Jason's Blog, page 175

Well, I'm back...

...from two weeks in Norway. The comics expo in Oslo was nice. There were a couple of hours the sun appeared and I played minigolf with old friends. Didn't win any games, though. I brought with me back to France a bunch of drawings from my teens that I'll scan and put up on the blog. Like the one above, drawn in my Serge Clerc period.

Tom Waits on The Moon

I'm doing the final lettering for Tom Waits on The Moon, from Athos in America. I don't think I've shown any pages from this story. No, there is no Tom Waits and no moon in the story. Possibly there is a guy called Tom. There are no dialogues, all the text is in thought balloons.

Final story

I'm doing the final lettering for Tom Waits on The Moon. I don't think I've shown any pages from this story. No, there is no Tom Waits and no moon in the story. Possibly there is a guy called Tom. There are no dialogues, all the text is in thought balloons.

Finished! Well, almost...

All the stories for the next book, Athos in America, are now finished. One story needs to be lettered and the cover is not yet done, but that is all that remains. I will bring the pages up to Paris on Tuesday, so that they can be scanned and Hubert can begin the colouring. I will then fly up to Oslo to be a guest on the Oslo Comics Expo, May 27-28.

Isle of 100,000 Graves

There's now an interview with me and Fabien Vehlmann on Comic Book Resources, here: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=32380
We talk about how we worked together on Isle of 100,000 Graves. It also gives the date of publication for the book: June 8.

Some more sketches

And finally, more old heroes

This was a Danish translation of Jaime Hernandez' Locas stories, published in an album format. Gilbert's Heartbreak Soup was also translated. The first issue of Love and Rockets I bought was number 17. And yes, me too, I had a crush on Maggie.

I had several of the Holt, Rinehart and Winston Peanuts books. I've later bought the Fantagraphics books, but I've chosen to hold on to these softcovers. For one thing, the panels are bigger. Anyway, it's still a masterpiece.

To end this series of comics I read in the 80s, during my teens and early twenties, I have to go back to Tintin. It's still the major influence on how I draw, and for anyone who wants to learn how to tell a story in pictures, I think you can do a lot worse than study the work of Hergé.

Well, whaddayaknow, more old heroes

Joes's Bar by Munoz and Sampayo impressed me with it's bleakness. And of course the expressiveness of Munoz' drawings. The Alec Sinner albums are also great.

What was the first graphic novel is a debate still going on, but for what was the first important graphic novel, the answer is clearly Maus. Together with Epileptic and Jimmy Corrigan, it's the holy trinity of graphic novels, showing the way it can be done. I've never cried from reading a comic, but must confess I came pretty close reaching that final page of Vladek and Anja finally meeting again.

I'm not sure how well the historical saga Passengers of the Wind has aged, but I enjoyed the five album series when it first came out. Well drawn and impressivly researched, but Bourgeon, the old fox, was careful to always include some nudity in each album.

Still more, is he ever gonna shut up?, old heroes

I've mentioned Jean Giraud, the artist of Blueberry. I should also mention the work he did under the name Moebius. Reading The Airtight Garage for the first time was pretty amazing. He also did this book, Le Bandard Fou. The John Difool albums he did with Jodorowsky I found to be a bit less interesting.

Don Martin was an idol at that time, when I was doing strips and cartoons for a humour magazine.The above book was a big softcover collection of some of his best strips.

Berni Wrightson was another artist, like Barry Smith, whose drawings I tried to copy, without much luck. In Denmark Swamp Thing was published in the European album format and in black and white.

Even more old heroes

We're still talking about the early 80s here. The two best Francobelgian artists at the time was Jean Giraud and Hermann. If Giraud was Beatles, then Hermann was Rolling Stones. Or Star Wars and Alien, if you want. Actually, Hermann has something in common with Ridley Scott, the way he tells the story visually, and the way he fills the panel with details. Bernard Prince was sort of an update of Terry and the Pirates. Besides Bernard Prince and the Western series Comanche that he did with the writer Greg, there was also the After The Catastrophe series Jeremiah and the Middle Ages series The Towers of Bois Maury that he did alone.

One of the earliest Francobelgian comics I discovered, besides Tintin and Lucky Luke, was Gaston Lagaffe or Viggo as he was called in Norwegian, by Franquin, the artist of the classic adventure strip Spirou. Gaston was a humour strip, a series of one page gags. Personally I prefer the early strips, like above, still fairly restrained compared to the later ones.

At that time I sold strips and cartoons to a Norwegian humour magazine called Konk. A lot of the money I earned went to buy comics, usually ordered from Denmark. One favourite would be Barry Smith and his Conan stories. I'd try to copy his drawings, but of course fail miserably.