JohnnyEnzyme

This is the cover of a book, and unfortunately I found the contents rather mediocre by the standards of all the fun fan-based Tintin art out there. So I'm going to pivot by moving on to a few more hand-selected goodies I've uploaded below. Some of them involve film references or artist homages:

--> https://imgur.com/gallery/3LwAdfj <--

And of course, there's a much bigger collection below, including resources that can help you find more art, and/or identify specific artists who created the pastiches.

https://lemm.ee/post/3543286

Enjoy. ^^

Well, well!
And do you know where he lives?

And you, madame! Do you recognise this shady person?
I see, I see!
But where is he hiding?

Haha, I thought she dealt with the manatee and goose rather well.

So I recently rediscovered this lovely comic which I had as a kid. In French it's Pas de grisbi pour Grabote, or "No cheese (money) for Grabote." It's a little book of 18pp, the second of Claveloux' Grabote series. I found it super-cute, whimsical, absurd and inventive, altho at times there was sort of a menacing 'Ralph Steadman' vibe as well. So-- something to generally amuse kids, but also something to intrigue creative types, perhaps.

One can read it online below, using the buttons at the bottom to navigate:

http://www.resaclic.net/grabote/grisbi/grisbi

I admit... I'm sort of a huge, pompous blowhard when it comes to the strident truism "great art or not, a good story still needs good storytelling and plot!"

Yet here I am, just blown away by Swedish-dude Simon's incredible collection of wordless paintings offered up in the "comic book" Flood, each page of which arguably provides ~1000 possible stories alone, if only one's eyes merely observe a bit, so to speak.

https://i.imgur.com/Y79JkeC.jpeg

Simon Stålenhag (b. 1984) is the internationally acclaimed author and artist behind The Electric State, Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood. His highly imaginative images and stories depicting illusive sci-fi phenomena in mundane, hyper-realistic Scandinavian and American landscapes have made Stålenhag one of the most sought-after visual storytellers in the world. Tales from the Loop was ranked one of the “10 Best Dystopias” by The Guardian, along with such works as Franz Kafka’s The Trial and Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca. --salomonssonagency.se

https://i.imgur.com/OwErKyT.jpeg

Now me, as someone who's arguably overly-fixated on post-apoc works, I love how Simon keeps playing with that definition:

"Perhaps we know these situations."
"Perhaps they're complete fantasy."
"Perhaps we're merely gazing through a muddy troposphere!"

https://i.imgur.com/geWNIcR.jpeg

In any case, I hope you enjoyed this tiny introduction to Simon's work. There is his official site.

So, I posted this at the other place the other day, and got an interesting reply just now:

Comedically, I think they made the right call pivoting to a Bob Newhart style telephone bit where we have to imagine his side of the conversation.

XD
I guess without all his usual stammering and pauses? (IYKYK)

Note: for the record, I love Bob.

Honestly tho, I'm continually impressed by how so many actors across so many shows I watch (I'm currently watching "Nero Wolfe" and it's the same there) are so utterly great at imaginary phone conversations!

Yet it also makes me realise that the situation can be incredibly empowering for a competent actor. As in-- the phone is the prop that represents the other person, and you get to have *total control* over it in a way that you wouldn't otherwise, trying to properly sync well with real actors delivering their lines, which can sometimes be a total mess.

(if you've ever been in acting at almost any level, I think you know what I mean)

NOTES:

• When first looking for a place to post this, I tried searching the Fediverse for an acting community, but sadly couldn't find one. Any idears, mateys?

• I love the clip itself (from my favorite ep "Tuttle") but it's a bit embarrassing in some ways, just for the record. 1) it reinforces the idea that Margaret slept or consorted with total horndogs in the 1950's USA army, as long as they were generals and such, and 2) Hawkeye was a chronic chauvinist, something seen across many, many eps in this otherwise great, great series.

I don't know much about Olsen other than he has a Danish-Norwegian surname and his art vaguely fits under the umbrella of 'LC.' Specifically, I enjoy the playful style he uses in his comics. More samples from Tiny Dracula here:

https://mastodon.art/tags/TinyDracula

I'm kinda stressed these days, but much thanks to @https://lemm.ee/u/[email protected] and @https://lemm.ee/u/Taniwha420 for filling in!

I really like this Greek-English artist George Bletsis, who designed the movie poster:

https://www.monstertree.co.uk/

This is by Tyler Miles Lockett, and the first in his Atalanta series.

I first bumped to his work based on classic Greek mythology, here: https://thecollectibles.tumblr.com/post/742334797740933120/greek-goddesses-by-tyler-miles-lockett

Evidently Benoit visited the Atomium building / sculpture in 1982 and was inspired to create this piece.

The nine central spheres have been disassembled and reduced in size. Who are these girls exactly, what is this building (a museum, perhaps?), and why are we looking at a rocky desert landscape? I'm afraid Ted can't tell us anymore since he passed on a few years ago, but there is this blog post, for what it's worth.

I just discovered that Casterman made a "ciné album" to accompany Spielberg's 2011 Tintin film. It makes for quite a unique-looking comic book, and is essentially a curated set of stills from the movie, set to balloon text. Seems like a fine way to revisit and enjoy The Secret of the Unicorn, perhaps appreciating it from different angles.

It's in French of course:
https://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Tintin-Divers-C4c-Cine-album-174093.html

I just finished reading the first three books of this swords & magic series, Percevan. It's sort of like 'the Smurfs meet Thorgal,' with the style and pacing reminding me of the Dutch series Douwe Dabbert. The characters are almost completely 'stock,' but that's normal for this kind of work.

I'd say this series is best for young adults and casual readers. It's generally light, comical reading, but there are enough moments of implied sex and mortal violence that it's maybe not quite ideal for kids. In terms of quality, I found it surprisingly absorbing, altho it also has plot weaknesses and some pretty dopey moments.

https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-24-BD-Percevan.html

I first saw this one in the Summer 1988 issue of Heavy Metal. I'm leading with the first line of the story instead of the actual title (To Draw or not to Draw) because the first line (in the upper left, see?) easily gets lost upon reading.

-----> https://imgur.com/gallery/a03BUpl <-----

This Grimmsian-kinda tale stood out to me because the ~~orange~~ purple admiral in the story reminded me of a modern contemporary whose base wants to begin dismantling democracy early next year. (yes, I kid you not)

The author of course is legendary Uruguayan-Argentinian artist Alberto Breccia, working in a wild, colorful style that reminded me a bit of Corben & Strnad's utterly unique work on Denz, previously posted here. I believe Breccia's usually known more for his detailed but expressive B&W work on stuff like Mort Cinder, a sort of alternate Frankenstein's monster series which I bemusedly enjoyed.

There's certainly much more to say about Breccia and his son & daughters, each of whom seemed to riff on his style, yet finding their own paths. As usual, one place to read about the family would be: https://www.lambiek.net/artists/b/breccia.htm

A couple more Breccia stories in this incredible visual style are collected here: https://raggedclaws.com/category/alberto-breccia/

I think my translation needs upgrading, but--

Godammit!
Maurice, stop torturing
our ears with
that funeral march!
Why can't you be more positive?

In fact the trip was an actual thing, and this album Gringos Locos (2012) by writer Yann & artist Olivier Schwartz is a rare case of a comic about the lives of comic book artists.

(here they are in silhouette, contemplating their departing ocean liner)

Evidently these three Belgians, Joseph Gillain ("Jijé"), André Franquin and Maurice de Bevere ("Morris"), took this trip to America specifically to join Walt Disney Studios and make their fortunes there.

(Jijé's the big one, Morris' the blond,
and Franquin's the tall slim bloke)

As it happened the expedition was a failure across most fronts, and the trio returned to Bruxelles, their hopes of making it, dashed. Little did they know at the time that they'd go on to become some of the biggest superstars of BD.

(while Franquin's down in the dumps and Jijé's
fussing with his family, Morris has his fun!)