I also had a trio of Belgians come up to the booth on Saturday. One of them publishes a comics art magazine called L’inedit. We got to talking about Belgian artists (I love Yves Chaland’s work), and they gave me an issue featuring a Belgian artist by the name of Lapone. You can see the Chaland influence especially in the second image.
I came across Lapone's blog a couple months back, awesome stuff.
A buddy of mine bought this dps by gene colan and ever since I saw the pages I've started putting together a tomb of Dracula run. I am mesmerized by this art.
I like Bob McLeod’s work, but he was not the best inker for Colan. If you like this piece, then you'll love the rest with Tom Palmer’s inking. Of course, it won't have the sepia wash, as this spread was for the Tomb of Dracula black-&-white magazine, not the comic. For what it's worth, I actually prefer reading ToD in the black-&-white Essentials format.
Yep, I'm buying the mags too whenever I see them. Just got number 1 last weekend.
I picked up a good number of his daredevil issues (the black widow run) a few months ago.
Some of Lapone’s more expressionistic work reminds me a bit of Toby Cypress. I first saw Toby’s work on Killing Girl, and lately he’s been working on Blue Estate. I highly recommend his creator-owned Rodd Racer.
I can hardly talk about Toby without mentioning the artist from whom he took over Killing Girl: Frank Espinosa. Hopefully some of you remember his comic Rocketo, a book I truly miss.
Toby and Frank are both big fans of Frank Robbins, as am I. I know a lot of people don't care for his comic book work, particularly his superhero work, but he puts so much energy into his drawings.
I was always a fan of Robbins' work, though I liked him better on some strips than others. I think, too, that his work looked best when he did his own inking.
I was always a fan of Robbins' work, though I liked him better on some strips than others. I think, too, that his work looked best when he did his own inking.
I agree with you, though I think that of nearly every artist. Frank Springer, who inked the Invaders page above, handled Robbins very well though, and I don’t mind that combination at all.
I can hardly talk about Toby without mentioning the artist from whom he took over Killing Girl: Frank Espinosa. Hopefully some of you remember his comic Rocketo, a book I truly miss.
I loved Rocketo, for Espinosa's art in particular, and I agree with you, Eric - this is a book I sorely miss too.
I was always a fan of Robbins' work, though I liked him better on some strips than others. I think, too, that his work looked best when he did his own inking.
I agree with you, though I think that of nearly every artist. Frank Springer, who inked the Invaders page above, handled Robbins very well though, and I don’t mind that combination at all.
And I'll agree with that. Springer had a nice feel for Robbins' brusque rendering.
My particular favorite of all of Robbins' comic book work was the first Batman story he illustrated -- title of which I have suddenly gone blank on -- having to do with pursuing Man-Bat in Las Vegas. I believe he also wrote it, which would have been an unusual occurrence for Batman stories in those days, and was the basis of one of the stories in the Animated Batman series.
That’s “Man-Bat over Vegas!”—a classic from Detective #429, but I first read it in the Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told collection. Robbins wrote a ton of Batman stories—in fact, he had a story in all but four or five issues of Detective from issues #378–436, plus several in Batman—but he only illustrated six of the ones he wrote.
Black Orchid was the first time I experienced Dave McKean's art.
I was a fan from page one and have been ever since. The man's a genius.
chris
I assume you have Sandman: Dust Covers? If you don't I highly recommend it. It's one of the best, and certainly the most fascinating, process books I've ever read.
I assume you have Sandman: Dust Covers? If you don't I highly recommend it. It's one of the best, and certainly the most fascinating, process books I've ever read.
I'm in the process of preparing a digital version of the Modern Masters: Mike Wieringo book, and it put me in the mood to go through his blog. If you’ve never seen it, I highly encourage you to do so: mikewieringo.com/. Mike put out the best art blog of anyone.
I love Paul Pope's work. And I am a huge fan of Frank Herbert's DUNE (probably my favorite science fiction novel I've read). So bringing the two together ... brilliant:
I'm in the process of preparing a digital version of the Modern Masters: Mike Wieringo book, and it put me in the mood to go through his blog. If you’ve never seen it, I highly encourage you to do so: mikewieringo.com/. Mike put out the best art blog of anyone.
Agreed. I loved it when he'd post modern versions of characters he created as a kid. I asked him in one of those posts' comment threads if he had any plans to do anything with them and he said he was kinda thinking about it. Really wish we could've seen that!
I was going through Previews last night and saw DC is releasing a collection of José Luis García-López’s Superman stories. I’ll probably buy it even though I have most of those stories anyway. I’ll buy anything he works on.
Those JLGL pages are gorgeous (yeah, that's the Modern Masters book I need to get next, no question now), but the date scene with Lois reminds me of a question I've had for a long time. In the pre-COIE days, when Superman and Lois would actually go out, did Superman ever wear anything but his uniform? I have to imagine Lois would be all "Look, do you even own a pair of jeans?" at some point (prompting Superman to respond "If my enemies knew where I bought my casual clothing, then my favorite stores would be at risk!" or something, I'm sure, but still).
Those JLGL pages are gorgeous (yeah, that's the Modern Masters book I need to get next, no question now), but the date scene with Lois reminds me of a question I've had for a long time. In the pre-COIE days, when Superman and Lois would actually go out, did Superman ever wear anything but his uniform? I have to imagine Lois would be all "Look, do you even own a pair of jeans?" at some point (prompting Superman to respond "If my enemies knew where I bought my casual clothing, then my favorite stores would be at risk!" or something, I'm sure, but still).
No, I’m sure Lois was too busy thinking, “Look everyone! I’m on a date with Superman!” to think about jeans.
Comments
http://laponeart.blogspot.com/
I picked up a good number of his daredevil issues (the black widow run) a few months ago.
Does she sell any of her work?
I'm not sure. Maybe there's some info about that on her website. Thanks for your interest.
chris
My particular favorite of all of Robbins' comic book work was the first Batman story he illustrated -- title of which I have suddenly gone blank on -- having to do with pursuing Man-Bat in Las Vegas. I believe he also wrote it, which would have been an unusual occurrence for Batman stories in those days, and was the basis of one of the stories in the Animated Batman series.
I was a fan from page one and have been ever since. The man's a genius.
chris
chris
chris
"I watched him as he he studied this curiosity."
I love Paul’s work too. Can’t wait for Battling Boy to finally come out.
chris
I haven't really chosen a focus for my original art collecting yet, so I just bought whatever I thought looked cool or had characters I like.
Herc #8 by June Brigman - part of the Spider-Island crossover
New Avengers #64 by Mike McKone
Astonishing X-Men #44 by Mike McKone
Amazing Spider-Man #693 by Humberto Ramos