The start of my art (print) collecting career
The start of my art (print) collecting career
This past Sunday, Jessie and I went up the hill from us to a little town called Montrose, which is in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. It reminds me a lot of my hometown except Montrose is a fraction of the size and cleaner. Anyway, we had breakfast at a local cafe and discovered that outside Montrose was having one of its weekly Harvest Market with various fruit and vegetable vendors but also artists, used book sellers, toy collectors and other eclectic purveyors of goods.
I stumbled upon one Jack Spiegleman who had a painting up that caught my eye because it shared a few similarities with the cover of this comic book:
Teenagers from Mars
Picture that cover but in longer shot. Ferrari poster on the wall. A book that had a title involving teenage sexuality by R. Polanski. And instead of a button about comic books, the boy's button in the painting stated, "My brother is a dickhead."
Naturally I started thumbing through the guy's prints. I ended up getting the Teenagers from Mars print, a print that showed a woman smoking and watching pro wrestling on TV (one of the wrestlers is getting his eyes gouched out) and this print:
Girl at Halloween
I now proudly display all three above my dresser, and I couldn't be happier. They're über-cool, and I am excited. They're all so darkly comic, I just couldn't resist them.
Watching:
Reading:
D
posted by Drew @ 11:43 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Hey what did you think of Identity Crisis? It was a big reason why I jumped on the DC bandwagon. I thought it was really good.
I think Hush is okay. Its good superheroics and the art is pretty. The best bit is Superman being controlled by Poison Ivy. Its not cynical and its lots of fun. Good popcorn Superhero comics. And it ties in with Loebs other Batman/Superman work. Such as Long Halloween, Dark Victory, and all 4 vols of Superman/Batman (which I think is worth it, even if vol 2 isnt that great. The Batman v Darkseid fight is gold)
Are there images of your Pictures? i wanna see the other ones.
-N
Kate--
Hush suffers from the identical short-comings that The Long Halloween did. The first ten issues of the storyline are riveting, but in the last two issues Loeb tries too hard to throw the jaded reader off the case. This results in two issues that not only have way too many plot turns, these plot turns are so completely absurd and out of left-field that they ruin whatever Loeb has carefully structured for 5/6 of the story. Up to the finale, however, the story is great.
The real draw (no pun intended) of Hush is Jim Lee's artwork. It's fantastic throughout, which is to be expected from an artist of Jim Lee's caliber and experience.
Nick--
I loved Identity Crisis up to the end. Again, it suffered from the exact same short-coming that the Loeb story did: trying to surprise the reader. Like Hush, Crisis just goes too far. The big twist is just so simple. Okay, not simple. Easy, maybe. If an ending is going to pull the rug out from under its audience, it needs to earn that ending. To be effective, it can't just put in something unexpected just to shock the audience.
On the other hand, I loved what it set up for Infinite Crisis. I'm still making my way through the pre-issues of Infinite, but it's some pretty interesting stuff, especially after what happened in Identity.
One of the pleasant surprises I've encountered reading the lead-ups to Infinite is Greg Rucka's run on Wonder Woman. It's fantastic. I'm also enjoying Winnick's Outsiders, Johns' Teen Titans and Loebs' Superman/Batman, but only when Ed McGuinness isn't doing the art. His cartoon-y style just counteracts Loebs' mature storytelling too much.
And pictures of the other two art pieces will be forthcoming, but I make no guarantees on the quality of the images.
D
The biggest obstical that Identity Crisis has is that the Ending DOES come out of left field if you've been reading DC comics for the last 30 years. If, however, you STOPPED reading DC around 1980 and remembered EVERY crazed thing that happened, then the ending makes actual sense.
No seriously. Go back and read how Jean Loring behaves. She was evil possessed SEVERAL times. IT makes total sense. and plus her as the new Eclipso and making Capt Marvel (Shazam) a warrior against Hellboy Level Magic gone awry. *Kisses fingers like an Italian* Brilliant.
And yeah, pretty much all the books written by Rucka, Winick, Johns and Waid around the Pre-IC period are total Gold. Rucka's WW sorta peters off at the end as everything becomes heavily entwined with IC, BUT if you are following it then its clear why WW is one of the BIG THREE cornerstones of the DCU.
You also might want to check out Matt Wagner's DC book Trinity. Its essentially Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman YEAR ONE. Its fantastic. As is his recent foray into the Batman Mythos.
Also, for you that are sick of all the Main Company wanking, The recent Dark Horse Reprints of CONCRETE are fantastic.
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