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News Briefs featuring Chris von Szombathy
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CHRIS VON SZOMBATHY interviewed by Inkstuds
Updated July 30, 2008
Chris Von Szombathy Joins us to discuss his book, Fire Away. As a part of the Petit Livre series from Drawn and Quarterly, Chris’s book is an outstanding collection of beautifully rendered pop-culture rejection. Not only is Chris a talented artist, the music that accompanies the interview is also by him as well. Check out Audio Ahdeo Awdio and Tour De Fours.
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FIRE AWAY reviewed by Book By Its Cover
Updated April 10, 2008
FIRE AWAY
Book By Its Cover
4.1.08
I love this Petit Livres series from Drawn and Quarterly. Here’s the newest- paintings, drawings and sculptures from Vancouver based artist Chris Von Szombathy. His work is pretty insane. I can’t think of any way to describe it except that it’s as if we are seeing cartoon’s dreams. All of these cartoonish characters are in crazy scenarios- bears wearing ornate pattern hats holding swords share the page with a man dripping orange paint from his hands while smoking a cigarette from a cigarette holder. The smoke turns into shrieking black kitty cats. There are also some floating ice cream sandwiches. I mean can’t you just see a cartoon bear saying “you guys, listen to this weird dream I had…” and then describing that. Chris also has these awesome sculptures scattered throughout the book that could be my favorite part- especially the ones where he’s painted faces on shoe stretchers and added in real human teeth to their mouths. I wonder what Chris is like in person. You can buy a copy of this book here.
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ADRIAN TOMINE EVENT mentioned by the Hour
Updated February 22, 2008
February 21st, 2008
Adrian Tomine inspires comics overview
Shortcomings and long views
Isa Tousignant
THE HOUR
Comic star Adrian Tomine comes to town to talk, and inspires an overview of recent local comic production
Guess who's coming to town? It's our favourite self-hating hipster! Or at least that's what critics would have us believe. As soon as I got comic artist Adrian Tomine on the phone from Brooklyn, I had to ask the author of the recently released, incredibly popular and critically acclaimed graphic novel Shortcomings about this line in the press release for his upcoming talk at the Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore: "He'll be presenting a slide show that confronts his critics who accused him of 'hiding' his racial identity behind his glasses." Huh?
"Ha ha! It's because for a long time when I used to draw autobiographical stories and I used to draw myself as a character, I'd draw myself with glasses that were just sort of opaque, empty and white", he says. "There was a lot of silly conjecture that I was maybe trying to disguise my own features. So in the slide show I go through a history of that in cartooning, going all the way back to Robert Crumb and even Charles Schultz - when he drew this character Marcie she just had these opaque little round glasses. That's just a starting point."
Tomine - who's Japanese American, by the way - has made work intertwined with autobiography since the start of his equally famous Optic Nerve series. With Shortcomings, though, his first long-format work, he tried to move away from the genre - a bit.
"It's probably the least directly autobiographical thing that I've done, though it's such a slippery term. It doesn't directly transcribe events or
characters or dialogue from my real life in the way that other stories I've done have. But it's hard for me to think of any sort of fiction that isn't somehow personal, or somehow autobiographical. Though Shortcomings may seem like the most autobiographical, to people who know a bit about me. But that's a sleight of hand."
What else can we expect from the event? General info about how Shortcomings came about, as well as more technical details about Tomine's working process, the process of laying out the pages and designing the book, as well as a Q&A period and a signing. Don't miss it.
DRAWING DEEPER
Speaking of recent comic production, you should check these out too, most (if not all) of which are purchasable at D+Q:
Fire Away, by Chris von Szombathy
The latest in D+Q's delightful Petits Livres series, this page-popping colour minibook reveals a Vancouver artist whose goofy, pop aesthetic is a pleasure to discover, here for the first time in print. Though transporting in a creatively populated, anthropomorphic, Bell-ish way, I was left searching for content that was more than simply aesthetic.
Milk Teeth, by Julie Morstad
Another Vancouverite's Petit Livre, this delicate book by Morstad is like a lesson in fine etching. The sophistication and refinement of her style are undoubtedly what have made her a popular commercial illustrator around the country. As a book, it's a little jewel that would make the perfect gift to someone with heightened sensibilities.
Paul Goes Fishing, by Michel Rabagliati
This latest translation by D+Q of one of Quebec's top-selling artists is a guaranteed good read, in classic Rabagliati fashion - there's a signature Frenchness and a calming familiarity about all of Paul's Montreal-based adventures that make them a distinct pleasure to consume. They don't reinvent the wheel, but who needs to drive anywhere when life's about fishing?
Albert and the Others, by Guy Delisle
Delisle has created politically charged work in the past, which may be what gives this, and its predecessor Aline and the Others, its incomparable bite. These 30-panel, wordless comics about the trials and tribulations of being a man (Aline was about women) are sharper and funnier than you'd imagine possible.
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PETITS LIVRES series spotlighted by The Hour
Updated January 10, 2008
January 3rd, 2008
Hit List
Isa Tousignant
THE HOUR
Resolve to appreciate good things in small packages, like a smaller house, a smaller car, smaller meals and the latest in Drawn & Quarterly's Petits Livres series, three gorgeous little comics by, respectively, nouveau surrealist C. Von Szombathy, dreamy illustrator Julie Morstad and wordlessly witty comic stripper Guy Delisle. Swing by the D+Q store (211 Bernard W.) and see - you'll want them all.
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