Tuesday 20 February 2007

Best foot forward.

Joann Sfar will be interviewed by the man at the Crossroads at The Royal National Hotel, in London next Sun 25th. I wonder if he’ll bring his banjo? -“Two young and brilliant graphic artists discuss with Paul Gravett the importance of their Jewish roots. Funny, irreverent and bold, Joann Sfar pays homage to both his Ashkenazi mother and his Sephardi father, with Klezmer following the difficult life of musicians in Eastern Europe and The Rabbi’s Cat set in Algeria at a time when Jews and Arabs lived peacefully together. JT Waldman brought two dreams together: do a graphic novel and understand his religion better. Seven years later, having learnt Hebrew, studied the rabbinic texts and explored oriental art, he produced Megillat Esther, a stunning graphic novel with a twist, incorporating both Hebrew and English and engaging in a new form of Midrash.”

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Roz Chast interview at nerve.com! “Humor is so subjective. I could watch the same episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm or The Office over and over rather than watch most sitcoms, which make me want to lie down and not get up again." (via Journalista). For my money Chast is the most original and funniest magazine cartoonist of the last thirty years. She devises the most unusual constructions for her pieces. Here's a favourite of mine, Your Family Tree from her 1988 collection from Harper & Row, The Four Elements.
(click to enlarge)

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My pal mr j draws my attention to the work of Ben Redlich, a local young children's book illustrator with an individual style, who has been picked up by the Australian publisher who gives us Shaun Tan, author of The Arrival, which I discussed here. This guy's work is first rate.

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In his post of 16 feb my good friend John Coulthart traces the evolution of a single pose in the work of French neoclassical painter Jean Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-1864) through six examples as it becomes a popular icon. Norman Hathaway responds to the post with a couple more, and John himself comes back with another on the 19th. I've always wondered what Paul Gulacy was referencing (duh!) on this old Miracleman cover (sorry to bring the tone down).

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In comments yesterday Mike linked me to the above photo. "I was reading through January and saw the photo you posted of your work as "low-brow art" - this links to a picture of From Hell in the main Freemason's library in Washington, DC, which incidentally is open to the public and a magnificent collection."

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waitamiinit. telephone.
it's my pal Best... you want me to come in for lunch? sure.
you've been on your back all week... yes, I know... antibiotics, yeh.
a bad case of necrotic flesh in your foot? Wha?
On account of you put your shoe on while a lethal spider was living in it?
Jesus Christ!
What kind of spider?
"I don't bloody know, Campbell... I feel as useless as a one-legged man in an arse-kicking contest!"
uh, okay, Dan. See you in an hour...
And thanks for roning.

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9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

From the Roz Chast interview you linked to:

Q: I've been trying to figure out your sense of humor.

A:Oh, you know what E.B. White said about analyzing humor. "It's like dissecting a frog. Nobody is much interested and in the end, the frog dies."

From this side of the (presumably)unfinished 'History of Humour', does this ring true for you?

Ben Smith

20 February 2007 at 13:36:00 GMT-5  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That reminds me... Your "Man at the Crossroads" sketch of Mr Gravett precedes his interview on the Mindscape of Alan Moore extras disc. (And that DVD project is nearly finished, thankfully. Still waiting for Dez to send me some final bits and pieces.)

If Miracleman was based on the Flandrin painting he must have toppled from his rocky perch into the sea!

20 February 2007 at 17:04:00 GMT-5  
Blogger Hayley Campbell said...

Ah, we're all waiting for Dez to send us things. I still haven't seen the film and he's promised me drinks, pub and horrible loud young people music.

In the meantime we work and sleep. And, er, blog.

20 February 2007 at 18:08:00 GMT-5  
Blogger James Robert Smith said...

What the fuck is it with Australia??!!

Not only is every-got-damned thing there poisonous, they're the deadliest mother-humping examples of their entire Genus!

What the Hell??!!

20 February 2007 at 23:55:00 GMT-5  
Blogger Eddie Campbell said...

Ben
yup. It sure rings true.

John
Yes, I heard he'd been using 'man at the crossroads ' on his business cards

Hayley!
we must speak soon.

James
It's true. Somebody once gave me staistics. Can't remember the details, but it was something like there are 9 species of snake whos ebite is deadly to man, and eight of them are in Australia. Don't quote me on those figures. I probably heard it in a pub.
meanwhile, here's a story for you:

Man Smuggles Eight Deadly Snakes In Pants

http://www.dailyhaggis.com/2003/09/24/man-smuggles-eight-deadly-snakes-in-pants/

21 February 2007 at 01:40:00 GMT-5  
Blogger Eddie Campbell said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

21 February 2007 at 01:40:00 GMT-5  
Blogger James Robert Smith said...

Here's a story for you:

I used to live in the mountains of northeast Georgia (the one next to North Carolina, not the one sucked up against Russia). There are scorpions that live there, and they like to come into your house and share the space with you.

One night I rolled over on one and it stung me on the arm. Hurt like Holy Roman Hell. Kind of like a wasp sting. I did not sicken and die.

Shortly after that I woke up one morning and put my foot in my slippers (it was cold). There was one of the little bastards in there and it stung me on the foot. I did not sicken and die and my foot did not fall off.

If either of those things had happened to me in Australia, I'd be bloody fookin' dedd.

21 February 2007 at 08:44:00 GMT-5  
Blogger Jack Ruttan said...

I enjoyed the illustrator Ben Redlich. Sometimes looks like a more polished version of Gerald Scarfe. There's always a tension between trying to do a polished drawing, and one with life in it, I find. Technique can be fun, if you're not pressured into it.

21 February 2007 at 19:18:00 GMT-5  
Blogger drjon said...

Ah, the joys of creeping necrosis.

Last time I looked, it wasn't caused by the spider venom per se, but by a bacteria which lives on the spider's fangs. But I hear that they've decided that's not actually it any more.

Oh, did you know about Tasmanian Jack Jumper ants? They kill people, about one a year, from anaphylactic shock. They're suppose to be the most toxic ant in the world.

23 February 2007 at 08:26:00 GMT-5  

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