Jan
18
2012
A few NEW trailers for publications, with the actual published art brought to life through digital animation. Some are more elaborately done and some are more simple.
BONE: Quest for the Spark BOOK 2 Video
Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 Movie Intro (fan made) – with art by Dave Peterson.
“a Monster Calls” – animation by Eric Guémise. Illustrations by Jim Kay.
Zero the Hero book trailer
Bande annonce Pablo – Max Jacobs T1
Nov
19
2011
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.
Jul
17
2011
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.
May
06
2011
A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation
Here are some new comic book trailers I have discovered on-line…
Mangaman by Barry Lyga with illustrations by Colleen Doran (A Distant Soil). A boy from a Manga (Japaneses Comic) universe somehow gets transported to the ‘real’ world and goes to an American high school. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing http://www.hmhbooks.com/
Just a nice trailer that gets the idea across.
A trailer for dave lapp’s CHILDREN OF THE ATOM with animation by Michael Darmanin and Dalton Sharp. Published by Conundrum Press http://www.conundrumpress.com
I just saw this trailer posted on the Canadian comic website/blog: Sequential and found the animation worked pretty well, but the music does get a bit repetitive.
This BD(French language comic) by the artist Stanislas and based on a famous radio drama by Jacques Tardi and Michel Boujut that was broadcast in France in the late 1990s. Published by Dargaud http://www.dargaud.com/
Wow, lots of animation in this one. Very nicely done with good music.
I just discovered Reed Gunter by Shane and Chris Houghton while looking at the latest art at Comic Art Fans. I was surprised I had not seen the comic before and I hope to be able to pick up some copies soon. The art is clean and full of appeal in the tales of a cowpoke and his bear.
I really like the animation in this trailer.
Apr
13
2011
A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation
If you read my blog enough, you will know that I am very in favor of using video/animation to promote and present comics and other publications. When I did the first trailer for ‘Kid Beowulf and the Blood Bound Oath’ it was still not very common, but it’s becoming more and more the norm which I think it’s a good thing.
Think back to a time when you saw a comic or book you were thinking of buying but were not sure if it was for you. You could get some information about it by reading a review or the blurb on the back cover, but that sometimes still does not give you the info you need.
Enter the on-line trailer. Here the author/publisher/creator can use art, motion and SOUND to help convey how they want you to see the book. Especially with addition of audio we can quickly get a picture of the story and characters and can use that to make a choice. Also, I see with the advent of reading books on Mobile devices like the iPhone and tablet computers like the iPad the audio component might be part of the final reading experience in the future as well.
Here are two samples of trailers I saw on-line recently….
This trailer for the children book ‘Bee and Bird’ is simple, but the audio and cutting really sell it.
From the French language publisher Dargaud comes ‘Fraternity ‘ by Juan Diaz Canales, writer of Blacksad, and Jose Luis Munuera.
May
10
2009
I am very much looking forward to this movie…
December 2009 in Theaters.
and this one too… (note the English trailer is not out yet)
August 14th in Theaters.
Dec
10
2008
There is going to be a new live action version of the popular manga and anime series Dragon Ball Z. I have never been a big fan of the show, but it seems sad that they can start with intersting source material and make a pertty generic looking movie. What do you guys think?
New movie trailer for Dragon Ball – Evolution:
Animated Movie (in Japaneses):
I live action movie looks to “dark and edgy” vs. the fun and colorful series. This seems to be a common thing, to make a movie based on source material and then make it feel like there is no connection.
Jul
22
2008
This is the trailer I helped create with artist/writer Alexis E. Fajardo for his graphic novel: Kid Beowulf and the Blood Bound Oath. Alexis created the art and I colored the work with Watercolor as well as the motion graphics for the trailer. If you are visiting the Comic-Con, check out Small Press Table P15 to see the trailer in higher quality.
