On the site:
Here's Richard Gehr on the excellent new Gilbert Hernandez book, Bumperhead. I love seeing Hernandez work in all his modes. I can't think of a more diverse and in the pocket cartoonist right now, and this is really an excellent book.
Gilbert Hernandez nails his title character’s emotional essence in the very first panel ofBumperhead, the prolific cartoonist’s hormonally overdriven anatomy of adolescence. Fatefully named and thoroughly pissed off, a preadolescent Bobby Numbly stares defiantly at the reader as childish taunts – “There’s a bump bump bumperhead here! Thumpin’ bumpin’ bumper! El Bumpo!” – join background clouds in a perfectly weighted composition filling two-thirds of the page. His tormentors are a couple of neighborhood boys in Oxnard, California – Los Bros Hernandez’s own hometown. Presumably less “semi-autobiographical” than last year’s bittersweet Marble Season, Bumperhead looks at sex, drugs, and rock with as much knowing sympathy as its predecessor explored childhood mysteries, obsessions, friendships, and disappointments.
Kayla E. visits us with Day 4 of Cartoon Diary.
Elsewhere:
This is an interesting interview with Kelly Sue Deconnick about her adaptation of the Barbarella translation for the new Humanoids edition of the classic graphic novel. It's always been a funny read for me -- verbose, tangled dialogue to my ears, but wonderful drawing and storytelling. I'm looking forward to reading it again.
I'm always poking around comic and illustration art auction sites. I see very interesting glimpses into visual culture and, sometimes, the sensibility of a collector. So this Ray Bradbury estate auction is pretty intriguing. It's everything from his art collection (including some very fine Foster and Capp originals) to his personal awards to his ties to his LPs. Take a trip. (via PT)
I love this story about the animator Frank Moser, maker of high velocity drawings.
And there's no more Marvel for Milo Manara.
