abstract comics

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Beautiful, beautiful art by Guy-Pascal Vallez

I am floored by the color and composition in this work. I hope its okay I linked through. Check out more on http://gaxix.blogspot.com/. Reminds me of Mike Mignola's work.

Spoor, a comic

This is an image of a three stone lithograph I made recently as a leporello/book/comic (it folds accordion-like on the gutters). It was inspired by my dog jumping into the "Brunnen" here in the summer to cool off, the water troughs farmers have with continuously running water. Then he jumps out and leaves a Pollock-like trail on the ground. 3 quarters abstract, then not.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Jamie Alder (Bill Shut), "The Continuing Adventures of Flash Sage"

Here is one of the pieces that Jamie sent me a while ago. It was originally published in his minicomic "Tales Too Tough for TV" in 1979 (in issue no. 2, I think). When he sent it, Jamie wrote: "Flash Sage is a mutated anagram of splash page and is basically 9 splash pages and the story is an ongoing metamorphosis and whiten that the images go back and forth between concrete images and abstract. This one was inked by my brother Kelly Alder."

Friday, April 2, 2010

R.I.P. Jamie Alder, a.k.a. Bill Shut, 1951-2010

I just learned that Jamie Alder, whose abstract comics were published in the anthology under his pseudonym "Bill Shut," died of a heart attack in his sleep two weeks ago. I never met him in person, but we corresponded at length via email and a few times talked on the phone about his contribution to the anthology, not to mention later about his originals that were included in the "Silent Pictures" show. Jamie was also a member of this blog, though I don't think he ever posted anything. For the anthology, I edited slightly his bio. Here it is exactly as he sent it to me:

I was born in 1951 and I'm not dead yet.
I was influenced by the stuff underground artists Rick Griffin, art spiegelman, Victor Moscoso, and the collage novel of Max Ernst were doing. I also really liked Rory Hayes and Mark Beyer. Clay Geerdes and his newsletter Comix World/Wave was the inspiration to self publish. I will also have some pages in Newave! the Underground Mini-Comix of the 1980s Ed. by Mike Dowers and published by Fantagraphics and last I heard coming out at the end of the 2009

I should write something more eloquent about Jamie's pioneering efforts (his abstract comics that we published dated from the early '70s), about the importance of his contribution to underground and newave comix, and so on, but frankly I'm too stunned right now to be able to say much... Rest in peace, Jamie.

More information on Jamie's facebook page. See more of his art on his Poopsheet Foundation page. You can also see more of his work in Fantagraphics' new Newave anthology.