Color Hugs The Walls, Sketchbook: 8/23

Major Influences? Stabilo Point 88

First two embarrassing pages of my sketchbook 8/13-8/16, 2009

Mile's B-Day Card + Rough Draft

Recently Aquired OR Watch As Maurice Spirals Further Downward Into Obsession, Debt and Poverty--(End of Summer Edition)

Epileptic, David B. (Pantheon Books, 2005)

The Portable Frank, Jim Woodring (Fantagraphic Books, 2009)

Misery Loves Comedy, Ivan Burnetti (Fantagraphic Books, 2009)

Schizo #4, Ivan Burnetti (Fantagraphic Books, 2001)

American Elf: The Collected Sketchbook Diaries of James Kochalka, James Kochalka (Top Shelf, 2004)

Nocturnal Conspiracies, David B. (Comics Lit, 2005)

Work is Hell, Matt Groening (Pantheon Books, 1986)

Ice Haven, Daniel Clowes (Pantheon Books, 2005)

Skin Deep, Charles Burns (Fantgraphic Books, 2008)

Far Arden, Kevin Cannon (Top Shelf, 2009)

Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Chester Brown (Drawn & Quarterly, 2006)

Peepshow: The Cartoon Diary of Joe Matt, Joe Matt (Drawn & Quarterly, 1999)

Look over there! A BLOG!

James Kochalka's Daily Sketchbook Diary

Some Comics of Interest: Palestine

Palestine by Joe Sacco (Fantagraphics Books, 2007)

I picked up a copy of Joe Sacco's Palestine from Ashland's very own More Fun Comics the other day, and I'm already a huge fan. The control of his lines and shading are incredible. He clearly draws a lot from folks like Crumb, but Sacco's lines are so much tighter and controlled. It's an interesting stylistic contrast, though, to the always frothing chaos and unpredictability of the Palestinian conflict that Sacco has immersed himself in. I love the way he positions his "thought boxes" in a way that pushes the readers eye across the page.

Panel layout is another one of Sacco's strong suits. Although this (below) isn't one of my favorite examples it still becomes abundantly clear that the layout of the panels is key to Sacco's storytelling (as it is to a lot of comic books artists but follow me). Many of the panels are inset over a larger image or are broken not in a grid pattern, but sometimes by diagonal lines or any number of unconventional line patterns or non-patterns. Panels are often broken in ways that seem to directly push against conventional layout. And this might sound like it would inhibit the reader, but it's the opposite. He effortlessly moves the reader from one panel to next, I have to actually force myself to slow down, which is nice. I want to sit there and soak up all the rich details his drawings.

And the idea of the comic medium used for journalism is really interesting to me. The idea of "objective" journalism meeting the need for a a rise and fall every issue seems oddly well suited for one another. Plus there's the tension between the vitality and brutality of the people he meets and the places he visits. Which brings me back to panel layout. The panels seem to be another trick that suggests that his is something different and his subject is something different, fragmented overlapping, but always stunning.

I love this stuff and I can't wait to become even more poor snatching up the rest of his books.

NEXT WEEK: JIM WOODRING

Jeffrey Brown's Sweet Sweet Playlist

Jeffrey Brown has made an amazing playlist and artwork for Inkstuds (a radioshow about comics), VOL. 12 in their continuing series.

CHECK. IT. OUT.