Top Shelf Productions

 
 

san diego san diego san diego san diego

July 23, 2008

This showed up in my po box a while back, and i just got around to reading it... what a stunner. Clearly a loving Frankenstein homage with nods to comics of old and stuff like Warren's Monster's of Filmland, this oversized comic is a real formal masterpiece. The art is multi-media collage pasted up on newspapers. The look feels gritty and intense, and the narrative is a wild pop-culture tour de force. Great stuff.

• Mr. Max Estes has some cool new stuff available at Made by Max.


• Heads-up from Vancouver cartoonist, and Top Shelf 2.0 contributor Don King, who tipped me off to a terrific sounding show in Vancouver, B.C.

• Had this terrific submission-envelope art hanging in my workshop for forever... figured i show it to the world.

• I've been dipping into my enormous to-read pile a little lately. Standouts include:

Eschew #1 (mini-comic), by Robert Sergel. Apparently this guy has been making comics for a long long time, yet i'd never heard of him until he sent me this mini. And it's really solid. Using a "clear-line" style, the work i've read is of the shorter, poetic style, more than long narratives. In any case, one could spend days reading the plethora of comics he has on his website. So get to it, people!

I lifted this comic from his website.

Nerd Burglar (comic), Free Comic Book Day book by Tugboat Press, Teenage Dinosaur, and Sparkplug Comics. A potpourri of comics fun, this puppy feature's an awesome twisted story by legendary punk cartoonist Bobby Madness and an appearance by the always-good-to-see and sadly underrated ink stud Chris Cilla. What really rocked me though, was a strip called "Fifteen Variations on The First Day We Met," by Sarah Oleksyk, which plays with formalism to wonderful effect. Too hard to describe, i recommend you just order this book. It costs one penny, plus postage, cheap-wads!!

• From comics cognoscenti Craig Yoe:
"Yo, Comix Fan!

"I'm joining the San Diego Zoo, i.e. the San Diego ComicCon. I'll be signing my new books Clean Cartoonists' Dirty Drawings and Comic Arf, and I'll be on some panels."

Last Gasp
July 24th, 1:30-2:30
Clean Cartoonists' Dirty Drawings book signing at Last Gasp booth 1616.

Fantagraphics
July 24th, 6:00-7:00
Comic Arf book signing at Fantagraphics booth 1716

Drawing Demo: Spotlight on Dean Yeagle
July 25, 3:30-4:30
Room 30CDE
I will be the panel moderator.

Fantagraphics
July 25th, 5:00-6:00
Comic Arf book signing at Fantagraphics booth 1716

Fantagraphics
July 26th, 11:00-12:00
Comic Arf book signing at Fantagraphics booth 1716

Last Gasp
July 26th, 1:30-2:30
Clean Cartoonists' Dirty Drawings book signing at Last Gasp booth 1616.

The Launch of Abrams ComicArts
July 26th, 3:00-4:00
Craig's book will be announced!

• And once again, because i can... here's Cfunk doing his Happy Dance.