Ragged Claws Network

Courtesy of Tor.com, an original graphic story by a talented young artist, Ms. Wesley Allsbrook:

I had exactly same feeling reading this piece as I had when I first read Jillian Tamaki’s City of Champions mini-comic and the shorter “comic book” edition of Skim a few years ago, i.e., this is someone to watch!

P.S. If you buy the superb Skim graphic novel from this Amazon.com link, you’ll be doing yourself a favour and Jillian herself will receive a little extra in her Amazon Associates account!

Bonus Links:

Wesley Allsbrook Illustration

Wesley’s Wallsblog

Fresh Paint: Wesley Allsbrook (interview)

Self-Portrait with Saxophone is not only my favourite of Max Beckmann’s many self-portraits but also one of my favourite self-portrait paintings of all time. Beckmann’s painting technique, which in his later works can sometimes be a bit messy and offhanded, is beautifully controlled and economical here. The quilted (silk?) robe, which in real life would be soft but sort of slick to the touch, reminds me also of the tough protective skin of a pineapple or a pangolin, though here the underbelly, so to speak, is open and unprotected, with the casual posture, meaty hands, steady gaze, and set jaw of the artist projecting boundless confidence and creative power such that even the ordinarily rigid metallic musical instrument seems to bend and twist in conformity with the artist’s pose and grip rather than vice versa.

Max Beckmann
Self-Portrait with Saxophone
1930
Oil on canvas
55 1/8 x 27 3/8 in.
Kunsthalle, Bremen

“The Blood Money of Galloping Chad Burgess,” The Unseen #5 (June 1952) .

“Murder Mansion,” Adventures into Darkness #5 (August 1952).

“Alice in Terrorland,” Lost Worlds #5 (October 1952), as reprinted/recoloured in Seduction of the Innocent #1.

“The Phantom Ship,” Out of the Shadows #6 (October 1952).

“Joe Yank: Black Market Mary,” Joe Yank #5 (1952).

“The Hands of Don José,” Adventures into Darkness #9 (April 1953).

“The Corpse That Lived,” Out of the Shadows #10 (October 1953).

“Grip on Life,” The Unseen #12 (November 1953).

“Images of Sand,” Out of the Shadows #12 (March 1954), as reprinted/recoloured in Seduction of the Innocent #4.

“The Reaper,” Creepy #114 (January 1980) - story by Archie Goodwin.

Bonus link: Twenty Questions with Alex Toth.

Gratuitous link: “Barney Rooster” with fabulously fluid funny-animal art by the fabulous Frank Frazetta.

Gallery 1, Gallery 2, Gallery 3, Gallery 4, Gallery 5, Gallery 6, Gallery 7, Gallery 8, Gallery 9, Gallery 10, Gallery 11, Gallery 12, Gallery 13 and Gallery 14.

Over at GoofButton, Jeffrey Meyer has posted some terrific scans of José Miguel Covarrubias’s lush illustrations for W. H. Hudson’s Green Mansions. Here’s a taste (you’ll find a larger version on the GoofButton site):

What I especially appreciate about this illustration, in addition to the lovely colour and composition, is the observational quality of the foot. Although the shapes are simplified, they are still clearly based in reality, with the pinky toe tucked in toward the fourth toe, which in turn is tilted slightly toward the pinky toe, and with each of the toenails having a distinctive shape. And then there’s the pale colouration of the toes themselves, bluish near the nail, suggestive of slight downward pressure on the forest floor. And so on. Without such variations and details, the picture would still be attractive; it would not, however, be half so alive.