An alternate Jimi Hendrix album cover by Jean Giraud (Moebius), who was fascinated with Hendrix and portrayed him multiple times.

Hendrix would have been 70 today.

That makes me feel weird for some reason, but I can’t remember why…

First of all, if you’re not familiar with Paul Madonna’s wonderful All Over Coffee, you may want to read my previous article on All Over Coffee, or my subsequent post on the second collection, Everything is its own reward, in which I struggle to find sufficient superlatives to describe the feature.

Though ostensibly classified as a comic strip, the weekly feature, which has run for years in the San Francisco Chronicle, is part beautiful ink and wash drawings, part poetry, part wry observations, part story, and part I-don’t-know-what-but-I-really-like-it.

The good news, for those of us who are familiar with the feature, is not only that All Over Coffee has continued and flourished, but it is now available in at least two more forms. In addition to Madonna’s own site and the Chronicle’s SF Gate site, All over Coffee is now available on The Rumpus (where it is perhaps easiest to browse), and the second collection, Everything is its own reward is now available as a free iPad app (iTunes link).

The iPad app, rather than just offering the collection in book format, is actually linear, stepping from image to image with the words slowly revealed, adding an element of time and contemplation. (Ideally, you would want both the app and the printed version.)

The Rumpus also hosts Madonna’s Small Potatoes, a more traditional and less extravagant comic strip, as well as an interview with the artist in which he discusses his recent (and very different) book, Album.

The Rumpus also features an eclectic collection of other comics, and Paul Madonna serves as the Comics Editor.

I’m delighted to see Madonna continuing All Over Coffee and broadening its reach in addition to pursuing other projects.

All Over Coffee, in any of its available forms, is simply a treat.

[Addendum: Reader MJ was kind enough to let me know there is a KQED video interview with Paul Madonna.]

The link between movies and comics is a strong one. Even without the obvious bridge of their wonderful merging in animation, they share numerous qualities.

Both are visual storytelling mediums, and share a common concern with establishing shots, close-ups, framing a scene, conveying the spatial relationship of characters one to the other and other elements of essential visual continuity from scene to scene.

Both involve the element of time and of visual compositions that change over time.

Both have a “director’s” viewpoint, and the impact of choices of lighting, contrast and visual mood cannot be understated in the effectiveness with which a story is told.

Storyboards, which are used to plan movies, television and animation, are in essence a from of comics.

It’s not surprising then that there is crossover between the two fields; a number of comics artists and writers have moved into the fields of film and television and visual development artists have ventured into comics.

Marcos Mateu-Mestre, who I have profiled previously, has moved back and forth — he started as a comics artist for newspapers in his native Spain, moved into production design for animation and is currently a visual development artist working at Dreamworks.

In his excellent book, Framed Ink: Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers, which I reviewed here, he applied his expertise in both fields to create a superb framework for narrative illustration.

In his new book, Trail of Steel – 1441 A.D., Mateu-Mestre places those skills in the service of a graphic story about mercenary soldiers in 15th century Spain. The artist provided me with a review copy.

The storytelling, as you would expect, is dramatically cinematic, conveyed in Mateu-Mestre’s wonderfully fluid drawing style. He has an uncanny ability to combine precision draftsmanship and free, energetic rendering. I’ve spoken before about the delight I take in his drawing style.

The real highlight for me, however, is his mastery of tone. To say that the drawings are in black and white and grays is to miss the point. Here is a story told in both subtle and dramatic value contrasts that would not have been as effective if rendered any other way.

Mateu-Mestre uses value here in much the way skilled film directors use black and white film in many classic movies, creating a mood and atmosphere that would actually be difficult to achieve in color. These are images in which color would be a distraction and actually lessen the impact.

He has posted some images from the book on his blog in which he plays with the application of subtle colors to some of the pages (images above, second from bottom). As much as I like them as images and interesting experiments, I much prefer the panels as presented in the book.

Even though this is a story, students of comics (and visual storytelling in general) could consider Trail of Steel effective as a continuation of the lessons in Framed Ink — a textbook use of cinematic comics storytelling and the application of light and dark in narrative illustration.

The book is appended with a few notes on process, preliminary drawings and thumbnail page layouts. It is available as both a European style hardcover album (the best format for comics, IMHO) and a trade paperback.

You can find more mentions of the book on Mateu-Mestre’s blog, along with more of his visual development work, including some beautiful tone and color images from his work on Puss In Boots.

Alex Ross, who I profiled briefly in 2005, is an American comics artist and illustrator known for his work in the “fully painted” style of comics art.

Ross has been one of the foremost proponents of this style, in which the traditional outline and color approach associated with comics is replaced by fully rendered, painted illustrations, without outlines.

There has been some controversy over this approach (which, as far as I can determine, was first practiced by Will Elder in his work with Harvery Kurtzman on Little Annie Fanny in Playboy in the 1960′s). Some critics contend that it is “not comics”, or somehow inappropriate for a storytelling medium. Others, myself included, feel it works just fine, particularly in the hands of someone as accomplished as Ross, and adds to the range and variety of comics storytelling styles.

Ross also is known for his comics covers — dramatic, forceful, and like his comics pages, beautifully realized in water media.

The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, opens an exhibition tomorrow: Heroes and Villains: The Comic Book Art of Alex Ross, that will be on display through February 24, 2013.

The exhibition has a dedicated mini-site, with detailed information about the show, a bio of the artist and a gallery of selected works. (Kudos for the management and staff of the Norman Rockwell Museum for understanding how to use their website to promote and generate interest in an exhibition! Other small and medium sized museums should take note.)

The exhibition itself was organized by the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Like a number of contemporary comics artists, particularly those who work in a painted style (e.g. Steve Rude), Alex Ross proudly wears his admiration for a number of great American illustrators on his sleeve. The Rockwell Museum has drawn on its collection of American illustration to display work by artists who have been particularly influential on Ross as part of the exhibition, including Norman Rockwell, Andrew Loomis and J.C. Leyendecker.

The website points out examples in particular of Rockwell’s work, such as United Nations, that have inspired Ross in the creation of his signature tableaux of heroes, and/or villains, like those above.

The NRM museum store is also featuring relevant prints by Rockwell and books by Loomis, along with books that feature Alex Ross.

You can find more work by Alex Ross on the artist’s own website.

[Via Gurney Journey]

Originally from New York, Jennifer Hom studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design.

She now resides in San Francisco and works as an illustrator for Google, where she has created the images for a number of Google Doodles, including the wonderful recent tribute to Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland that I mentioned in this post.

Hom’s website showcases her personal work, which varies in approach from graphic and linear to a more painted approach. A number of the pieces are now available as prints.

(Note that the last three items in her online portfolio are not individual images, but additional sections.)

Hom also maintains a blog, on which you can find additional work, both personal and professional, as well as preliminaries, process images and works in progress, including a full rendered version of the Winsor McCay tribute.

Google is celebrating the 107th anniversary of the debut of Winsor McCay’s comics masterpiece, Little Nemo in Slumberland with a wonderfully done interactive tribute on the Google landing page at Google.com.

(Click on the small downward pointing arrow below the image on the Google page to advance.)

This will, of course, be replaced tomorrow, but Google usually archives their Google Doodles, and I’ll try to link to the archived version when it’s up. I’m still looking for credits for who drew, animated and coded the Doodle.

[Addendum: Here is the archived version of the Little Nemo in Google Land Google Doodle. Unfortunately, it's constrained in a frame because of the design of the archive, you can get a better view on this page, broken out of the frames.

Reader Ben was kind enough to let me know that the Doodle was drawn by illustrator and professional Google Doodler Jennifer Hom. There is a full size static image of the final and a preliminary sketch on her blog.]

See my previous posts on Winsor McCay and Google Doodles.

[Via Wired's GeekMom]

Jacob (Jake) Wyatt is a comics artist and animator who came to my attention by way of his beautiful short animation, Metro, which was done while he was a student (top three images above, plus promo, 4th down). Metro is about a young girl, a subway, a fox and… other things. It’s simply but very effectively done and makes great use of setting off areas of the screen into smaller shapes. (Link is to Vimeo, best viewed fullscreen.)

I then found his blog, life on paper, a page on deviantART and a Tumblog, but none offer much in the way of a bio or list of credits. ( I sometimes think artists simply don’t realize they are doing this, rather than making a deliberate choice to ignore an important part of their online presence.)

From what I’ve been able to glean by skimming the blog, he has done a story for the Image Comics title Hawaiian Dick, but I don’t know in what issue, or if it’s even been released. There is also a comics story that is apparently an adaptation of the story of Theseus that was part of the Anthology Project (Volume 2).

I also stumbled across the information that he draws his comics in black Prismacolor pencil rather than ink. His comics have a nice, rough edged, textural quality, probably partially due to that approach and partially in his application of textured areas of color. I’m assuming his color is applied digitally, but again there is no link to direct information about process, though you may be able to find more by searching through his blog posts.

(Via io9)

Joe Kubert was an American comic book artist and a major figure in the history of American comics.

Kubert is best known for his work for DC Comics that included definitive versions of characters like Sgt. Rock and Hawkman, as well as an interpretation of Tarzan for Dark Horse. He also created his own characters and titles, including Tor, Son of Sinbad and The Viking Prince.

In addition to the impact of Kubert’s work, which was influential on generations of comics artists, he helped directly nurture the talent of numerous young comics professionals through the establishment The Kubert School, originally the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, in New Jersey.

The Kubert school was the first accredited school dedicated to cartooning and comic art. It’s a testament to the school that in sharp contrast to some “diploma mill” art schools, the Kubert School has a high drop out rate; young students who think they can cruise through doing pin-ups of Wolverine and big-eyed manga girls soon find they are expected to complete a rigorous program. The school’s graduates include numerous well known figures in the comic book industry.

Kubert’s own style was remarkable for its combination of fluidity and solid draftsmanship. He had a way of using gestural lines and hatching, giving his figures solidity and movement in the same rendering. He also knew how to anchor his page compositions with spotted blacks in a way that allowed his suggestions of movement to play out with a sensation of realism often missing from the work of many mainstream comics artists.

Joe Kubert left a lasting legacy when he died this weekend at the age of 85.

Kubert’s two sons, Adam and Andy Kubert are also well known and respected comics artists, as well as graduates of the Kubert School.

There is a biography, Man of Rock, and a collection, The Art of Joe Kubert, available from Fantagraphics.

[Notice courtesy of Gregory Frost]

[Addendum: The Comics Journal has posted their extensive interview with Joe Kubert from 1994. Gutters has posted a Neal Adams tribute drawing of Kubert and some of the well known graduates of the Kubert School.]