humor
Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity by Dave Roman
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on May 9, 2011 - 23:42
Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity by Dave Roman is a collection of Roman's webcomic Astronaut Elementary. It's a wonderfully produced book with a great cover featuring Roman's art set off by a metallic silver cover. The book doesn't change the structure of the webcomic -- a series of short stories, each told from the perspective of different characters at Astronaut Academy. The stories build together to form an overarching plot for the book yet still retain their own element of closure.
Roman has a cheerfully cartoonish style of art with just a touch of manga influence. Just the character designs in this book alone are fun but Roman crafts a number of interesting personalities to round out the cast -- from the former space hero turned student Hakata Soy to introspective space walker Doug Hiro to new teacher Senor Panda (still not extinct!).
Grey Vampires and Green Cowboys
Submitted by Brian Moore on August 19, 2010 - 14:00
Gus and His Gang by Christophe Blain
First Second
Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar
First Second
This is a quick examination of some color, drawing and design techniques used in two great bandes dessinées. I've kept Vampire Loves close to my drawing table for some time now, trying to glean some ideas and inspiration from Sfar's art. More recently I picked up Gus and His Gang and that's also been both enjoyable to read and to look over, saying "How did Blain do that ...?" Both artists have versatile, energetic, and very "cartoony" art styles, in the best sense of using all the tools of caricature, exaggeration, and symbolism that are available to cartoonists. They are Big Guns and worth close study. Some other artists in this vein that I enjoy, but didn't have time to fold into this post, are Kerascoet and Emile Bravo, both of whom have some work available in English (and probably a much vaster amount in French.) I hope you'll look them up!
