Tag Archive: book

Nov
19
2011

Motion Comic Magic > new european comic trailers ‘Gringos Locos’ ‘Ria’ and ‘Kid Lucky’

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A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation

For today’s Motion Comic Magic post I just wanted to share a few nice trailers for comic books from France/Belgium and Germany. I am still surprised that the  major US companies don’t create more trailers for their books.

The first one is a Franco-Belgian BD comic trailer that features a story of three comic artists and their trip to America. Jijé is the creator of Spirou et Fantasio and Jerry Spring, Morris is the creator of Lucky Luke, and André Franquin is the creator of the comics Gaston and Marsupilami.

Gringos Locos (editions Dupuis)

The journey of Franco-Belgian artists Jijé, Morris and Franquin throughout the United States and Mexico.

Concerned about the advance of communism in Europe, artist Jijé decided to leave the Old World with his family. Franquin and Morris decided to follow him, with them all arrived in New York in 1948. Having acquired a Hudson Ford, they travel the U.S. from east coast to west coast, hoping to get hired by Disney Studios. Not a chance, at a time when Disney has laid off more than he was hiring. Seeing his tourist visa expired, Jijé decided to move several months to Mexico with his family and is soon joined by Franquin and Morris.

After the success of “Groom verdigris,” the duo of Yann and Schwartz addresses the picaresque adventures of three monuments of the Franco-Belgian comics.

The next two trailers are from the Berlin based company Stenarts who are a studio that creates art for all sorts of projects including comics. Where the first trailer for Vol 1 below features art from the comic the second trailer looks as it’s art has been created specificly for it. Both of the trailers are especially nice with the second being really impressive.

Ria: Lightclan Chronicles (by Stenarts)

And lastly we head back to Franco-Belgian BD comics  this one featuring the classic comic cowboy character Lucky Luke as a kid. That’s right, it’s Kid Luck which should not be confused with Alexis Fajardo’s comic Kid Beowulf (which I do production work on BTW) though I would love to think they stole the idea for him.  The creator of Lucky Luke is Morris is who is a character in the trailer for Gringo Loco above.

The trailer does a nice job of animating the characters from the comic art with quite a bit of cleaver movement.

Kid Lucky (from Dargaud)

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Sep
25
2011

‘Brian Kolm: Portfolio 2007-2011′ now avalible through Blurb.com

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I wanted to find a unique way to show samples of my artwork that would stand out, so I decided to create a hard-cover book that I could use at conventions and professional meetings. The book features samples of my artwork from 2007-2011 including illustrations and personal work.

The books are Print On Demand through Blurb.com, who do a high quality job and create a very slick final product.

You can order the hard-cover book (with an on-line preview) HERE

Brian Kolm: portfolio 2007-2011 from Blurb

This is the 4th book I have made through Blurb.com and I have been very happy with the results. The books are always printed beautifully and come to you looking very professional and slick.

Now, one of the best things about Blurb.com is that they are constantly updating their services aimed at their target audience: artists. So they have made their own software BookSmart more customizable, but also finally have an option for folks who wanted a more professional options. This year they introduced a plug-in for Adobe In-Design that not only generates the templates for a book/cover, but also a way to correctly output a PDF to upload. This means that you can pretty much layout the pages any way you want and can use files in formats like Photoshop .psd that BookSmart can not use. Considering I have lots of art as high-resolution .psd files, that means I could place them and not have to convert them to .jpg files first.

Uploading the final book as a Adobe PDF was easy to do and the website will let you know if any of your images are too low-res for print, but I would always make sure to carefully look at your PDF yourself to make sure there are not unexpected surprises which sometimes do not show up in In-Design.

If you are familiar with Adobe InDesign I would definitely consider using the plug-in since it was a lot faster and more powerful, but the BookSmart program is really good if you want something pretty nice.

To find out more about editing your book at Blurb.com visit HERE.

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Jul
17
2011

Kung Fu, Space, and Books=animated book trailers

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A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation

Hey all, it’s time for some more trailers for books. Today we get one picture book and two comic books. What do you think, would you read them after seeing these trailers?

 

I posted a trailer a while back for Lane Smith’s book It’s a Book! which was really well done. Well there is a sequel now It’s a SMALL Book! as well as a simple animated trailer for it.

Kagan McLeod (http://www.kaganmcleod.com) is a super great artist with a portfolio of amazing ink and brush work that contains not only illustrations for editorials, fashion and music, but also comics. His Infinite Kung Fu is pretty sweet looking comic and there is a pretty slick trailer to promote it. It’s amazing that he had sequences of drawings in the comic that could be timed for animation pretty smoothly. You can read a sample of the comic HERE.

Sardine in Outer Space is a series of fun looking books for kids with art by Joann Sfar (Little Vampire, Vampire Loves, and Le Chat du Rabbin) who is known for his distinctive style of art. The book was released in the US by First:Second, but this trailer is for the French edition. The trailer to promote the book features quite a bit of animation and is quite lively. It is released in France and Belgium by Dargaud.

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Feb
17
2011

Link: Fuddles animated book trailer

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re-purposing comics and illustrations into animation

(via Cartoon Brew) Check out this wonderfully animated trailer for an upcoming picture book by veteran animator Frans Vischer, Fuddles the Cat. While the animation is not like some book trailers since it does not use artwork directly from the book like some do, this one has animation by the author that tops any computer manipulation. It seems there have been quite a few gems of 2D animation in the last few weeks HERE and HERE.

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Apr
11
2010

Q) What format for a comic?

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The Tune

(can’t see the images in facebook/email, view it here:  http://atomicbearpress.com/2010/04/11/comicformatquestion/ )

Now that our comic work will most likely appear in multiple formats: print, web, ipad, iphone/ipod touch, Motion Comics, cel phone, e-book reader what is the best format to aim for first?

There is…..

1) Standard Comic Book Format (portrait aspect ratio).

Pros: Works good for print and on correctly formatted screens like the new iPad from Apple. The print copy might sell better in Comic Book Stores.

Cons: Posting it on the web requires the user to possible scroll up and down which could take away from the experience. For smaller screens like the iPhone, the page might need to broken up into single panels.
Asian Art Museum jam 3

2) Web format comics (landscape aspect ratio)

Pros: Works good on monitor screens with out scrolling around.

Cons: Harder to print as a book. For smaller screens like the iPhone, the page might need to broken up into single panels.

(example: Travis Hanson’s The Bean. It looks great on screen and the printed books are nice but might take more work to create)

the bean page 100 by *thebeanbytrav on deviantART

3) Panel by Panel (web format) Each panel is a separate illustration which is then can be edited into a page layout if desired.

Pros: Panels are ready for digital formats like cel phones and the iPhone. Can be edited into a comic page if desired. Feels like a picture book or a story board/animation that is reveled as you scroll downwards or sideways. Can control how the reader sees the work since they focus on only one page at a time. Easier to make into Motion Comic.

Cons: Still might have to edit it into a page for print. Would produced full page layouts that are pretty un-dynamic based on their standard shapes. Story telling can possibly go slower paced then a full page of comic. The reader has less control how the view the information since they only see one panel at a time.

(example: Derik Kirk Kim’s The Tune. Cinematic, looks great on screen, can control how the reader see’s your vision more so.)

44) Square.

Pros: Nice, friendly format. Feels like a childrens picture book. Stands out as different then a standard comic. Looks pretty good aspect ratio wise on computer screen.

Cons: Might be harder to print and format for some smaller screen media like the iPhone.

(example: Mouse Guard and Jim Hennson’s Fraggle Rock from http://www.archaia.com)



Are there other formats to consider as a starting place? Which one do you like?

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Sep
22
2008

24 Hour Comic Book Day Oct 18, 2008 …11am to 11am

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24hourcomics_final3

It’s almost that time of year, time for the official 24 Hour Comic Book Day.

The folks from the Cartoonist Conspiracy in San Francisco have joined forces with Comics Outpost to take on this unique challenge where artist work to complete a 24 page comic in 24 hours.

Crazy…..yes, of course. But an excellent challenge none the less. I will be participating, will you?

24 Hour Comics Day is an event where cartoonists all over the world attempt to create their own 24 page comics in 24 consecutive hours.

The San Francisco event is being hosted by the S.F. Cartoonist Conspiracy and Comics Outpost (thanks guys). This is the first official 24 Hour event in SF since the one at Comics Relief in 2005 and we are really excited to have a good venue once again.

If you are interested in taking part in this years event, please email Doctor Popular at at yoyogenius at gmail dot com with your name and phone number. Space is limited to 20 seats, so serious inquiries only, please. Additionally, we are asking for a $5 fee to reserve a space, this money goes to Gary and crew and is the least we could do to cover his expenses.

Artists should bring their supplies, but leave your ideas and storyboards at home. The goal of creating a 24 hour comic is to push your boundaries, and learn just how much you can create in just one day.

We are also looking for any sponsors (pizza, art supplies, etc) and press. If you can help us out, or would like to take part in the event, please let us know.

Time/Date: 11am Sat Oct 18th, 2008 to 11am Sunday Oct 19th

Location: Comics Outpost – 2381 OCEAN AVE. SAN FRANCISCO, CA. 94127 (415) 239-COMX (2669) – http://www.comicoutpost.net/

Still not sure, check out these samples by: Mike Hale and Brian Kolm

Bellow is the fantastic poster by Mike Hale.

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Sep
15
2008

John Hodgman on BoingBoing TV

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John Hodgman (book: areas of my expertiese, TV: Apple commericals, Daily Show, Movies: Coraline) was on Boing Boing TV talking about his book with this funny interview. The guy is so deadpan and odd, and very funny. Check it out.

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Feb
26
2008

Artist Ben Walker

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Ben Walker at Wondercon 08

I did not buy much at Wondercon 2008. When you have your own table you are more focused on making money more then spending it. But one of my new favorite artist is Ben Walker.

I first saw Ben’s work at APE a couple of years ago on a postcard on the freebie table. Ben’s work is a whimsical take on the old west including a 3 legged sheriff and bears bearing arms, all presented in beautiful paintings done in acrylics. What’s not to like with bears in the art.

I purchased his book, Portraits & Tales from Remington Ridge as well as an awesome print of Does a Bear Shoot in the Woods?. The book is really lovely and I was impressed how slick the quality was. The only issue is that the cover is so glossy that fingerprints show up easily.

The table at Wondercon 2008 set up was excellent with nice themed touches including a cutout of a bear, worn wooden boxes, labels on playing cards, etc.

Ben Walker at Wondercon 08

Ben Walker at Wondercon 08

Mr. Walker also runs a alternative drawing studio called Pompsicle. They meet once a week in Sacromento CA and draw models wearing costumes. Sounds like a lot of fun. I might just have to drive up and give it a try.

I look forward to seeing what Ben comes up with in the future. I painted graphic novel or comic would be awesome.

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