Alex Toth

Every few months or so i go through my Alex Toth craze and become amazed at how incredible an artist he really was. And whenever i go through a new search of his work, theres tons of stuff I've never even seen before, which just goes to show the enormous amount of work he was able to produce in his lifetime. This piece i recently came across and was blown away by it. The way he's able to get body language, realistic shadows and action across simply with the use of whatever was lying around(sharpies, pens, brushes,ect.) is something you don't see too often. If you haven't already seen this one before, enjoy! Wow, I guess I'm officially a member of artburn now!

MP SPOTLIGHT AWARDS 2007

Calling all photographers, artists, graphic designers & Illustrators!

The Lowdown:

+ WIN A $1000 PORTFOLIO PACKAGE!
+ GAIN FREE NATIONAL EXPOSURE!
+ NO ENTRY FEES & 20% PRINT DISCOUNT!
+ SUBMIT YOUR WORK BY APRIL 30, 2007!

Anthology

I'm on Warren Ellis' email newsletter"bad signal" and this was pretty interesting

"Some months ago, it occurred to me
that it'd be possible to do a monthly
anthology book in the Image Slimline
format, which we used to call the
FELL format.  20pp of guts, plus
covers, USD $1.99, yes?  I conceived
it on the assumption that it'd be
done at an Image-like company
where there are no advance payments
and all the money comes on the back
end, hence the particular structure
I envisaged.  Which is:

1
5
1
5
1
5
1
+ 1 cover

wherein the 5s are five-page stories
or chapters, and the 1s are one-page
pieces.  With each of the 5s done by
a different artist, and the 1s plus
the cover done by another single
artist.  Hence, one writer and four
artists.  Which makes it easy to
carve up the back end - 20% for
each of the five contributors.

(Because, trust me, you don't want
to involve comics publishers in
complicated splits.  I don't have time
for all my personal examples of
such.  Just trust me and move on.)

This structure leaves one page of
the guts and the inside back cover
loose for whatever you feel like.
It doesn't declare what any of the
units should do. Ultrashort stories,
serial chapters, something equivalent
to Brendan McCarthy's Artoons...
Whatever.

I know exactly what I'd do with it,
personally.  But I'm never going to
get the time to do it.  So I throw the
idea out there to all of you.  An
affordable, easy-to-assemble
anthology format where, for
each artist, the whole monthly
commitment is 5 pages.  Obviously,
it'd be a bit of a monster for the
writer.  But that's what we do, right?

It doesn't solve everyone's problems
with the anthology format, of
course.  But it means taking a chance
on a new anthology title is only
costing you some pocket change.
Which is a big hurdle taken care of
right there.

Not huge chunks of story, for a
monthly anthology, of course --
but then, neither were WARRIOR
or STRANGE DAYS, in the course of
things.  And if you're going to aim,
aim high...

Anyway.  I throw this idea out for
your consideration, since I don't
have time to operate it.  This product
is freeware and not supported. 
There is no help system.  Buyer
beware."

maybe scrap the one pagers and put in some adds. it can be done.

Tekkon Kinkreet [aka Black & White] Screening in NY

New York
Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters 1&2 [MOMA]
11 West 53rd Street, NY
April 25th - April 30th 8:30PM

Screening Schedule
Wednesday, April 25, 2007, 8:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1
Thursday, April 26, 2007, 8:30 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Friday, April 27, 2007, 8:30 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Saturday, April 28, 2007, 2:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Sunday, April 29, 2007, 2:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Monday, April 30, 2007, 8:30 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Trailer

Computer Art article on making screen print effects with photoshop

also, I consolidated the labels into a more manageable amount.

Attn: Casanovanauts!

Go here and scroll down a little for an update on volume two.

Computer Generated Art

This site has some really cool Flash generated stuff. A lot of the scripts are Open Source and available for download. Most of this stuff is beyond my comprehension of ActionScript, but it's really cool to see what can be done with it.

Grrr.....

uploaded for your critiquing(sp?) pleasure a panel of Speedy and Aqualad having a showdown. I originall wanted to crop it at the lines next to the 'B's but it is th only panel on the tier and everything other panle goes to the safe area border. Thoughts?

What Really Happened to Abraham Lincoln

movie pitch is good too.

Nick Bertozzi Book Release Events

Hi Friends,
Please forgive the mass-email, but there have been a ton of developments
in the world of Bertozzi. April is the release-month for my comics THE
SALON (St Martin's Press-April 18th) and HOUDINI: THE HANDCUFF KING
written by Jason Lutes and drawn by me (CCS/Hyperion-Out now!). There's
a bunch of events that I'll be doing to celebrate, so please come by to
any or all.
For the Village Pourhouse event we're asking for donations for the Comic
Book Legal Defense Fund to offset the nearly $100k spent by the fund to
defend retailer Gordon Lee who was arrested because of a preview copy
of THE SALON.
I'll be sending follow-up emails as the events get closer, so please
tell me if you'd like me to take you off of this list.
Thank you!

Nick Bertozzi

EVENTS
April 23rd-Tuesday 7pm MacNally-Robinson Bookstore Reading. For those
of you who are too young to drink alcohol, please come to this event!
52 Prince St, New York, NY http://www.mcnallyrobinsonnyc.com

April 26th-Thursday 7pm-Midnight THE SALON Book Launch Party to Benefit
the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund at The Village Pourhouse 64 Third Ave
(Corner of 11th St), Newy York, NY. Live music by The Cangelosi Cards.
7-8 Open Bar and Food ($20 and up donation), 8-12 ($10 and up suggested
donation), 2-for-1 Absolut drinks all night.

April 28th-Saturday 2-4pm SALON/HOUDINI Signing at Big Planet Comics,
4908 Fairmont Ave, Bethesda, MD http://www.bigplanetcomics.com/

May 9th-Wednesday SALON Reading at Happy Ending, 302 Broome St, New
York, NY

May 12th-Saturday 7pm-10 SALON/HOUDINI Signing at Rocketship Comics, 208
Smith St, Brooklyn, NY

I'm planning to attend the MoCCA Arts Festival June 23rd/24th, the San
Diego Comic Convention July 26-29, and the Small Press Expo (Bethesda,
MD) October 12-13.

Attention New Englanders, there'll be a private SALON party in RI on
Sunday, May 27th. More info to come.

VIDEO
My sister Vanessa just put the finishing touches on this great
mini-documentary that she made, "NICK BERTOZZI UNCUT: THE MAKING OF THE
SALON" watch it here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7441654662611402262&pr=goog-sl

She also made a great promo for THE SALON:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2145321546792389019&q=the+salon+bertozzi

PUBLICATIONS
There have also been some wicked cool publishing updates to tell you
about:

The April 16th edition of the free METRO Newspaper (NY, Philadelphia,
Boston) has a great write-up of THE SALON and HOUDINI: THE HANDCUFF
KING on page 15.

ARTnews April Issue features a great write-up of THE SALON on page 30.

THE BELIEVER April Issue features incidental drawings throughout by me.

WIZARD Magazine April issue features a quick write-up of both THE SALON
and HOUDINI: THE HANDCUFF KING.

PLAYBOY online is running a mostly-positive review of THE SALON:
http://playboy.com/arts-entertainment/reviews/books/the-salon/the-salon.html

Also, I just signed a contract from Houghton-Mifflin to draw a
comic-biography of Lenny Bruce, scripted by Harvey Pekar. Due in late
2008.

Mazzucchelli Original Art

go look.

Stuart Immonen can read our thoughts?

Jesus, is this anthology idea in the ether or what?
better get moving.

ATTN GABE: Your Fisheyed Dreams Come True

Fisheye Camera at Veer.com

Logo Idea

Here's another idea for a logo and color theme. I like the simple and clean look that Ben's been doing so I kind of kept it in that realm. I could also animate that flame if we like it. After we get a few more up we can vote on them (so put something up if you want).

Flash Illustration

I just posted something on my website that was built in Flash and randomly regenerates. I've been talking about this quite a bit lately, so here's an example of the principles in action. Theres still some tweaking to do, but I'm pretty happy with it. Click SPACEBAR to regenerate. Click on some of the objects to move around and SHIFT+CLICK to delete objects.

This is how I wanna go out.

BTW Ben, What happened to the black on the sidebar? I liked it.

Cresty

more messing around. I like this cause it's like a badge you could put on your website or you could use it as the slug on a comic.

Crappy Logo

I know it's shit, I just wanted to see what it looked like:

Gesture Drawing for Animation by Walt Stanchfield

A downloadable PDF of this animation teacher's notes and handouts:
Gesture Drawing for Animation by Walt Stanchfield

LOGO DEATH FIGHT PART 1 - The Prelude To Brand Identity

here are 4 ideas for the logo. consider the challenge begun. Dropped in a layout mockup as well. not sure how flexible blogger is, but something along these lines would be pretty cool.

This site needs to not look ugly.

Gabe, you're the only one who can do this, right? admin privileges or whatever? The post titles and the links (normal and visited) are super ugly. we need to change the color scheme. also, I vote against black background, but that is me.

Maybe the first challenge should be to design a logo or site design.

Updated site

So I'm pretty happy with my new website layout. I made some more tweaks on it, there is still plenty of work to do on it, but its coming along. And I've started using the main page as a 'blog-like' posting area - that way I can put stuff up as I work on it and move it into the appropriate section when it's done. Let me know if y'all have any suggestions - http://www.jonsperry.com .

I think I'm going to work out the kinks on this and get in the habit of updating regularly. Then eventually give it a little more personality. I like it, but I'd like to play around with something a little less 'sterile'.

GUITAR HERO!!

This commercial accurately depicts what playing Guitar Hero feels like on the inside.