Fresh on the heels of Free Comic Book Day we have a free comic with prehistoric theme, in either HTML or downloadable PDF from, called Piltdown, from Wide Awake Press.

Naming the book after one of the great scientific hoaxes of the 20th Century gives you an idea of how serious it is. The book is an anthology with short stories by a variety of artists.

This is the second free downloadable comic from WAP, the first being EATS, which can also be viewed in HTML or PDF format, as well as the specialty comic book screen reader format of CBZ.

[Link via Palaeoblog, via The Comics Reporter]

John Cuneo’s illustration clients include Esquire, Rolling Stone Mother Jones, Entertainment Weekly, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and quite possibly every other high-end glossy magazine on the planet.

His wonderfully lose, sketch-like pen drawings, enlivened with deft applications of watercolor, are a visual treat.

Cuneo is a wonderful caricaturist, capturing the essence of his subject with a few seemingly casual lines an deceptively simple watercolor washes. His ink lines seem to squiggle and jump across the page, almost as if making an image was a byproduct of their travel.

His watercolor tones similarly have a feeling of light, almost incidental additions to the drawings, but if you slow down and examine them, they are applied with a keen sense of form and contrast.

Like many artists, Cuneo likes to sketch and paint amusing subjects that are not part of any project or assignment, simply for his own enjoyment. Also like many artists, some of these images are off-color, sexually frank and sometimes even disturbing. Artists like to let their demons and muses alike come out and dance on the paper.

Unlike most artists, Cuneo allowed some friends, illustrators Tim Bower and Joe Ciardiello, talk him into showing some of these not-for publication drawings to a publisher, and the result is a delightfully naughty and refreshingly politically incorrect collection called nEuROTIC (more details here).

You can see some of these drawings in the Personal section of his web site, which is prefaced with an “inappropriate for children and may be offensive to some” style advisory.

His site also contains some (not enough!) of his professional illustration work, divided into sections for People and Situations, along with a section of abandoned drawings called RIP.

There is an additional portfolio of his work on illoz.

Note: Some of the images on the sites linked here are NSFW and inappropriate for children.

The site contains little else in the way of information or background and is simply a gallery of work. The paintings themselves, which Asaro calls “figure portraits in arrangements” are striking. Single or multiple figures are indeed arranged compositionally against intense almost flat color backgrounds, with a singular eye to negative space.

The figures themselves, though sometimes colored naturalistically, are more often rendered in high-chroma colors; giving an impression of being monochromatic, but actually resonating with a rich variety of color.

Asaro paints in oil on canvas, and he lays in his bold colors with equally bold brushstrokes, wrapping them around the figures in a way that both emphasizes the forms and creates a vibrant visual texture.

When you look at the detail images that sometimes accompany the main images on the site, you can come away with the impression that the brushwork is so free that it must have been painted quickly, but I think the accuracy of the drawing indicates a more careful application of paint. I think it is confidence born of many years of painting that gives the impression of loose application.

Though his site is devoted to work in the new direction, you can still see some of Asaro’s previous work, which is in demand as limited edition serigraphs, on other sites.

Asaro is apparently represented by Lela Harty Studio/Gallery and on their site, despite a terrible navigation interface which keeps it all but hidden, you can find a long list of sold paintings linked to images. Asaro’s “genre painting” occasionally consists of straightforward landscapes, but most often is of figures in landscape, in the tradition of Sarolla, Anders Zorn and many of the painters labeled “American Impressionists”.

The Lela Harty site also lists a book, Asaro: A New Romanticism, which is out of print and unfortunately expensive used, and a new video, Asaro: A Retrospective, which is available on DVD.

Note: Some of the images in the sites linked here might be considered NSFW.

[Suggestion courtesy of Belinda Del Pesco (see my previous post on Belinda Del Pesco)]

Bradley, née Barbara Briggs, was a member of the Charles E. Cooper Studio, a highly influential commercial art and illustration studio prominent in the mid 20th Century.

The illustrators that Cooper attracted were among the best of the best; and in an era when the printing of color photographs had become inexpensive enough to be commonplace, used their clear, sharp, modern styles to entertain the the eye in a way photographs can’t.

Bradley was a shining example of this, applying her refined drawing style and keen color sense to delightfully fresh and lively illustrations for a variety of editorial and commercial accounts.

Bradley studied at the University of California at Berkeley and at Art Center before embarking on her career with Cooper in new York. She later returned to California and established herself as a freelancer.

She became an instructor, and eventually Director of illustration, at the Academy of Art University. In that role she became tremendously influential, passing on her extensive knowledge of illustration and technique to a broad cross section of new illustrators.

There is a tribute site, Thank You Barbara Bradley, which has an outline of her career, galleries of her work and a series of comments and tributes form her associates and students.

Leif Peng, who maintains the terrific blog Today’s Inspiration, which focuses on illustration from the period in which Bradley was most active, has written a particularly touching tribute to the influence she had on someone who never even met her in person. Peng also has previous posts on Bradley, Queen of the Perkies and Cutes and The 70’s, the 80’s… and the Academy, in which he posts additional examples of her work.

There was an article on Bradley in issue #21 of Illustration Magazine, part of a continuing series on the artists of the Charles E. Cooper Studio, which showcases some of the best examples I’ve seen of her illustrations.

In addition to her other awards, Bradley received the 2007 Outstanding Educator in the Arts Award from the Society of Illustrators.

A small portion of her teaching legacy was condensed into her book Drawing People: How to Portray the Clothed Figure.

[Thanks to James Gurney for passing on the notice]

Comic book stores around the U.S. are giving away free copies of comics that a variety of publishers have created just for the occasion.

Aside from the obvious pleasure of picking up a free comic (or two, or more, depending on the store), is the nature of the event. This is the day when the normally somewhat insular and geeky world of comic book specialty stores open up their doors extra wide to those not normally exposed to the mysteries and wonders within.

The proprietors comb their hair and put on a tie (figuratively speaking) and are on their best behavior, expecting to greet newcomers to the world of modern comics. Many stores will use the occasion to simultaneously hold sales and events, including hosting guest artists and book signings.

If you’re even remotely curious about the state of modern comic books, a field that is growing and changing rapidly in many respects, but haven’t felt particularly comfortable wandering into a shop (some of which can often feel more like a private club for geeks than a regular bookstore), here’s a chance to wander through one as if it was a sidewalk sale (which it may well be for the occasion).

Chat with the proprietor, ask what’s different and unusual. Tell them what you like and see if they can suggest a comic title (free or otherwise) that’s up your alley.

The free comics themselves always vary in subject, quality and direction of interest. The good news here, and about comics in the U.S. in general, is that it’s not all superheroes. Despite the interest generated by the continuing popularity of the genre in other popular entertainment, as evidenced by the new Iron Man movie, the market for non-superhero material in the the US has increased dramatically with the rise of the new crop of graphic storytellers and independent “graphic novels”.

(Don’t get me wrong. I’ll point out again that I really like superhero comics, I just think it’s unfortunate that they are so predominant that many people think that’s all modern comics have to offer.)

You can see a list of the comics being offered here. There are two lists, which they’re calling Gold Books and Silver Books. The former are more mainstream and are available at most participating shops (while supplies last), the latter are more varied in subject and approach and are more likely to be found at comic book stores that carry more independent, small press and foreign comics to begin with.

These shops are preferable for those interested in the variety that modern comics have to offer. Even if you’ve been to a comic book specialty store before, you may not have seen a good representation of what’s actually available. Some smaller shops only carry the most popular mainstream titles, and are less likely to offer a variety of non-superhero material.

You can find a list of participating comic book specialty stores in your area using the Free Comic Book Day Store Locator. You may find that some stores, like the one I shop at, carry much more than just comics.

For more on Free Comic Book Day, and my introduction to comic book specialty stores, see my posts on Free Comic Book Day 2007 and FCBD 2006.

Note: Once Free Comic Book Day is past, you may still find it continues unofficially for several days or more, as many shops still have some of the free comics on hand; and more importantly, maintain their attitude of wanting to welcome and make comfortable newcomers who are tiptoeing into the unexplored landscape of modern comic books.

He demonstrated an interest in art at an early age and was apprenticed to a jeweler at the age of fourteen. On his own, he began to copy works of art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He studied at the Academy of Design, and then studied for a year with William Merritt Chase at the school Chase founded (the Chase School, later called the New York School). Braun later traveled to Europe, studying and painting in Hungary, Austria and Germany.

Returning to New York, Braun established himself as a portrait painter, also painting landscapes in New England. He was attracted to the then flowering art scene in California, and moved there in 1910. He was drawn to San Diego by the promise of fresh landscapes, brilliant light, and the presence of a branch of the Theosophical Society, whose tenants were informed by the search for commonality in the spiritual traditions of multiple religions. Braun’s work was informed by his philosophical convictions, and in a way somewhat similar to George Inness, his landscape paintings were intended to be more than a superficial representation of the visual world.

Though Braun would continue to travel and paint in many places, he settled in San Diego and is included in the list of painters from the time who are classified as “California Impressionists”. His academic training was melded with the influence of Chase and the European Impressionists, leading to another of those wonderful blendings of academic art and impressionistic freedom that characterize many of the painters considered “American Impressionists”. (Like most of the painters classified that way, I doubt Braun ever considered or called himself an “Impressionist”.)

Braun founded the San Diego Academy of Art and served as its director for many years, but continued to travel to the east coast and exhibit there, establishing studios in New York and Connecticut and traveling back and forth at different times of the year.

Though Braun was a dedicated plein air painter, he did his finished works in the studio, and did not believe in limiting himself to a literal representation of the landscape. He welded intense study of the individual characteristics of the San Diego countryside with his own feeling for composition, form and color and produced an interpretation based on those factors and his philosophical convictions.

Braun’s painting technique varied over time as he continued to experiment, but he developed a bright palette, with clear unfussed-with colors and free brushwork.