I’ll be at the Minneapolis Indie eXpo tomorrow (Saturday, August 21, 9-5). I’m camped out at table 50 with St. Paul artist Dan Wieken and a couple of out of town guests Jon Lewis and Karen Sneider.
Uncivilized Books will debuting two new books during the show. First up is Dan Wieken’s The Petrified Catalogue (pictured above). Dan’s extremely detailed images of decayed and petrified remains of real and imaginary creatures has to be seen to be believed. Here are a few pictures that fail do justice to his drawings. This books needs to experienced in person:
The other book debuting is Structures 1-11. It’s a book of drawings (by me) of imaginary structures. Regulars on this blog may be familiar with some of the imagery. Just check out the ‘structure’ tags on this blog:
We’ll also have the usual Uncivilized catalogue, including Gabrielle Bell’s L.A. Diary.
In other MIX related news, I will have a 4 page Ransom Strange story in The Good Minnesotan #4:
and on top of that I’m moderating a panel on comics education. See the program for details.
See you at the Soapfactory!
Hi, I met you at MIX. I was there pretty early, and I picked up “Structures” from you. Decided to check your web presence out, and I am pretty stunned to find such a serious, quality blog on comics. Your posts are very interesting and valuable for someone just starting to get really into comic art like myself.
Loved reading your essays on comics+education. I just recently graduated from a liberal arts college with a major in studio art, and most profs seemed a lot more interested in teaching some sort of “high art” mentality more than anything else, and when I made comics they had no idea how to react (did 6 pages of this, barely got a comment from a prof: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samanpwbb/4423722838/). However, if I made things that were a lot like comics but adapted to the aesthetic and process of high art, they instantly became more responsive and interested (profs loved this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samanpwbb/2382003216/). Kind of funny and surprisingly old-fashioned.
I imagine things have opened up a lot more at more progressive schools because it seems to me that anyone who is paying attention could see that some of the most inventive and interesting drawing that is going on right now is happening in comics.
Thanks for the kind words Saman. More post on education coming soon.