The Stranger/Outsider: Albert Camus

"House of Illustration and The Folio Society have launched an exciting new competition with the chance to win a prestigious Folio commission illustrating Albert Camus’s The Outsider. This inaugural online competition, launched today, will require entrants to submit three illustrations and a binding design. Entrants must be over the age of 18 and not already Folio Society published illustrators."

This is a brief that I hope to spend the next week working on now that my entry for the Northern Sequential Arts competition is out of the way (But I've certainly not finished tweaking that either.)

I've currently only managed to read the wiki article on the book, but it does sound like a rather interesting plot line. The story it's self is quite straight forward. The protagonist is an unfeeling atheist who can not tell a lie and through a series of events kill's man and finds himself in prison. There he realises just how much freedom he had in his life before the murder and it took such a terrible act to see all this.

Current and Past covers:

I'm not sure why, but I really like this one. I think it's the illustration itself.

I have no idea what's going on here. I'm under the assumption they're dressed as Nefertiti? Why...err? Meursault (The protagonist...or anti hero if you will) was a Pied-Noir (black foot) — a Frenchman born in the Maghreb, the northernmost crescent of Mediterranean Africa then the heart of France's African colonies.

Witty Quotes

Or...Just quotes for my t-shirt designs.
The idea being that I would use the quotes to design and illustrate little scenario's appropriate for t-shirt format. That gives the brief more of a concept then simply illustrations.

X-men: celebration or exploitation?

Today I bought my copy of X-men: Gals on the run, for the sole purpose of using it for my dissertation. It honestly felt like I was buying porn and I felt the need to stress that it was for my dissertation and not for my own entertainment.

Lately, Marvel has been making a big push to reach a female demographic with their one-shots focusing on female comic book characters as well as their Women of Marvel series. So is their new book celebratory of women in comics, or does it smell of exploitation? If the latter, is this a step back for Marvel?

To me, it's a step back. It was illustrated by Milo Manara, an Italian artist whose well known for his more erotic illustrations and comic books. That's not to say he isn't a brilliant illustrator but the front cover itself does nothing for me. Am I allowed to call the ladies facial features ugly? Because I'm hearing the faint sound of Greg Land pausing porn half way through the middle to trace the stills.

While over on Comic Vine I found this great little video that pretty much sum's up my own feelings when looking at this book.




Please excuse the hands.








I cant actually tell you what the story is about because I haven't actually gotten around to reading it yet. I can tell you however that if it wasn't for my dissertation subject then I would have never have picked up this book. Maybe it will surprise me, maybe the writing will over shadow the art work. Or maybe not.

In the words of Comic writer Gail Simone: female characters being drawn in a humiliating manner to titillate. It's not empowering, it's degrading.

Witty Cult

Never thought I'd write those two words together. Anyway, after the tutorial yesterday with Lorenzo it was brought to my attention that my Fashion Hero brief needed some kind of context (other than just for women). A good idea that Ben brought up was include some kind of witty banter or in-jokes for the t-shirts. Something that only comic book fans who read these tittles would get.

I had a similar idea, simply adding quotes from various comics but an idea struck me when I thought back to a piece of fan art:



Unless you knew exactly who these characters where and there background, you wouldn't understand the picture. Magik is the ruler of limbo (henche the soul sword and arm) and Cypher is a translator and that's his only power. So Cypher was the one who always needed protection.

Another good example is a piece of Mark Brooks work for uncanny x-men 522:


Question: Why is Kitty riding a bullet.
I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer

So, I seem to have found a new direction for my t-shirts and I will be working on a few designs that I can hopefully get finished by next week.

Alina Urusov

One of the few women artists out there who actually influence me. Urusov began her career in animation, most notably working on designs for the TV series Boondocks. After doing work for Wonderlost (Image Comics), she contributed to the Marvel Holiday Special. Her latest work for Marvel, which she has both drawn and colored, can be found in X-Force and Young Avengers Presents and X-Force #11. She has also contributed covers to NYX: No Way Home and other Marvel Comics' publications.

Clients
DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Image Comics, Top Cow, Sony Pictures Animation,Fantasy Flight Games , etc.

I absolutely adored the covers she did for NYX as well as Younger Avengers Present: Wiccan And Speed. Two favourite characters wrapped together with a favourite artist and writer. Fantastic combination.

Comic Covers:




Sequential Art:


Character Design:

Max Bonnaudet’s Marvel Legos

When Marvel meets Lego… Max Bonnaudet and his minimalist posters made of lego bricks. Every whimsical fantasy of a four year old, and most of BAGD from what I've seen over the years. Maxime Bonnaudet is a French Artistic Director living in Paris who loves comics as much as I do.

Sam Fout

Sam Fout is a character designer, illustrator & animator who has worked for clients such as LucasFilm, Warner Bros, Hanna Barbera, & Coca-Cola. You can also see his animation skills on TV (The Disney Channel, Saturday Night Live…). It really does look like a style that works for animation and it is a level of professionalism that I am aiming to achieve.