Links Outside the Bottle 02

So I started this installment of Links Outside the Bottle with a touch of a monologue about what I’ve been up to this week, but the links portion turned out so long, I figure I ought to break the whole thing up into two posts so as not to bore you all to death. 

So, away with the link blogging and the rest of the stuff I’ll schedule for later!  Enjoy:

Discovered a cool web comic this week called Freewheel.  The Comic Tools Blog turned me onto it, and I found it to be quite a good comic.  I was hesitant to post a link here, because I want to start a Webcomics feature article on the blog, but, what the heck, that’s a lame reason not to share a link!  So check it out, and I’ll probably have another go at it in a web comics feature.  It’s not like I’m totally spoiling it what with such a small group of current readers anyway.

Illustration art posted an interesting article about conceptual art.  I remember struggling with it in art school quite a bit.  I’m a much more functional/pragmatic thinker when it comes to art.  Not that I can’t enjoy or appreciate conceptual art, but I get absolutely nothing out of creating it.  This proved rather rough when I had a BEGINNING sculpture teacher who, apparently, roamed from school to school teaching beginning sculpture classes.  It was a “thing” for him. 

Anyhow, the class seemed less about actual sculpture construction basics, and more about how good of a “concept” you came up with.  Ugh.   This meant, I could spend forever constructing something really cool, but if my concept wasn’t engaging, it was worth crap.  While other people could (literally) buy 10 lbs of pork on the way to school, plop it on the table, say something nice about it and get an A.  By the time the final project came, I was so frustrated with the class, that I just bought the ugliest lawn decorations I could find at Ross, put a garbage bag over it, and hung a sign on it that said free.  I was told I had a “break through,” and that my work was “very intelligent.”  After that critique period, another student, who had hammered a nail inside a suitcase so that it poked out the side, that got equal praise, came up to me and told me his was total BS too, and we had a good laugh about the whole thing.

Sorry tangent..

So, in case you haven’t heard, Marvel announced a book this week called “Girl Comics” which, I gather, is an anthology by all female creators (100%).  Lots of good talent on the book, to be sure, but there’s also been a lot of controversy about why we even need a book like this, whether or not it “ghetto-izes” female creators, and how gender has become the selling point vs. the true accomplishments of the creators involved.  Whatever side you take, its likely become more of an argument than it ever needed to be, but just the same it makes good reading and Heidi over at the Beat does an excellent job covering/interpreting the whole mess.

Kinda gets me thinking, being the publisher/contributor of a book called Lady Fight, and all.  Though, I think our book can remain controversy free-- I think we have good female characters, and (as one reviewer pointed out) they all wear pants!

On that Frazetta story that I wrote a bit about last week, it seems there’s further “shocking” developments reported at the Beat.  An interesting story where there’s been a bit of a family dispute which came to a head when Frank Frazetta Jr. was “stealing” an estimated $20 million worth of paintings from the family museum/gallery.  Or so his siblings say.  Now a notary has come forward to state that Frank Sr. had transferred the power of attorney from the other siblings to Frank Jr.  But still, the whole thing seems suspicious.  Time will tell, I suppose!

Finally, not so much a news item, but a fantastic read anyway:  The Comics Journal has a great conversation between Dave Gibbons and Frank Quietly.  They discuss all kinds topics from editing “then and now,”  the development of UK vs. American cartoonists, and just good art in general.  These are a couple of comics’ greats, and we’re lucky to be living in a time when such a conversation is available to read.  Check it out.

Well that’s it for links this week.