Comic Student - Tumblr Posts

Olafur Arnalds . For Now I Am Winter (2013)

focus. study. write.

https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/pilobolus_perform_symbiosis.html

I’ve found myself watching a lot of dance in my study breaks. I think it puts you in a really relaxed yet contemplative mood. This is quite an old video, but it takes my breath away every time I watch it.

HKAPA Chinese Dance - Nirvana

If I had magic powers, I would make it snow cherry blossom petals every evening at sunset.

Depth Over Distance - Ben Howard // Choreography

Link submitted by http://say-cheez.tumblr.com/ 

Thanks for your submission, buddy! Beautiful dance, very soulful. :) All the best, Will :D

Hi! Thank you for such an in-depth and thoughtful reply! ‘Stitches’ and ‘Velvet Glove’ both sounds as if they will be extremely useful, thank you! I’ll give the others a look too, the wordless work of Rafael Sica looks particularly interesting :) All the best, Will xx

Hi! I'm a big fan of 'Building Stories' here, I'm a literature student looking either for comics that use the form/medium in a unique and innovative way to express their narratives, OR for comics that touch upon the themes of monstrosity and deformity, (I have so far focused on 'Epileptic' by David B. and "Black Hole" by Charles Burns.) If you know any comics that focus on the stigmatisation of people with 'Othered' bodies that would be fantastic! Thank you so much!

comicstudent Hello! Thanks for your visit! How can I answer your question? I’m not a great scholar, not as deep comics connoisseur so! I’m just a fan, as you are too! ;-) Well what can I now remember are the stories of the brothers Hernandez, which you can find in “Love and Rockets”. I also remember the great “Stitches” by David Small. We can not forget the powerful “Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron” of Daniel Clowes. Then there are other languages, “Ma circoncision” of Riad Sattouf. “Acht, Neun, Zehn” of Arne Bellstorf. “Insekt” and “Vier Augen” of Sascha Hommer. It would be nice you visit the catalog publishers like The Fantagraphics, Drawn and Quarterly and the like. The Le'Association from Paris, The Reprodukt from German. And the Cachalote in Brazil. Look for work of Rafael Coutinho and Rafael Sica, both Brazilians. By the way Rafael Sica does not use speech, point! Sorry for the translator;-)

Brazil Hugs.

Dinah Washington & Max Richter - This bitter earth / On the nature of daylight

I’ll be honest, I had a bad day today. Sing it to me, Dinah.

Slowtrain - Nightlands 

Since joining tumblr I have been so inspired in so many different ways. Combined with studying, all I want to do is write poetry and draw comics and make art. But with my dissertation deadline running towards me full steam, I have to keep myself on track with that, as I will be lucky to finish it. It’s hard to switch off, but this song is the perfect tune to fall asleep to. 

(via Haunter – Part 1 – by Sam Alden)

Haunter: an incredible comic from Study Group Comics. Wordless watercolour. 

Read Part Two Here

(via Black Is the Color – by Julia Gfrörer)

Reposted after I figured out how to do picture posts :P An exquisitely beautiful comic from Study Group Comics. When I’m trying to show people that comics are more complex than they think, this is the site I send them too. 

Cenote Angelita: "Underwater River"

Probably half my posts are going to be irrelevant to comic studies. Just saying. Goodnight everyone.

Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place. I want to describe, not what it is really like to emigrate to the kingdom of the ill and live there, but the punitive or sentimental fantasies concocted about that situation: not real geography, but stereotypes of national character. My subject is not physical illness itself but the uses of illness as a figure or metaphor. My point is that illness is not a metaphor, and that the most truthful way of regarding illness - and the healthiest way of being ill - is one most purified of, most resistant to, metaphoric thinking. Yet it is hardly possible to take up one's residence in the kingdom of the ill unprejudiced by the lurid metaphors with which it has been landscaped. It is towards an elucidation of those metaphors, and a liberation from them, that I dedicate this enquiry.

Preface to ‘Illness as Metaphor’, Susan Sontag (1978)

Martha Graham Dance Company's 'Political Dance Project'

On the Subject of Refugees & Immigration, this video felt particularly appropriate.

Embodiment and Empathy and my sprawling ideas...

So somehow my thesis on explaining how comics is an inherently empathetic medium has descended into an interdisciplinary dissertation that encompasses the fields of neuroscience and cognitive processing, medical humanities, disability studies, art therapy and the theory of art. The application of these theories seeks to analyse the embodied aspect of comics, but I feel like my tutors will be surprised when they read it given that it is the final piece of coursework towards my Masters in Literature.

Also, you can tell I've got a high word count, because I'm talking like this. ^

Hi Anya,

Thank you so much for replying again and giving your answer so much thought and consideration! Your comments on volume really helped me to articulate my analysis of ‘Black Hole’, and you definitely made me consider colour and composition from a different angle after considering your strips in relation to Kurtzman‘s ‘Dying City’ in the above link. 

My dissertation has now been finished and handed in so I’m really grateful for the insight you gave me into the comics medium from an artist’s perspective as it has made me appreciate all the work that goes into the creation of comics a lot more! Also, my essay ended up focusing on ‘Black Hole’ by Charles Burns and ‘Gaylord Phoenix’ by Edie Fake, the latter I would not have come across if you had not suggested it, so your help really was crucial to shaping my finished essay!

So yeah, just a really big thank you!

Hello again! I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the power of colour in comics, your work features a lot of very bright bold colouring to the point that it becomes a major aspect of your signature style, what do you think the effects of colour bring to comics as opposed to black and white / monochrome comics?

Commicstudent do you have any idea how much I love you?! Your questions are so awesome, and I am so impressed with your dedication to investigating all aspects of the medium. Also, I often find this stuff hard to articulate but I think writing about it helps me understand my own work better. 

To answer your question: My go-to guys (and gals, since I think it was mostly women working as colorists in the pre-code era, most notably Marie Severin) for color inspiration are the colorists from classic EC horror and war comics. They used lots of non-local color and their aim was more to create drama than to represent things as they are.

Here’s an example:

http://raggedclaws.com/tag/fantagraphics/page/3/

I use black-spotting in my work, but I don’t use it to create volume with light and shadow the way that living gods like the Hernandez brothers or Charles burns do. Their work doesn’t need color because all the volume is there in the blacks. I’m more influenced by “funnies” artists like Milt Gross and John Stanley in that respect. I use wackier, more basic lines to create movement, and then the color helps provide depth-it hopefully helps the reader to understand the space a little better. My goal is to make the work easy to read and eye-popping.

Here’s some beautiful John Stanley for you:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/comics/john-stanley-20563.html

Okay we’ll I’d better get back to work but PLEASE keep up the fantastic work and hit me up whenever you like