William Cardini is the comics-drawin’, tofu-chompin’, eye-patched wizard-bearded alter-ego of mild-mannered writer and sometimes video artist Mark P. Hensel. They live in Austin, TX and can be contacted at markphensel@gmail.com. Check out more of their work at hypercastle.com.
— Jason Leivian
Saw this at 360 Vinyl today. The LP is a triple album with silkscreened sleeves and the cd comes with an awesome new ‘Rapper X’ comic by Benjamin Marra. Happy to find myself reading a comic book in a record store.
Madlib Medicine Show No. 5: The History of the Loop Digga, a limited-edish album of early work by hip-hop artist, Madlib, is now available for pre-order on Stones Throw’s website. Check out everything here. I did the cover and a comic book insert for the album. Some of my artwork was the basis for the silkscreen vinyl covers. I worked with Stones Throw’s Jeff Jank, who put together the designs for everything and was great to work with.
(photo by Aaron Colter)
Robert Crumb at the Portland Art Museum? It’s true. All 207 individual pages from his ambitious adaptation of the Book of Genesis are on display this summer. Seeing the artwork in person is awe inspiring. The obsessively perfect brush strokes fill the page with black ink. Yet all of his forms are rendered so clearly and naturally. It’s also great to see the human touches on the page, little dabs of white out, a bit of the pencils underneath. You can ponder the choices the artist made. Why did he decide to white out that panel border and redo it? The original looked fine…
I’m not sure if I’ll ever read the book from cover to cover, but at the exhibit I found myself focusing on single panels for minutes at a time. I like how Crumb brings some excitement to even the driest parts of the story. You know the genealogy stuff, so and so begat this guy, so and so begat these folks.
There’s an inconsequential line in chapter 26: “Esau was forty years old and he took as wives Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. And they were a source of provocation to Isaac and to Rebekah.”
His interpretation is as scandalous as anything you’d see on a daytime talk show. The two women are fighting in front of a tent, pulling hair and causing a ruckus. Maybe all that lineage stuff was more gossipy and exciting back then if you had a vague sense of who these families and tribes were.
FREE admision to the Portland Art Museum on fourth Fridays from 6-8pm. If you’re in town I recommend seeing the exhibit at least once. Check their schedule for a full list of events. They have guest speakers from the comics community and drawing workshops through August. Also the NW Film Center is presenting two screenings to coincide with the exhibit.
This summer, the Museum will present the drama and sweep of the Book of Genesis as illustrated by the internationally celebrated artist R. Crumb. Organized by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles for a national tour, the exhibition of more than 200 drawings is the culmination of four years of labor by Crumb to illustrate every word of the fifty chapters that make up Genesis in the Bible.
Portland Art Museum
1219 SW Park Ave
Portland, OR 97205
For more information, visit specialexhibitions.pam.org/rcrumb/.
CRUMB
Friday, July 2, 7pm
Saturday, July 3, 4:30 and 7pm
Director: Terry Zwigoff, US 1994
This documentary focuses on R. Crumb’s seminal work in the ’60s and ’70s. Essential viewing for visitors to the R. Crumb exhibition. (119 mins.)
COMIC BOOK CONFIDENTIAL
Saturday, July 31, 9:15pm
Sunday, August 1, 4:30pm
Director: Ron Mann, Canada 1988
This acclaimed documentary traces comic book art from the 1930s to the 1970s. (90 mins.)
Fat Rabbit Bajada Lodge visitors Sam, cartoonist Ron Regé, Jr. and Tim Leanse display their house gift: the 15th edition of Ron’s “Yeast Hoist” comics series, “Kept in Balance by Equal Weights,” an eight-page alchemy zine that hangs from the neck of a reusable earthenware bottle filled with 16.9 ounces of a Belgian Abbey Ale! Sam and Tim roped the whole thing together. Right now the only place you can get one is from Whole Foods’ flagship store in Austin, Texas, but that should change soon. More info…
Lala Albert lives in Brooklyn where she does art and comics at night and on the weekends. During the week she works as the textile designer/whatever-else-they-need-her-for at a small fashion company in Manhattan.
About Arthur Comics
We are proud to bring you Arthur Comics curated by Floating World. Be sure to click full screen for a leisurely bath in our new interactive format, an exclusive collaboration with GreenerMags / グリーナーマガジン.
The fifteenth installment in Ron Regé, Jr.’s ongoing “Yeast Hoist” series of comics, “Kept in Balance by Equal Weights” is an 8-page zine that hangs from the neck of an earthenware bottle filled with 16.9 ounces of a delicious top-fermented Belgian Abbey Ale. This unique vessel features an original design screenprinted in Belgium.
Available beginning Thursday June 17th at Whole Foods’ flagship store in Austin, Texas
Special bottle signing and beer tasting event Saturday June 19th from 3-5pm prior to Cartoon Utopia opening at Domy Books in Austin
Watch this space for information on retail locations carrying YH15. Subscribe to info list for event and online availability announcements.
Questions? Ask!
Without Buenaventura Press it’s possible I wouldn’t have been inspired to start Floating World Comics. Kramers Ergot (Buenaventura published volumes 6 and 7) was a game changer, and Buenaventura was there to pick up the ball and rewrite the rules. They published some of the best comics of the decade, from Vanessa Davis’ Spaniel Rage, to Jerry Moriarty’s Jack Survives, to Johnny Ryan’s Comic Book Holocausts, to new work by Matt Furie and Lisa Hanawalt. It’s sad to see them go but also interesting to reflect on how much comics have been changed since they started. It’s the Velvet Underground effect. Their books have inspired new comic scenes all over the world. I look forward to seeing the next generation rise from these ashes. — Jason Leivian
“Fruiting Bodies” by Brian Chippendale
Opening reception, June 4th 7-10pm
103 Havemeyer St.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Brian’s hyper busy mark-making achieves a similar barrage of rhythms akin to his drum playing in the band Lightning Bolt, obsessively filling up all available space until the viewer/listener is in a state of blissful frenzy.
Brian Chippendale comes to us from Providence, RI, where he has resided for the past 13 years. As a co-founder of now legendary art warehouse Fort Thunder, Brian has been an important part of the underground music and art scene that sprouted out of the Fort and other similar collective-living spaces. In addition to art and music, Brian is known internationally for his innovative comics and has just finished a new 800 page comic called “If N’ Oof,” to be published by Picturebox this Fall.
Brian has also shown his visual art at the Macro Future Museum in Rome, the Deste Foundation in Athens and the RISD Museum as part of Wunderground: Providence 1995 to the Present. This is his first solo exhibition at Cinders.
Pete Toms is back with a stunning, expanded ‘PAWS‘!
ARTHUR readers experienced a nine page preview toke of ‘PAWS’ in February, but who would have seen this one coming?
The comic is essentially a horror comic about a guy that only experiences the outside world through television trying to sell an autobiographical screenplay. It has all the same themes as my other comics, how people choose identity roles, the media’s effect on memory, how we mythologize our personalities, but this one has a lot more dogs and possibly werewolves, and jokes about how creepy sitcom laugh-tracks are.
I’m doing the same stuff as always, drawing at night, using my natural jazz dancing ability to put my kids through college during the day.
We found an interview Pete did with Ecstatic Days back in November where he talks about what’s abstract and what’s real. Enjoy and follow up if you please over at Pete’s website!
About Arthur Comics
We are proud to bring you Arthur Comics curated by Floating World. Stop by our oasis, http://www.arthurmag.com/comics, for a leisurely bath in our new interactive format, an exclusive collaboration with GreenerMags / グリーナーマガジン.
Next in the Arthur Comics round-up!
Here is a strip Daniel drew last year called ‘Spring 09‘.
About Daniel Locke:
Daniel Locke is an artist based in London and Brighton UK. He works as an illustrator and teacher, and was a sketch artist on the UK version of the
reality TV show Dating in the Dark. He is currently Artist in Residence at the St Martins project in Islington, London. He used to make videos and
installations, but these days confines himself to comics. His work can be seen at www.daniellocke.com
About Arthur Comics
We are proud to bring you Arthur Comics curated by Floating World. Stop by our oasis, http://www.arthurmag.com/comics, for a leisurely bath in our new interactive format, an exclusive collaboration with GreenerMags / グリーナーマガジン.
Arthur Magazine 