WHEN WE WEREN’T Today’s Smart Arts presentation in our irregular series takes a wry and sometimes uncharacteristically oblong look at some of the cover drawings I did for fan publications back in the ‘80s when Jack the Ripper was at it like knives! I drew a lot and did a ton of work for fan publications back in the day. These are two of a surprising number of fanzine cover illos I just dug out of the ‘archive’. At the time of these drawings my friends and I had spent years punkishly rejecting all mainstream media and pop music outlets in favour of making our own comics, music, clubs etc. If we could have made our own movies we would have and God knows we tried, using any and all available A/V equipment of a pre-digital age.
huge fan of the hatching and non-naturalistic stylizations added to your very naturalistic techniques of drawing figures. also the keen eye you have/had for the black/white balances would have made every comics professor we had ecstatic. they always said "don't be afraid to use black" as a way of helping people try to push their compostions into more intersting positions, but you seem to have a natural knack for it!
we too are actually in a zine at the moment and waiting to hear back on if we got into another one. the subculture of the DIY community in art and music where we are is honestly very cool- and if there were less r*pists in them they'd be a hell of a lot cooler! the queer kids (we're some of them) in the scene have made their own circles to oust them a bit from their pool of victims, but its really cool to see the ways these communities existed decades ago (and across the pond) and see the line of communication that crosses generations and borders!
also- would be so so interested in your analog a/v editing experience! my uncle spoke about having to cut film reels by hand and the process sounds so cool. honestly would love to try to replicate the process, but have no idea how it's done. (watching youtube videos only fills in so much of the knowledge gap) amature experimental processes are much more interesting than formalities....
huge fan of the hatching and non-naturalistic stylizations added to your very naturalistic techniques of drawing figures. also the keen eye you have/had for the black/white balances would have made every comics professor we had ecstatic. they always said "don't be afraid to use black" as a way of helping people try to push their compostions into more intersting positions, but you seem to have a natural knack for it!
we too are actually in a zine at the moment and waiting to hear back on if we got into another one. the subculture of the DIY community in art and music where we are is honestly very cool- and if there were less r*pists in them they'd be a hell of a lot cooler! the queer kids (we're some of them) in the scene have made their own circles to oust them a bit from their pool of victims, but its really cool to see the ways these communities existed decades ago (and across the pond) and see the line of communication that crosses generations and borders!
also- would be so so interested in your analog a/v editing experience! my uncle spoke about having to cut film reels by hand and the process sounds so cool. honestly would love to try to replicate the process, but have no idea how it's done. (watching youtube videos only fills in so much of the knowledge gap) amature experimental processes are much more interesting than formalities....