JohnnyEnzyme

joined 1 year ago
MODERATOR OF
[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

First of all, thank you for the helpful response!

Altho I love the Internet Archive, my impression is that at best it exists in a distinctly 'grey area' of copyright. AFAIK it has not in fact received permission from any of the legal rights-holders to host their content there.

And yes, it's all very well to (rightfully) claim that it's the users who did the uploading and that AO will remove any material as requested, that's not the same thing as being in compliance with copyright law as various rights-holders have themselves claimed, which is why many of them would love nothing more than to shut the AO down.

The real problem on our end is that we don't want to cause any problems for our host as well as Lemmy, overall. That link you shared is obviously a treasure trove of Sillage albums, but of course it was all scanned and uploaded without copyright permission, and therefore constitutes pirated content virtually to the letter of the law.

OTOH I'm frequently posting copyrighted content myself, but I do try to keep it in the spirit of fair-usage excerpts which generally fit the model of promoting a work without sharing the entire thing... frankly another grey area that might need to be revisited at some point. And you would be absolutely right to point out that I've linked to some complete short stories on Imgur that I certainly didn't have permission to post(!)

In that spirit, I'd say you'd be perfectly fine linking to the first several pages of a Sillage (or whatever) album on Imgur, etc if you wanted to help introduce people to the series. And yes, I get that would probably be a lot more work than you're interested in, but that's exactly the kind of thing I frequently do in putting my posts together here...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Sorry, but direct links like that go against our sidebar guidelines:

don’t link to pirated downloads.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Where as tofu is rather efficient at only 80 kcal per 100g.

Tofu is a heavily-processed "food," so it's the last thing I'd be holding up as any kind of standard, here.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (7 children)

OK, maybe I'm wrong, but that seems to be a MASSIVE miscomprehension of the relationship between West Germanic and olde French.

In fact, modern German is arguably EASIER to learn for English-speakers due to all the common grammar and sentence structure.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Ah yes, good old horse-country!

For sure-- what would we do without ye? ^^

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

So... 10,000yrs later, a jury finds horrible crimes culpable?

Oh NO......!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I found it rather wonderful, myself. Are there some albums in German?

I found this, for example:
https://www.amazon.com/Die-Chroniken-von-Sillage-Band/dp/3948057915

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Are you saying you chose your username wisely? D:

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

you’re claiming that they’re misusing the anti-CSAM feature to remove comments from the modlog

Right, that was one aspect of that, but at the end of the day?

What ML has clearly done is to fuck with the integrity of the Lemmy-sphere across multiple, fundamental levels, and that's what I and many others find completely unacceptable, and have of course stated as much.

Seriously, how is it even possible that you're browsing the FV and haven't seen this shit...?

Yes, yes-- I get the fact that you're a 'self-declared weirdo!' "Big proponent for killing all cis men! Token Trotskyite!"

You DO understand of course that civilisation is collapsing fast, much of it due to our bloody inactions, is it not..?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

So this is coming up on the one-year anniversary, when I was beyond frustrated with Reddit, when I decided to 'jump in to the FV,' and was matched up with this particular random instance / site.

Dudes... I feel like I'm the luckiest person in the universe.

OP has not only taken his personal time to help me across multiple various issues, but even resurrected my community when I accidentally deleted it a couple months ago(!)

Our little Euro-art community, such as it is, would simply NOT be possible without OP.

I am BEYOND grateful, sir. <3

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Absolutely.
I will make it a special point tomorrow to look up the many, many posts upon that matter made in the last couple days across the FV.

One also wonders what people like you were doing in the meantime, but never fear-- please DO add on with any more requests for such information in the coming days. I will be happy to do the lookups and get back to you. ^^

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (4 children)

as far as im aware there is no evidence that anyone has misused this specific admin power

In that case, then congrats for living in your own little delirium, apart from the many, many reports people have made reporting those specific abuses.

 

I just discovered this 'selfie' by the master, which I hadn't seen before. I'm guessing he's in his later thirties here, so perhaps it dates to the mid-1970's.

The original 'washed-out' version is below, and has finer detail. I pumped up the contrast to create a cleaner look for the lead image.

I also found an interesting rearrangement, altho at low quality. I tried to upscale it a bit:

But wait, there's more! As you can see, "Moeby" did a number of fun self-portraits through the years. =)

 

For the last 10-15 years I've been trying to branch out my BD and Euro comics reading, yet I regularly seem to be reminded (to the point of bafflement) how much *more* excellent content there always is to discover.

Take the cover pic above from the premier album of Carmen Cru, by Jean-Marc Lelong. I randomly bumped in to it looking through a defunct, BD tumbler acct, and immediately thought it absolutely delicious, and even kind of Halloween (or orc?)-themed. The series first appeared in Fluide glacial magazine in 1981, and later came out in album form (8 total).

Altho I'm just getting in to this series, I already love the excellent ink-work. Even better, the title character is just hilarious, and the stories, highly amusing. Here's the very first two pages published, from the short story The Scammers:

In which Carmen wants to make a bank deposit, tries to strong-arm her way to the front of the line, and is told she must start at the back (like everyone else).

So she duly heads to the back... then goes right back to the front of the line, this time on the other side! Assured again that she must wait her turn, she walks over to the bank manager's office and interrupts things, once again asking to make a deposit(!)

Told that she needs to see the teller for that, she complains that she already tried but was refused service, and even insulted. Hearing that, the bank manager reluctantly begins to appease her. [the story concludes with Carmen winding up making a fool and petty servant of the manager, incidentally ruining the client's morning]

To give a little background on her, Carmen is essentially a deranged, misanthropic old recluse who's also a master of bending people to her will. I sense that she's also designed to be a certain commentary upon French provincials from an earlier age. This isn't the first time I've seen this sort of formula at work, but I'm really impressed so far with the skill which in which Lelong carries it all off.

The French WP page gives further background in amusing style, and is translated here.

 

Classic Astérix illustrator Albert Uderzo passed away in early 2020 at the ripe old age of 92, and many artists did lovely, touching tribute art to Uderzo at the time, including the one above by Polish-American artist Bill Sienkiewicz.

Sienkiewicz has been working in both the fine art & comics fields for many decades, and his stuff tends to be rather breathtaking and wildly imaginative, quite unlike the usual comic art fare. In the case of Astérix he made the interesting decision to base his tribute on a Frank Frazetta piece, below.

Frazetta was yet another iconic artist in the vein of Boris Vallejo, with a touch of Richard Corben, often painting lush swords & sorcery pieces. [samples] My personal favorite work of Frazetta's was his collaboration with Ralph Bakshi on Fire & Ice, an animated film using the painstaking rotoscope process, in which the individual cells were drawn over live action reference material.

Some clips and full movie videos below. Check out the fluid movement of the figures, and remember-- this is a film from 1983!

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fire+and+ice+film

 

It's suddenly rather cold, dark and rainy here after an unexpected run of ~80°F days. This panel from Blake & Mortimer's La Marque Jaune (translated as The Yellow M) fits my mood pretty well.

Overall, I don't feel like Jacobs is quite on Hergé's level as a ligne claire artist, but every once in a while he charms me, as with this rainy panel that looks like it could be out of The Third Man (classic Orson Welles film from 1949, set in Vienna).

Funny, when I was looking for a higher-quality version of the original, I came across one with a much different color scheme. Hroom, now... which seems the better fit?

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I'm still taking a posting break on the whole, but just wanted to add that I appreciate the group support from the other day. Clearly, a post per day was way too ambitious, but perhaps I can settle for a couple per week.

27
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

We're now past the two-month mark, and I've done my level-best to stock up our community with a load of content to be delved into by newcomers and reviewers, both. So far it's been a labor of love.

As such, I typically spend about 1-3 hours per day investigating future stuff that might make for interesting posts, sorting through things, upgrading art, writing notes, then giving it a shot (i.e. posting) every day, balancing the days I miss by posting twice the next day. Also, I usually post in the early mornings, such that our posts begin in Europe.

That said, I don't blame anyone in particular for not liking any particular stuff I decide to post on any particular day. That's just natural.

At the same time-- with 300+ subscribers now, it frankly stings to get a negative reaction like this, upon European artist Brecht Evens' work. After all, we're talking about one of the most awarded, modern, most-legit European comics creators doing their thing when it comes to Evens' work.

So here's a question--

  1. Can you explain why you don't like the Evens' post? Because I'm open to editing / switching things up.

  2. Would you like to post your own material? Because I welcome that.

Me, I'm going to take a break from this sub and think about some things..

EDIT: At the time of posting this, the Brecht Evens' post had a zero score, with more downvotes than upvotes. This was after a full day+, in which I gave the voting time to adjust itself.

EDIT2: Thank you so much to the positive responders. I've read the replies and have commented below.

11
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

His graphic novels have been a little hard for me to get in to so far, but one thing's for sure-- at his best, Evens' watercolors are gorgeous, striking and lush.

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I see him as sort of an 'anti-ligne claire' artist. One who deliberately avoids clean, straight pen lines, and enjoys experimenting with color, blank space and storytelling innovation. Maybe a little bit like if Marc Chagall had done comics?

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Evens' work has won him several awards in the comics industry, including the Prix de L’Audace at the Angoulême International Comics Festival for The Wrong Place in 2011 (also nominated for an Eisner Award), and in 2019 the Special Jury Prize at the Angoulême International Comics Festival for Les Rigoles (translated in to English as The City of Belgium, 2021). --WP

More samples of his work HERE.

 

This is a delightful, Moominesque, all-ages book, published by Humanoids in 2019.

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I daresay it's the kind of work that smaller kids and zen-philosophers might both enjoy. Or just a middle-aged bloke such as myself. :D

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These cartoons actually date to the early 80's I believe, but remarkably, still seem fresh in a way utterly removed from 'cutting-edge' comics.

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If I understand correctly, Coudray originally produced ~four volumes. Humanoids has published about three translations, each at ~100 pages.

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"...They're a lot of fun and well worth a read for those looking for something lighter, humorous, and visually appealing. And, yeah, the gags are pretty timeless. Good stuff!" -- Augie De Blieck

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Bigby / Barnabé is also part of a small series published under Humanoids' BIG imprint, meant for kids and all-ages readers.

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Side note: if you're a beginning language learner, these books published in different languages are pretty great. By comparison, many other series, such as Astérix, Lucky Luke and Tintin, are generally too complex for beginners IMO.

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More info on Coudray here and Augie's own review there.

 

It's a panel (I just made the title up) from Basura ("Garbage") by Carlos Trillo and Juan Giménez, as published in English in Heavy Metal magazine, Spring '87 edition.

The main figure is just a kind of statue, in a post-apoc world.

 

First of all, huge, honking credit to u/MadDroog, who I believe took these shots using books from his personal collection. The main point is to show the original American editions and then how they looked in the French magazine.

And yes, that's certainly Robert Crumb's notorious Fritz the Cat on issue 15's cover, but you can indeed catch a glimpse of Corben's story in the lower right teaser.

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Evidently to cut down on costs, the magazine used a simple color scheme throughout, and in Corben's case, colored his B&W art themselves with, let's say it-- less than ideal results. :P

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So we have both Crumb and Corben seemingly popular in France by at least the early 1970's. I'll see if I can find some issues to see who else might have been included from 'non-BD' countries.

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In terms of Corben's work, I find it just amazing. It's full of life, and drawn with a loving tenderness you rarely see in comics. The art was usually absurdly intricate, but even when slightly-rushed, Corben saw -forms- in a way that few other comics artists did. Probably not surprising really, as he had a degree in fine arts and first started working as an animator. I'm also sad to say that he passed away recently at 80yo due to heart surgery. RIP to an utterly unique legend.

As an upcoming treat, I think in a day or two I'm going to post a 13-page chapter from his Denz saga, even though it's American-produced. The art is ridiculously, utterly unique, and here's a sample page:

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51
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

When I first saw Yoshida's work, it immediately reminded me of classic watercolors from many a fine BD series.

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Amazingly, these seem to be -not- watercolors, but woodblock art, in which a series of blocks are carved to impress the total number of ink colors present in a piece. Not unlike screen-printing, but far more laborious I should think. Of course the point of processes like these (and lithography) is to be able to produce a run of high-quality prints using very basic materials.

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I'm still learning about Yoshida, but one thing that seems unusual about him is that he made a point of getting out of Japan and exploring as much of the world as he could. Hence, you see authentic Japanese prints of places not normally associated with the style, starting with India.

 

Versailles' de Pins clearly has a deep attraction to women, admittedly as with many neat-o artists throughout history.

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Still, it seems to me what makes him a bit different is his ability to go beyond 'mere appreciation,' all the way to lampooning his own lust, while at the same time keeping in mind social rights.

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It's a perilous line to walk, I suppose, but either way, I frankly enjoy de Pins' ability to riff on all these issues in a self-aware, comedic way. In any case, he seems to enjoy celebrating womens' rights in a pop-culture art context, FWIW.

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And I think that's pretty cool.

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Info on de Pins' various projects is here:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/d/de-pins_arthur.htm

 

It's a panel from Silas Corey, The Aquila Network, a terrific series scripted by Fabien Nury.

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