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
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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
