Oooh, fishy fishy fishy fish

Meant to post this Monty Python Clip of the Week yesterday, to coincide with both friday and the fish theme of the day. The clip, taken from their 1983 film "The Meaning of Life", is -- hands down -- Monty Python at their weirdest and most surreal.

Archigram Archival

Maybe you've heard from the architectural group Archigram? They invented city utopias in the 60ies, best known for great stuff such as "the walking city".
Here's a link to the Archigram Archival project where their projects were collected for public viewing. Absolutely wonderful!!!

about pigs and foxes

Watch this interesting shortfilm by Nick Cross, great animation and awesome music in this dark tale of a pig society turning into a place where foxes rule.

The Pig Farmer from Nick Cross on Vimeo.

After I watched it I was confused a little, there must be some social commentary goin' on here, but I find it hard to see who's who in this story. First, the small pigman is a happy, hardworking man. When something gets taken from him he gets mad and goes out for retribution. So far, so human, I would say. When he leaves his farm it has the 'Arbeit macht frei' sign at the gates.

In the woods he finds the guys who stole from him, wants to make 'em pay for what they did, but instead he gets seduced into lustfull pleasures. Poor guy! The drugs they give him trigger the horror that follows, visions of pig-society flash by; Pig politicians rooting for war, pig bankers living large, corrupt pig general and banker dividing a chopped up girl. Then the twintowers explode. The foxboss whispers in piggy's ear and he goes off on a rampage, resulting in the killing of fellow pigs attending a snob-party. Piggy gets arrested, convicted and put in jail, where the foxes have already put lots and lots of them.

Projecting this on (American) society, one could say the average Joe is put to work (in a camp) while the ruling class enriches itself. This system collapses, change comes and by trickery the foxes take over. Now average pig Joe is working for the foxboss who turns the whole capitalist system to his own benefit.

I come to this conclusion: A bad functioning government system has been maliciously taken over by private corporations. Average Joe is, after a bunch of titties in his face, even worse of.

What do you think? Or are we thinking too much??

Victorian Infographics

Ah, the beauty! This warms my heart and makes me happy. :) Victorian Infographics on BibliOdyssey.





(Via BoingBoing)

Meet Tavis Coburn

This Canadian illustrator combines 1940s comicbook art with Russian propaganda styles and old printing techniques. This wonderfull mix makes powerfull, fat illustrations that explode right of the page.
What I think is really good on these works, is that from a distance they seem simple and clear. However, if you look closer you discover a ton of details, anatomical knowledge and sweet printmaking 'accidents'. Not only is it well illustrated, also very well designed. Typography, composition and use of color fits perfectly together.
What also works, and this is something I've been thinking about more often, is how his works look like they belong together, consequently the same style, recognisable and therefore probably better marketable. You call this guy, you know what to expect. It will spread his name easier and agents can promote him efficiently to specific jobs. This is hard if you look at my work, a mixture of everything more or less. I should keep this in mind and maybe slowly form a more united body of work.
I'm not so fond of his animations found on his website. I miss the printed feel and the time you can take to look at all the details. But take a look at his portfolio if you like the ones posted here. There's a lot more and all are great.

4CP/four color process

I've been trying for a while now to create the old feel in my own comics. I love the dots Lichtenstein enlarged so prominently, I love the little errors of pre-computer printmaking techniques, I love the sloppyness that came with hand made massproduction. Marcus' previous post of the treasures to be found in the digital comic museum are great reference material, and now I found a blog dedicated to 4CP, four color process, the wonderfull technique they used to color the comics.

They even wrote those dots a loveletter:

Dots emit radiation. As you get closer to them, they begin to vibrate and pulse. Moving closer still, the color separations become dramatically separate: Solids become very solid and the black ink holds together, while the CMY dots fly apart. Foreground and background, positive and negative space, reverse unexpectedly. Orange, green, brown, and fake gray give up their secrets, and the basic building blocks of a universe reveal themselves. Unstable molecules, built of primary colored atoms, buzz at different frequencies. Vectors of visual force, experienced implicitly at original size, become intense. Behind everything is wood pulp paper, a still deeper layer of creation, with its own unstable properties.

Here are some of my attempts to get more or less the same effect. I think if this is printed, and than scanned again, it might be as close as I can get.

Eerie Publication Covers

Something for Bart, this...

Why we can't go straight

A little science to start your day, just a nice voice and drawings with fitting music to it. Turns out you don't have to be drunk not to pass the 'straight line test'

A Mystery: Why Can't We Walk Straight? from NPR on Vimeo.

wisdom tooth

it don't make much sence, but I had to laugh anyway. Is it Swedish?

Underwater Tools

This is a lovely little short in wich a variety of tools is used with rich imagination. The creatures have so much character! Good sounds too.

English fun

It's not Monty Python, but funny still!