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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1993)
Comic artist radiates New series branches out, deals with art, life, love Thereareonly a handful of comic book artists who can also be called true ‘artists’ — people who can make a living as painters, but who instead choose to draw and paint comic books. One of these select few is Dave McKean, who is most famous not only for his “Sandman’’ covers, but also for painting the “Batman” graphic novel, “Arkham Asylum." Two years ago, however, McKean struck out alone, writing and draw ing his own book entitled “Cages.” Published by Tundra, “Cages” is a beautiful piece of work. The art in this book shows the full extent ofMcKcan’stalcnts. Some pages are fully painted in bold colors, others are painted only in grays, the dominating technique, however, has its roots in classic art styles. If Picasso were to do a comic twxik, it might very well look like this. Five issues have been released so far. It is difficult to find them, but they are well worth the effort. The first issue begins with a very interesting narrative about when God created the world-lhat alone is worth the price of the book. “Cages” is the story of artist Leo Sabarsky, who moves into a new building to “get away from it all” in order to paint. In the same building lives a writer, Jonathan, and his wife. Jonathan has written a book called “Cages,” among other ab stract works, such as “Rhetorical Conversation for InanimalcObjects and Improbable People.” But Jonathan no longer writes, and is constantly plagued by men who come into his apartment and take away his possessions, piece by piece. “Cages” deals with a lot of things: life, love, art, and music. It is very difficult to describe — belter to just read it. Northstar publishing, best known for its horror anthologies, such as “Slash and Splatter," has just re leased its first on-going title, "Cold Blooded.” It is written by Rafael Nieves, of Marvel Comics’ “Ilellcrstorm," and drawn by new See CAGES on 11 Interested in Aviation? Pre-register for aviation courses at UNL by calling the UNO Aviation Institute. 1-800-858-8648 (Nebraska and Iowa only) University of Nebraska at Omaha Tha Unlveraity of Nabraaka at Omaha doea'nol diecrimlnaae In b academic. employ went or admieatona potidee and abtdee by al tadaral. ataia and ragamal regulation* pertaining to eame. Mark Baldridge/DN ' Fun with scissors Take a pair of scissors—don’t argue, do it now — and cut up thiscolumn.No, wail.bcltcrmake it some other column or you won’t know what to do with all the pieces. So flip to some other column, maybcTodd Burger’s in the front (he hales it when I do this) and cut it out. I want to show you some thing. This is art. Trust me. OK, got it’ Now, let’s say it looks something like this: It’s got Todd’s grinning face on it and everything. OK. Now. By the way, have you ever noticed that a newspaper is printed in columns? Yeah? Why? I don’t know, but it’s like the Bible, the Bible does that too, I notice, so maybe that’s why — lends the news a kind of author ity, don’t you think? But it’s interesting sometimes to read the news wrong. I mean, instead of lop to bottom, read it left to right — across the gutters (the narrow strips of while be tween columns). If we do that with Todd’s it reads: “My two-week notice will be even there with my blasting horn. Coming duelomorrow I am 1 was left contemplating my frag-" I’m ignoring his head (it al ways was in the way if you ask me.) But right below his head (and the big quote) it gels easier. We read: "a boss to heed most of the time can be eerie. Try it some time if you 're not to consider that one too much." Now isn’t thatstrangcPAnd— in a strange way — isn’t that interesting. Maybe more interesting than Todd’s column, maybe not. De pends on what you call interest ing I suppose. But lead it that— damned interesting. Now, cut up the column, Todd’s. You can cut it along the gutters or down the center of each column, like this: Or from side lo side in strips Or just in squares. Keep it simple; it's art — but it’s not I ligh Art. It’s something discovered by accident and poets. You can cut up almost anything and paste it back together in ways that make almost as much sense as the poetry you read, and didn’t get, in high school. I aon’l know why it works, but it does. Me, I cut Todd up in squares, like this: and this is what I got, in part: Even there, with my blasting horn over time, the boss and I contemplate? mortality and car alignments. While he used to talk and work to where each is, in 14 months he continued his merry wav, better able to understand thebuy-onctickct-and-turn-over part of the natural, or other., point of view. • Good, huh? I have to admit I fooled with the punctuation and some other things. And the point is that this kind of thing can serve as a jumping off point for something more, a kind of mad rough draft of dream imag ery and plastic language.. And you thought you had to be a psycho poet to come up withstulfliketnat. Hut you don’t, you can just have a pair of sharp scissors and a lot of lime on your hands. — Mark Baldridge