the insignificant ramblings of a disturbed graphic designer
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Thursday Top 5
The sinister 4 a.m. conspiracy: Uncovered!
Google Chrome Comics artist Scott McCloud helps the Google team de-tech-ify the company’s open source browser project. www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome
FuturamaMath.com Dr. Sarah J. Greenwald teaches math at NC’s Appalachian State University, and gives the couch potatoes-cum-mathletes a few things to ponder. www.FuturamaMath.com
Get Crafty! Episode 6 Scrapblog gets creative in the videos they produce to show people how their site works. The results are way funnier than the normal how-to screencast. www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5LNHmwb1fw
Posted by espd at 4:48 PM |
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Friday, June 20, 2008
FreakAngels
FreakAngels is a new web comic about a flooded, post-apocalyptic London inhabited by the 12 telepaths who caused the world to end. It’s written by the excellent Warren Ellis, and illustrated by the exceptional Paul Duffield.
Ynnej turned me on to this comic a week or two ago, but I didn’t bother to read it until tonight, and now I'm jonesin’ for the next installment.
I had done the first half of this post, but hadn't completed the second half. So here it is, if you're into art, design, comics and such niftiness. The update starts about half-way down the page.
Posted by espd at 7:00 PM |
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Thursday, March 20, 2008
Thursday Top 5
Warning – NSFW: What's Your Favorite Curse Word? Britain's Channel 4 asks loads of celebrities to share their favorite swear words.
Garfield Minus Garfield I used to love Garfield. But I hey, I was in 4th grade. I grew out of it shortly thereafter, though my mom insisted on buying me Garfield stuff for many years thereafter *sigh*. Today, the power of digital imaging allows us to make a giant leap forward! The results is a funnier strip. garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com
"Home From Africa: 13 Symptoms of Peace Corps Withdrawal" My friend Diane was posted to the African country of Benin [correction: she was in Niger, but met her future husband in Benin] in the Peace Corps after college. When she'd tell me stories about her time there, it struck me as a very difficult lifestyle for two years. Listening to this radio program from Transom reminded me of a lot of her stories. Photos and MP3: www.transom.org
Mini site I have to admit Jason's right about this site: "It's cool and there's little bits of humor in it too." And I really the new van-like model. www.miniusa.com
Donate to Wikimedia Foundation Okay, the close-up on the eyes and the creepy hand-wringing is weird, but the rest of this video is good. I'm going to talk with Velma about adding the Wikimedia Foundation to our giving list. And if you've ever used Wikipedia for anything at all, you might consider a donation too. wikimediafoundation.org
Also Also is a really cool design company with a really cool site. Jason will probably like this one. I think he should redesign his site something like this — using Flash to tell an amusing story that's also the site's navigation itself. www.also-online.com
Julia Rothman Julia is a partner in Also (mentioned above) and does all their illustrations. She also does really cool pattern and surface design independently of Also. And if that wasn't enough alsos, she also runs this great blog called Book By Its Cover covering artful books about comics, design, etc. (below). www.juliarothman.com
"Happy" A short animation from Vancouver Film School. This one's for Sage and Dakota. x D
The Russian Avante-Garde Book: 1910–1934 An online exhibit from the MoMA (New York). This one's for Olya and any people who appreciate historical art, design, and typography. www.moma.org/exhibitions/2002/russian/
Carrier Pigeon A well-done video podcast about all kinds of stuff, from designer Dave Werner. minorstudios.com Never heard of Dave Werner? He's a somewhat recent grad of the Porfolio Center. Check out his absolutely exceptional portfolio: okaydave.com
Barista Brat The rants and raves of a Starbucks Barista. Fun and even informative. This link's for Jenny, who recently got a job at a small coffee place in San Francisco. baristabrat.blogspot.com
Olya's always bemoaning my tech-centric blog posts, so this one's for her. She won't get the indie band or pop culture refs, but she'll appreciate the humor.
Indietits is a webcomic starring sarcastic, foul-mouthed birds.
Posted by espd at 3:54 PM |
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Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Maker Faire and the Alternative Press Expo (part 1)
Two of the coolest things I went to in the past few months were the Maker Faire and the Alternative Press Expo. Take my advice: Put both of these events on your calendar for next year!
The Maker Faire is a big fair for DIY gadget enthusiasts. There were some great things to see, including a guy who figured out how to made his own Segway and a massive city made entirely of Legos. But I'll let this CNET Crave video do the talking.
At the Alternative Press Expo I bought a big stack of comics, books, graphic novels, and artwork. I missed this event last year and I'm really glad I got to go this year. It was fantastic and very inspiring. One of the best parts is that, unlike the bigger Wondercon at Moscone, most of the tables are manned (personed?) by the artists themselves. So I ended up seeing my old friend Lloyd Dangle of Troubletown fame (a comic you've probably seen in your local alternative newsweekly), and met a bunch of other fantastic artists. Oh, and I also went to the panel featuring Bryan Lee O'Malley, creator of the Scott Pilgrim series that I enjoyed so much last year.
The stuff I got this year
"God Made Dirt, and Dirt Don't Hurt" A really cool DVD and booklet of awesome artwork by David Lee and the Triplewide Design Collective. www.triplewide.net
Restitution Press An awesome silkscreened booklet by the guys at Restitution Press, and a signed print by one of the artists, Ryan Graff. www.RestitutionPress.com Their domain seems to have been recently taken over by a newspaper, but their MySpace page (sorry) is still up. You can also see some pictures of their work in this Flickr set.
"Tea Club" Signed by the artist, Phuong-Mai Bui-Quang (a.k.a. PMBQ). Plus a custom PMBQ illustration of a panda wearing headphones and eating toast (also signed). www.tea-club.net
"Lava Punch: First Launch" I bought the zine from Bay Area artist Jillian Ogle, who also did a custom illustration inside it for me. www.soylentworks.com
Scott Pilgrim I got Bryan Lee O'Malley to sign my copies of "Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life" and "Lost at Sea." Scott Pilgrim was my favorite find in the past couple years. It's hilarious. But I fully expect the series to take forever to wrap up, since the third book was delayed by many months, and I just get a sense from O'Malley that getting things done is, for him, kind of like pulling teeth. www.scottpilgrim.com
Troubletown Lloyd Dangle, who I first met around fifteen years ago during my volunteer time with the Graphic Artists Guild's NorCal Chapter, signed copies of his Troubletown books "Told You So" and "Funky Hipster Trash." www.troubletown.com
Optic Nerve I got a good deal on Adrian Tomine's "Optic Nerve" issues 1-7 and 9-11 (I have no idea why they didn't have #8). www.drawnandquarterly.com
"Wet Moon 2: Unseen Feet" I'd bought the first book by Ross Campbell a year ago or so, and the second one just came out recently. A couple freebies came with "Wet Moon": "The Damned" by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, and "Maintenance" by Jim Massey and Robbi Rodriguez. www.greenoblivion.com/wetmoon.html
Sean Seamus McWhinny Velma got two comics: "Diary of a Catering Whore" and "Head Trip: by Sean Seamus McWhinny. www.seanseamus.com
"Runoff" I bought a three-book series called "Runoff" from an artist named Tom Manning (signed). I read the first one on my trip to Boston, and it was really good. I'm taking the other two to Missouri next week. Apparently the director of "Pan's Labyrinth" is considering making a movie from the comics. www.robotsandmonkeys.com
"The ACME Novelty Library: Volume 17" I love Chris Ware's work. So I finally bought this. quimby.gnus.org/warehouse
"Fleet Street Scandal: Volume One" Artists Kevin Dart and Chris Turnham both signed this book for me, plus a print of Kevin's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" artwork. This book is swaaaank. www.fleetstreetscandal.com
Monster Sex A set of "Monster Sex" cards/prints by the splendid illustrator Jen Wang. I should've gotten her to sign the cool red envelope they come in, but she seemed pretty busy with other customers and I was on a schedule by that point, hurriedly trying to see the entire last aisle quickly because Velma was waiting to leave. www.jenwang.net
That's all just the stuff I bought. You should see the stack of postcards and samples I have! In the next installment Part 2 below, I'll feature even more cool art.
Part 2: The stuff I saw
Update June 2008: Okay, I've had this list for a year and never set aside enough time to grab some images for it, but today I decided it was finally time. Here are the other artists and things I saw at APE 2007. I'm looking forward to APE 2008, coming this fall.
Daniel M. Davis An Arizona artist with two books of cute monster illustrations and a website with lots of good tips for other cartoonists and self-publishers. www.SteamCrow.com
Pandoras Trunk A cooperative art boutique and gallery in the Haight. Artist Nome Edonna's work pictured here. www.PandorasTrunk.com
Cartoonists With Attitude A group of social commentary and political cartoonists. Barry Deutsch is one of the contributors, whose Hereville webcomic is pictured above ("Possibly the best comic about a troll-fighting 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl you'll read all week."). www.CartoonistsWithAttitude.org
Masheka Wood A Brooklyn, NY, comic artist who debuted his first book, "Deep Doodle," at the expo. www.WhatMashekaDid.com
A Comic a Day A blog that reviews a new issue of a different comic book series every day. AComicADay.blogspot.com
Michael Paulus Interesting artist who works in myriad media. You may have seen his series of cartoon character skeletons. www.michaelpaulus.com/gallery
Ben Walker I really like his style, and his site's pretty cool too. www.benwalkerart.com
Conan O'Brien's commencement speech to the Havard Class of 2000 Freakin' comedy genius. I miss Conan. Sometimes I wish I had TV again. » www.february-7.com
Rebel Alliance or the Empire? Vote for you favorite Star Wars stamp at USPS. » www.uspsjedimaster.com
Universcale An site that interactively lets you see the respective scales of things, from the largest known thing to the smallest known thing, and lots of things in between. » www.nikon.co.jp
"This American Life" Animated segment by Chris Ware for the new "This American Life" Showtime TV show. Makes me want Showtime. So. Damn. Much. » brightcove.com Google Earth adds hiking trails » lifehacker.com
On Saturday I went to Wondercon, the huge comics convention at Moscone. I know all of you are rolling your eyes at this point (except Ynnej), but I swear it's not all about dorks waiting in line to see the sneak peak of Spider-Man 3, and dorks enthusiastically clutching that long-sought-after early edition Superman comic they've been looking for since they were eleven, and dorks dressing up as Wolverine and Sailor Moon.
Well, okay, it's a lot about that for a lot of the people who attend.
But I don't go for any of that stuff. I'm pretty selective in my comics reading. I've never been into any of that super hero crap, so about half the offerings at Wondercon are totally lost on me. I'm more into newer talent and small alternative publishers. Plus there are hundreds of booths with everything from T-shirts to graphic novels of the sort I like.
And then there's the Artists Alley, where dozens of illustrators sit at tables and greet people, sketch, sign autographs, schmooze, and whatnot. And we're talking about famous comics artists like Sergio Aragones (Mad) sitting next to up-and-comers you've never heard of. And some of the newer talent — in fact, a lot of it — is just phenomenal.
I didn't spend very much time at all in panels this year, since I was alone (Ynnej, how dare you move to Seattle!) and it's not nearly as much fun to watch a panel or the Star Wars Fan Films by oneself. And without, y'know, a fifth of Jack Daniels.
Anyway, I spent most of my time on the exhibitor floor and found some really awesome finds, such as four 1941 pulp science fiction magazines with original Robert A. Heinlein stories in them. I also picked up a few new things by Oni Press, one of my favorite alternative comics publishers, and a few other new finds.
I also met Joshua Ellingson, whose work I was familiar with because I'd actually bought one of his prints at a seasonal local artisan's store around the corner last year.
Next up, I can't wait for the Alternative Press Expo on April 21 and 22, because some of my favorite artists will be there; Bryan Lee O'Malley (Scott Pilgrim) and Art Spiegelman (Maus) for example.
Update: You can still get this DVD (as of Nov 2007)! I found it in "This American Life"'s online store when I went to donate money to the show. I got it and it's really cool. Visit their site and scroll down to the Lost Buildings DVD.
Aaron
Alexis
Anne
Anya
April
Ari
Bo
Brian
Bryan
Chris
Dave & Terri
Dave H.
Debby
Drue
Fibu
Four Waters
Fwegan (aka Ynnej)
Holly
Hilary
Internet Rockstar
Jason
Jen
Jesse
Jessica
Kansinee
Karl
Laura
Leah
Marc
Martin
Matt
Mike
MJ
Morgan
OkayDave
Olya
Paco
Peter
Rick
Rocky
Ryan
Stellah
Tatum 
Trent
Velma
Veronica
Yu-Po