides that cropped up regarded variant covers. Online, “variant cover” is a bit of a taboo term, and a rather predictable one as they are often cast as one of the many elements that accurately describe as what’s wrong with current/modern comics. Personally, I’ve never understood any of the arguments that treat the subject of variants as the bane of all that’s good in comics. In fact, I think people who make such claims are at best rather silly. There are numerous arguments against variants, and I will go over all of them that have true merit.
Dorothy – Still in Skottie’s Kansas
Just wanted to share one of my pages from Marvel’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a book that’s now collected in a sweet hardcover and needs to be in the hands of every kid. If you go through the book, you’d probably as, “Why this page?”. With half a book full of fantastic landscape via Skottie Young and interpretations of more iconic moments (like house-on-witch) still available, why go for something mundane? I wanted two things.
Akira Original Art at ToonSeum
I’m a Japanese kid of the ’80s who just never really fell for Anime or Manga. Don’t get me wrong, like any child I hold dear the shows of my past and I’ll go to war with you if you want to talk shit about Doraemon or Macross. The last hurrah for me with anime – in terms of remembering really enjoying it beyond simply as an appreciation of Hayao Miyazaki – was when Ninja Scroll and Fist of the Northstar came out, which had more than a bit (at the time) of cult teenage “cool” (seriously, Jubei and some Guinness to wind down the unlucky nights in the early AM hours if the fellas weren’t feeling playing Golden Eye or PSO).
