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- Jul 18, 2018
- 4 min
Comic-Con’s Eisner Judging and the New “Comics & Design Awards”
By: Michael Dooley Forget about who’ll walk away with Eisner Awards on Friday at San Diego’s Comic-Con. Sure, there’ll be worthy winners. In my feature on Emil Ferris’s My Favorite Thing is Monsters, which garnered multiple well-deserved nominations, I wrote that it would easily top any comics and design “best of” award. More on that notion momentarily. But honestly, the Eisners are much more a popularity contest among comics industry professionals than it is any real gauge o
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- Jul 20, 2017
- 3 min
Best New Comics Anthologies: A Visual Sampling
So many outstanding comics anthologies, so little quality eyeball time. But worry not: Print’s come to your rescue. Last year we surveyed “wonder women artists” nominated for San Diego Comic-Con’s Eisner Awards, located here. And on Tuesday we provided you with a visual sampling of this year’s top nominees, and you’ll find that here. And today we’ll wrap up with a design-based survey that highlights some of the more graphically striking and skillfully adventuresome artists wi
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- Jul 18, 2017
- 3 min
A Designer’s Visual Guide to Comic-Con’s Eisner Awards Nominees
You may have heard that San Diego’s holding its massive annual gathering of pop culture tribes this week. Comic-Con International is one of the biggest and—having launched in 1970—longest-running in the United States. And 2017’s Eisner Awards, comicdom’s most prestigious ceremonial honors event—which I covered here last year—is particularly noteworthy as it’s the birth centennial of its namesake. Will Eisner is, of course, the famed artist/writer of the revolutionary, groundb
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- Jul 20, 2016
- 3 min
Wonder Women of the Eisner Awards
Sure, this week’s Comic-Con in San Diego is the most spectacular annual pop culture celebration in the universe, with hordes of geeks gorging themselves on genre TV and movie factory hype. But graphic designers have plenty of banquets to feast on as well. Just check my “21 Best Comic-Con Artists” list from last year. And 2016’s starter plate includes Howard Chaykin, Denis Kitchen, Chip Kidd, Keith Knight, Kenny Keil, Peter Kuper, Trevor Goring, Marc H. Greenberg, J. David Spu
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- May 20, 2016
- 12 min
The New Design Frontiers of Darwyn Cooke’s Comic Book Art
By: Michael Dooley When artist, writer and animator Darwyn Cooke died on Saturday, the enormous outpouring of sorrow from the comic book media was immediate and heartfelt. The graphic design community shares a great loss as well: Cooke’s flair for cartooning was possessed of a unique, masterful dexterity and versatility. His extraordinary visual narrative skills are readily apparent in his panel compositions and page layouts, which are further enriched by his ingenious render
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- Dec 30, 2015
- 2 min
Beyond the Graphic Novel: Mixed-Media Photo Portraits of Comics Artists
Allan Amato’s celebrity and fashion photography has earned him the admiration of many, including famed comics writers Neil Gaiman — “Allan is a lot like a wizard: his photos take us places we’ve never been” — and Grant Morrison — “Allan is easily my favorite photographer.” So almost inevitably, he’s gotten around to shooting an array of top-line comics artists and illustrators. And early on in the process he wondered: What would happen if his subjects took his portraits of th
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- Sep 2, 2015
- 6 min
7 Best Vintage Comics Revelations: A Designer’s Report
You’d never know it from media reports on San Diego’s annual Comic-Con International, but it’s your richest opportunity to discover and explore the creative and artistic heritage of cartoons and vintage comics. For starters, there’s Will Eisner. Last month’s convention had no less than four different panels devoted to the graphic arts innovator and educator whose 1940s Spirit was just the beginning of significant transformations both within and beyond the comics medium. And S
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- Aug 14, 2015
- 7 min
21 Best Comic-Con Artists: A Designer’s Guide
The world’s largest comic book convention has some secrets that are practically unknown to lovers of graphic design and illustration. San Diego Comic-Con International is famous, as well as feared and loathed, for its lengthy lines of lemmings endlessly waiting to get into mammoth show biz hype-fests that are usually available to the whole world on YouTube within hours. But what gets all the press is just a piddling part of the Con experience, quality-wise. The truth is, you
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- Jul 17, 2015
- 5 min
One Page, Comic-Con Edition: David Petersen
David Petersen’s series Mouse Guard shows us mice warring against the elements and predators. At Comic-Con International: San Diego, Print checked in with artists working in the Exhibit Hall all weekend. Print’s series “One Page,” which you can find in our magazine, features an artist describing one page they designed––whether it’s a cover or an interior. In the world of comics, David Petersen is best known for his creator-owned series Mouse Guard, which chronicles mice who p
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- Aug 26, 2014
- 9 min
A Designers’ Guide to Comic-Con’s Hidden Pleasures
We’re now at the peak of comic book convention season. San Diego’s wrapped last month, Chicago’s just ended, and New York’s is currently gearing up. And these are just the biggies. This onslaught can be nirvana for pop culture nerds. But hordes of designers also flock to these events. This can appear puzzling, considering how media reports mostly emphasize the Hollywood hype, endless queues, cos-play nonsense and such. So let’s take a closer look in this comic-con guide. Pers
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- May 16, 2014
- 9 min
Art for Comics and Storyboards: What’s the Difference?
Aaron Sowd and Trevor Goring have a lot to say about the art of narrative storytelling. Aaron’s worked on movie storyboarding and concepting for Steven Soderbergh and Michael Bay, comics for Marvel and DC, art for Apple and Netflix, designs for theme parks and video games, and illustrations for the New York Times and People Magazine. Trevor’s been doing film and TV concepts and boards for decades with directors such as Steven Spielberg, Bryan Singer, and Michel Gondry and on
1,081 views0 comments
- Sep 23, 2013
- 12 min
The Comics that Corrupted Our Kids!
Kids these days, with their violence and gunplay and perverse sex. We’d all be so much better if only they didn’t have access to those video games and that nasty music and those awful movies and blah blah blah. Thus goes the scapegoating just as it always has. Back in the early 1950s, comic books were the Grand Theft Auto of the day, a “fall guy” along with rock ‘n’ roll for a nation looking for simplistic explanations for complex societal problems. And so, our nation’s youth
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- Jul 15, 2013
- 3 min
Beyond Comic-Con: The Wonder Women of Comics
One of the most significant comics events during San Diego Comic-Con this week isn’t even part of the official program. It’s the “Wonder Women: On and Off Paper” exhibition, and it’s at the Women’s Museum, an intimate space that’s separate and away from the mammoth Convention Center. Mary Fleener, 1995 The show chronicles a century of progress, progress in how women depict women in comics, and in how they’ve persevered to overcome countless obstacles and achieve recognition a
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- Jul 10, 2013
- 8 min
Taking Comics Seriously: for Insight, Inspiration, and Creative Transformation
By: Michael Dooley Next week’s San Diego Comic-Con started touting its movie and TV show programming: AMC’s Breaking Bad! BBC/PBS’s Sherlock! Woot! Also as usual, there’ll be plenty of activities for designers who are tuned into comics. Regular Imprint readers may already know that Peter Kuper, Arlen Schumer, Craig Yoe, and Eliza Frye are among the hundreds of participating artists. But there’s one worthwhile activity that will fly under the radar of nearly all the 100,000-pl
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- Jun 3, 2013
- 9 min
Peter Kuper: Drawn to an International Comic Art Career
Peter Kuper’s seen it all. And he wants us to see it, too. So he draws it for us. His visits to Latin America, the Middle East, and beyond have been providing him with perspective and inspiration for World War 3 Illustrated – America’s longest-running radical comic book anthology, since 1980. His various comics autobiographies include ComicsTrips: A Journal of Travels Through Africa and Southeast Asia. And his graphic novel adaptions of classic literature by authors such as F
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- Aug 3, 2012
- 7 min
Camilla d’Errico on Inspiration, Pop Surrealism, and "Inappropriate" Images
“Censorship and the Female Artist” was the subject of one of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con panels. The women on the dais discussed the presentation of strong female characters, public reaction to their work, and the male gaze. Comparing her approach to women’s bodies with that of male artists, the erotic pinup illustrator Olivia de Berardinis declared, “I own the subject matter; they just rent it.” The writer Anina Bennett expressed her annoyance with men’s “bias that women
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- Jul 20, 2012
- 6 min
A Report on Comic-Con… and Covert CIA Actions
Last week’s Comic-Con at San Diego’s Convention Center was overloaded with activities. If you were a Hollywood celeb–obsessed fan you may have spent much, if not most, of your time stuck in lines. But if you were a lover of well-designed graphic narratives, you needn’t have wasted one idle moment during the five full days. Talking with tons of talented comics artists? Check! Engaging in after-hours activities? Double check! Learning of an innovative new motion comic about a c
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- Jul 11, 2012
- 3 min
Super Schumer Fights for Artist-Creator Credit
Never mind whether Captain America is more powerful than Iron Man or Dr. Strange. The real problem is that Marvel Comics editor/publisher Stan Lee is vastly more powerful than Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and many others who originally drew those superheroes for the company. And Lee presently enjoys 100 percent ownership of the Marvel Universe, in both the public’s perception and the legal arena. And what do the artists own? Zilch, that’s what! And this makes Arlen Schumer pretty
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- Jul 3, 2012
- 5 min
Stan Mack’s Occupy-the-Fourth-of-July Funnies
It’s 1776 in Philadelphia. Congressional delegates “sweat, swat flies, and argue independence.” They retreat to a tavern and casually dump Jefferson with the job of composing a declaration: “Tom, write us something dignified, yet magical.” Once he’s finished, all the congressmen shout out changes at him: “Drop ‘independent’;” “Why ‘happiness’ instead of ‘property’? What’s ‘happiness’?” The process is loud, sloppy, and often chaotic. It also feels like real life. That’s becaus
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