Wednesday, October 22, 2008

C-monster (the real one) linked to a review in the NYT of a new Love and Rockets book, The Education of Hopey Glass. The reviewer, Douglas Wolk, gives a note-perfect description of Jaime Hernandez's funny way of rendering children, totally separate from his sense of adult bodies: When Hernandez draws little kids, his vivid evocations of body language give way to an endearing, exaggerated style, all vaudeville scenery-chewing and wailing “Peanuts” heads.

I bring this up because I've been talking to someone at another arts venue about collaborating on a show about comic art, fine art, and folks who inhabit the gray zone inbetween. The subject is near and dear to me: I grew up reading my dad's tattered old copies of Zap Comix, Bijou Funnies, and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers (perfect for fifth graders: fun features like "Help Fat Freddy Find the Dope!"); eventually graduated to contemporary fare like Los Bros Hernandez, Peter Bagge, Dan Clowes, Scott McCloud, Joe Sacco, etc.; and harbored fantasies of one day becoming an underground cartoonist myself (I dropped it; my friends Mike and Jen, who started the short-lived ZERO with me at UVA, kept at it).

So...can you think of contemporary artists in the region whose work walks that line, or even regularly crosses it? (Andy Moon Wilson and Nekisha Durrett, of course, but who else?) Leave your thoughts in the comments section, if you like. If this idea bears fruit, the show will be in 2010, and it'll be very, very large.

2 Comments:

Blogger Lisa McCarty said...

great idea! Id love to see that at AAC. Here are my suggestions:
Mike Lowery
http://argyleacademy.com/?id=aboutUs

and probably more well known:
Kelly Towles
Benjamin Jurgensen

-lisa m

11:18 AM  
Blogger jhcudlin said...

Hi, Lisa! Thanks for the suggestions! (How could I not mention Kelly Towles in my post? Duh.)

3:10 PM  

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