OG’s BLOG

Got a fun little collection of photos in an email forward today. Featuring photographs carefully staged in such a way that people appeared to be playing games with the sun and the moon (in fact, the subject of the email was “Playing Games with the Moon”). As with most email forwards, the pictures were uncredited.

However, the photos were creative and playful enough that it made me do some research, and in moments, I had turned up the artist responsible: Laurent Laveder. If you got these pics in an email forward, you only got the tip of the iceberg. Laveder has galleries full of this stuff. Go check it out – I think they will make you smile.

Thanks to my incredible wife Barbara for the link!

So, OK. You know from time to time I like to post links to artists’ work I find particularly inspiring. Occasionally, I come across something not just inspiring, but absolutely breathtaking, and such is the case today. Behold these tiny works of art, carved out of pencil leads by artist Dalton Ghetti. It is incomprehensible to me how he gets so much detail into these microsculptures.

Thanks to Chris Sulzbach for the tip!

Today’s Artist Find is brought to you by Brian Anderson, the artist behind the wonderful and charming Dog Eat Doug. French artist Emmanual Malin has a portfolio full of great stuff to look at. So, go look at it.

Artist Steve Bialik has done some amazing, highly addictive Asian-themed work. See this series of Star Wars characters done in a Japanese Feudal style, and a graphic novel done in an ancient Chinese style.

Part robot, part muppet, part character from some incredible animated film that hasn’t been done yet, Brian Marshall’s found object robots are just fantastic!

I am very excited to inform you that ex-Disney animator Eddie Pittman is joining our little team over at WishTales! Eddie’s graphic novel Red’s Planet, full of gorgeous art, fantastic storytelling and a color sense that just won’t quit, is the perfect addition to our stable of books. More info at WishTales.

There’s nothing like getting back to basics. I’m sure, if someone really, really wanted to, they could do something charming like this in 3D. But for some reason, they don’t.

It’s worth studying: it’s so simple. Everything happens in one shot. British director Simon Tofield is not cutting in and out for reaction shots and action shots. He’s not zooming the camera around the set. He even decided to do it in simple black and white, and so what? It just works.

Animators take note. Settle down and focus on storytelling, and if you don’t watch out, you just might create something nice.

That Simon’s Cat site is brilliant. Lots of stuff to dig through, and it’s a great example of how to generate a ton of charming, engaging material from a very simple idea. Keep It Simple, Simon.

Link sent to me by UK author Jack Eason. Thanks, Jack!

Brock Heasley has done up this really groovy promo teaser for his upcoming season of SuperFogeys. Click the image for a bigger version, and of course check out SuperFogeys.com for the latest and also greatest SuperFogeys information.

Justin Leach and his talented team of cohorts – Andrew Kilian on pencils and inks and Omi Remalante Jr. on colors – have released the first issue of Majestic XII. This tale chronicles the adventures of 12 superheroes whose origin echoes back in time to a specific, mysterious event we all know very well. (Aw, come on. I’m not telling you which one! You gotta read the thing for that…) The comic does a great job of interweaving the characters’ past alongside their future, reminding us of their deep histories. Putting it mildly, this superhero team has issues. But if an ensemble cast is a family (as it should be played) then a dysfunctional family is practically the law.

X-Men and Watchmen fans will find familiar territory here.

Leach’s team is young and without a tremendous amount of experience so far, and there is some evidence of that in this book as the guys warm to their Art. There is an Art to exaggerating anatomy while still maintaining believability. There is an art to allowing the color to accent the overall mood of a piece. And there is an art to juggling so many character plotlines – not to mention a detail-rich, sweeping mythology – without allowing the reader to be overwhelmed by it all.

Leach’s team has its hands full, no doubt. But they also demonstrate two things I value: potential and a do-it-yourself spirit. I applaud Leach’s gumption to get this book done and get it out there. It is much easier to sit on the sidelines than to get in the game, and he certainly gets points for jumping into the fray. And the book is ambitious. Drawing 12 superheroes would drive most artists nuts – I certainly wouldn’t want to do it – but these guys just got on with it. Well done.

I’ll be watching this team’s progress.

Majestic XII is available at IndyPlanet.