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Finally some of my books arrived! Woo Hoo!
finished reading Good-bye, Chunky Rice - by Craig Thompson, Clumsy, Unlikely and Every Girl Is The End Of The World For Me - by Jeffrey Brown. All in one day!
Unlike many other type of graphic novel/comic/manga I read before, these stories are much more personal, being biographic they are funny and genuinely touching in turn, affecting meditations upon love, friendship, loneliness, and loss. many were experiences from the author.
The one that touched me most was Good-bye, Chunky Rice, the story about a anthropomorphic turtle who follows his urge to move on, leaving behind lovesick Dandele, a bug-eyed mouse, and a dreamy longshoreman. Chunky books passage on a barely seaworthy craft piloted by a shady skipper. Conjoined twins Ruth and Livonia are also on board. Back on shore, Dandele sends bottled missives out to sea and the longshoreman's injured pet bird, Merle, heals and regains flight. Thompson presents this bittersweet and engaging story in black-and-white panels that flow and tip into one another, giving the story motion that is reminiscent of the ocean against Chunky's boat and at Dandele's feet. The narrative intersperses past and present so that each character's motives become clear. Solid storytelling is expanded by the images, resulting in a fully realized literary work. The sea captain's posturing is fittingly retrograde and the twins are, by turns, self-exploitive and just plain folks. Chunky, Dandele, the longshoreman, and Merle, however, are unremitting winners.
I've ordered some books from amazon a few weeks back and I'm still waiting for them to come through the post, the postal strike is really getting annoying... sigh~ power to the people!
the waiting list:
- LOMO - Don't Think, Just Shoot
- Good-Bye, Chunky Rice by Craig Thompson
- Clumsy
- Unlikely
- Every Girl Is The End Of The World For Me
- Incredible Change-bots
by Jeffrey Brown
Jeffrey Brown's story are funny and personal, his style of drawing might seem crude and unpolished to some but really it's the stories and intimate messages that communicates.
We went to see this yesterday, I have to say it's a must see for anyone who likes joy division, Sam Riley brought Ian Curtis back to life in this film, based on the biography - Touching From a Distance views from his wife this is a very personal and successful portrayal of the life of Ian Curtis. Strangely a few days ago I was watching Walk the line - a biopic on Johnny Cash, there were many similar elements in both stories, both of them got married at a young age and gained fame through music quickly but then finding it hard to cope with and realising they are not married to the ones they love, both their inspirations seem to come from their sorrows and alienation with family/wife. Johnny Cash fell in love with June Carter but became a pill head(however he did end up happy with June), but Ian Curtis fell in love with Annik then hung himself...
I've been listening to substance too much since last night...now i'm feeling abit suicidal T_T
Found this on Computer Arts a few weeks back, a short but very interesting video made by James Wignall - mutanthands (he studied in leeds), the message was about misunderstanding. it was made in flash/aftereffects, I really like the way elements pops up and the blurry effects used to show the woods in the background, I think he took real photos of woods then used photoshop/illustrator to extract the trees/background elements then applied a blurry filter and manipulated multi-layered them in after effects. As I'm currently trying to teach myself aftereffects I'm going to try experiment and see if I can achieve the same effect.
Starting on the 7th of Nov, the 21st Leeds International Film Festival will bring 13 days of feast for the eyes and ears of media junkies in Leeds. (yey!) I'm even considering getting a pass (£60-alot of money for a student like me) since there are so many films/animation I want to see from the festival.
A quick list of what's showing:
Grindhouse - Planet Terror
Aachi & Ssipak
Vexille
Tekkonkinkreet
Bomb It (graffiti documentry)
Rock 'n' Tokyo
Thought Bubble Comic con
Dai Nipponjin
International short Film Cometition
Amina + Love and Words
Getting Home
Death Note
Hell's Ground (Pakistan zombie film)
Uuban Explorers: Into the Darkness
Kurt Cobain: About a Son
The Quest for the Missing Piece
We are strange
In One City
and the list goes on...
http://www.leedsfilm.com/homepage_new.asp
Grindhouse is a 2007 anthology film co-written, produced and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. The film is a double feature consisting of two feature-length segments, the Rodriguez-directed Planet Terror and the Tarantino-directed Death Proof, and bookended by fictional trailers for upcoming attractions, advertisements, and in-theater announcements. The film's title derives from the U.S. film industry term "grindhouse", which refers to a movie theater specializing in B movies, often exploitation films, shown in a multiple-feature format.
After the film was released on April 6, 2007, ticket sales in the US performed significantly below box office analysts' expectations despite mostly positive critic reviews. In much of the rest of the world like here in the UK, each feature was released separately, with Death Proof screened in an extended version.
I went to see Death Proof when it was first released here and I liked the movie for its unique style and excellent attempt to resurrect the much forgotten genre of American B-movies and exploitation films. It has left me hungry for more, however the release date of the second part-Planet Terror has yet not been announced.
There is an exhibition on in the Leeds Art Gallery at the moment which features the works of many past and contempoary comic artists. the exhibition explores the reciprocal relationship between comics and art. The exhibition foregrounds links between the two genres in works where current social and political issues are aired in frank visual narratives.
The visual language of comics and graphic novels has influenced many contemporary artists, who have employed its conventions of pictorial narrative and unique fusion of word and image. Fine artists Adam Dant, Kerry James Marshall and Olivia Plender have published their own comics attracted by the mediums democratic format and its ability to reach and influence a wider audience than a gallery context would permit. Glen Baxter, Raymond Pettibon and David Shrigley use a combination of word and image in forms that are reminiscent of popular cartoons. The recurring themes and characters typical of comics iconography can be seen in Laylah Ali’s cast of bowling-ball headed characters, or the ragged furry felines that appear in Jon Pylypchuk’s sculptural tableaux. Liz Craft, Kerstin Kartscher and Paul McDevitt employ graphic elements from comic book imagery to create works that suggest narrative without using words.
The comics artists and graphic novelists are mainly from the generation of independent author-draughtsmen, whose subject matter tends to be offbeat and transgressive, and sometimes controversial. ‘Real life issues’, often approached in biographical or autobiographical styles, supplant moralistic tales of good and evil. Julie Doucet’s diaristic portrayals of her character in vulnerable and compromising situations exemplify the genre’s ability to communicate difficult emotional information, as do Debbie Drechsler’s candid autobiographic explorations of childhood abuse. The true realities of life within a war zone are sensitively charted in Joe Sacco’s award-winning Palestine, while everyday characters such as R Crumb’s and Harvey Pekar’s file clerk in American Splendor and Daniel Clowes’ misfit David Boring become unlikely heroes of everyday tales. Classic Literature gets a make-over for the twenty-first century in Posy Simmonds’ Gemma Bovery which is based on Flaubert’s adulterous heroine Madame Bovary, and Melinda Gebbie’s and Alan Moore’s epic Lost Girls (shortly to be published in the UK) charts the sexual awakening of three characters from children’s literature – Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Wendy from Peter Pan – as told by their older selves.
Cult Fiction: Art and Comics
27 Sep – 11 Nov 2007
Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds
