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!

As you know, I’ve been toying with my SuperFogeys Origins story for Brock Heasley about The Thrice Evil for some time now (see sample, above). Meanwhile, life in the SuperFogeys Universe has continued, as Brock has brought his story to a point where he is *very* excited… some big revelations ahead for SuperFogeys fans. If you haven’t been reading it, you *should* be. If you are, then know that Big Things are coming Thursday, August 19. Go check out the SuperFogeys and see what all the fuss is about, tell your friends, and don’t forget to check back at SuperFogeys on August 19!

Meanwhile, a free poster for you, below. (Click for a larger version…)

Well, if it’s August, I must be working on a story for Tom Dell’Aringa’s Marooned book. The book in question is the second collection of Marooned stories, currently in development, and the story we wrote for it is called “Thanks for Nothing”. Above is a sneak preview of the inks for one panel. More bulletins as events warrant…

Well, they don’t so much shoot horses as much as they administer lethal injection, but I rather doubt the horse would argue about the semantics. The issue is whether the horse is going to survive having, say, broken a leg or something major, and if not – KA-BLAM! Suffering over.

They also cancel TV shows which fail to attract enough viewers. Again, it’s a question of long-term viability.

And so it is with WishTales. WishTales failed to attract enough visitors and sales, so Tom Dell’Aringa, Eddie Pittman and I are amicably going our separate ways. We’ll each be selling our books on our own, as we had before. The WishTales store is shut down and the guys’ remaining books have been sent off to Florida and Chicago.

I’ll be keeping the WishTales name, as I still think it’s a good one, and I’ll be selling my stuff through the new WishTales store. If you haven’t seen it yet – I’ve added some new stuff like Artist Editions of Croaker’s Gorge, and some groovy refrigerator magnets, among other things – do stop by.

Join me in wishing luck to Tom and Eddie.

WishTales needs your help! We still have tons of comics available for your summer reading pleasure.

If you have kids, you want to buy these books. They are high-quality, professionally printed comics, appropriate for all ages – kids won’t be bored by them and adults will love them too. It will give the kids something to do on those rainy days when you are sick of hearing the constant dim of video games and TV.

But even if you don’t have kids, but you love great stories and characters, you will want to buy these books. Our mission is the same as Pixar’s – great stories, great characters. And who can’t believe in that mission?

However, the trust is that we can’t keep going like this. We need you to help us get the word out: we have a library of books for sale, and we need people to buy them or WishTales can’t survive.

Go to the WishTales store and get yourself some great comics. Support WishTales. Help ensure that we can provide more great books in the future!  And remember, we ship our comics out of a central warehouse, so you can combine orders to save on shipping!

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.

CALL FOR ENTRIES:

Hackett Films, Sydney Opera House and Screen NSW launch competition to find graphic storytellers

Hackett Films, along with Australia’s most iconic artistic hub, the Sydney Opera House and Screen NSW are today launching an international search for the best graphic storytellers, as part of the Sydney Opera House’s inaugural GRAPHIC festival.

A weekend festival from 7 – 8 August 2010, GRAPHIC will celebrate the imagination and ideas of visionary creators in the fields of comix, anime, manga, 2D and 3D animation and illustration.

Over three rounds, competition entrants will vie for $20,000 in cash, by creating a 60 second story that weaves in compulsory narrative elements, such as an archetypal theme: ‘recovery’, a character: ‘a 7 year old’, and a sound fx; ‘a yawn’.  As each round progress, one more element will be added to give the competition an extra twist.

Entrants can be an individual or a creative team, and the story can be captured in any form, from a storyboard comic to stop-motion or 3D animation.

At the end of each round, the public will vote for their favourite stories. A judging panel including award-winning director James Hackett from Sydney-based production house Hackett Films, will then shortlist a handful of the best entries to continue to each subsequent round.

“Graphic novels are all about the story so entries should really focus this narrative process – we want people to be sucked into the characters and emotion of the story and left desperate to watch the next episode”, says Hackett Films founder and director, and GRAPHIC Competition Judge,  James Hackett.“We’re looking for entries that don’t just tick the box when it comes to incorporating the narrative elements, but approach these requirements in a considered, intelligent way to create a really rich storyline”.

In addition to the $20,000 cash prize, which can be used for professional development, post production or to invest in taking the animation to local or international market, the winner will receive an Adobe CS5 Master Collection (valued at $4,333) and have their film screened at GRAPHIC.

GRAPHIC’s keynote event will feature celebrated graphic novelist Neil Gaiman reading his new as-yet unpublished story The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains in the Concert Hall. The festival will also include an evening with independent filmmaker and comic writer Kevin Smith (Clerks, Dogma), the legendary Japanese anime epic Akira rescored live by Regurgitator, and Ben Walsh and the Orkestra of the Underground creating a live score to Shaun Tan’s The Arrival.

For more information about the GRAPHIC festival and online animation competition please visit the following website: www.sydneyoperahouse.com/graphic

Hard to believe, May 10 marks a YEAR since I first began telling the Exciting Moon Town Saga online.

As I continue to struggle out from under a load of Too Much Stuff that’s keeping me from Moon Town, and as I close in on 100 Moon Town strips, I did want to take a moment out to thank you all for coming along for the ride. I look forward to sharing more of the story with you soon.

Keep the faith, my brethren. And sistren. And Happy Birthday, Moon Town.