Hasta La Ideas

The Royal Mail has issued ten new stamps celebrating some of the best-known characters from British comics. The stamps are timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of The Dandy

The stamps were designed by The Chase. Each one features a well-known character with a front page from the comic in which they appeared – indeed some are still in print today.

The Topper was published by DC Thomson Ltd and ran from 1953 to 1990, when it merged with The Beezer. Mickey the Monkey was the original cover star. Beryl the Peril was created by David Law as a female Dennis the Menace (also created by Law). The strip ran from the first issue, taking over the cover in 1986

2000 AD was first published in 1977. It is most noted for its Judge Dredd stories, and has been contributed to by a number of artists and writers who became renowned in the field internationally, such as Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison. Judge Dredd is a law enforcement officer in a city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge and jury

The Beano first appeared on 30 July 1938. The Dennis the Menace strip (now known as Dennis and Gnasher) first appeared in 1951 and is the longest running strip in the comic. Other iconic strips include the Bash Street Kids, Roger the Dodger and Minnie the Minx

Bunty was published by DC Thomson from 1958 to 2001. It consisted of a collection of many small strips, typically the stories themselves being three to five pages long. The Four Marys was the longest story. The comic ran from its creation in 1958 to its end in 2001. It centered around four young teenagers who lived in a girls-only boarding school in Elmbury

Buster ran from 1960 to 2000 and carried a mixture of humour and adventure strips. The title character, whose strip usually appeared on the front cover, was Buster. He was originally billed as Buster: Son of Andy Capp, the lead character of the Daily Mirror newspaper strip, and wore a similar flat cap to reinforce the connection

The first issue of Eagle was released in April 1950. Revolutionary in its presentation and content, it was enormously successful; the first issue sold about 900,000 copies. Featured in colour on the front cover was Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, created by Frank Hampson. Other popular stories included Riders of the Range and P.C. 49. Eagle also contained news and sport sections, and educational cutaway diagrams of sophisticated machinery

The Dandy was first published in the United Kingdom by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd in December 1937 and is the world’s longest continuously published comic. Wild-west hero Desperate Dan first appeared in December 1937. The world’s strongest man, he shaves with a blow torch ands eats cow pies complete with the tails and horns

Tiger was published from 1954 to 1985, and featured predominantly sporting strips. Its most popular strip was Roy of the Rovers, recounting the life of Roy Race and the team he played for, Melchester Rovers. This strip proved so successful it was spun out of Tiger and into its own comic

Twinkle, ‘the picture paper especially for little girls’, was published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd from 1968 to 1999. It was aimed at young girls and came out weekly, Nurse Nancy, who ran a toy hospital with her grandfather, was one of the most popular characters

Valiant was a British boys’ adventure comic which ran from 1962 to 1976. It was published by IPC Magazines and was one of their major adventure titles throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Aside from World War II characters like Captain Hurricane, Valiant ran innovative science fiction strips like the Steel Claw, a scientist rendered invisible by his artificial hand

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CR in Print

Thanks for visiting the CR website, but if you are not also reading CR in print you’re missing out. Our March issue is an illustration special with features on Clifford Richards, Pick Me Up, the relationship between illustrators and writers, the making of the cover of the New York Times Magazine and a powerful essay by Lawrence Zeegen calling on illustrators to become more engaged with the wider world and accusing the profession of withdrawing “from the big debates of our society to focus on the chit-chat and tittle-tattle of inner-sanctum nothingness”.

The best way to make sure you receive CR in print every month is to subscribe – you will also save money and receive our award-winning Monograph booklet every month. You can do so here.

Delegates enjoy a talk in the main auditorium at OFFSET 2012. Image: Ollie Smith

Summarising a design conference as rich as last weekend’s OFFSET in Dublin in a single blog post is something of a tall order. Speakers included Stefan Sagmeister, Seymour Chwast, Von, and Friends With You – and that was just day one…

Photographer Myles Shelley’s shot of delegates queing up outside the Bord Gais Energy Theatre to register on day one of OFFSET 2012

I’ve got no idea whether this, the third OFFSET event was a financial success for its organisers, three young Dubliners Bren Byrne, Peter O’Dwyer and Richard Seabrooke, who impressively manage to pull together what is fast proving to be a world-class design conference whilst still working full time in their respective day jobs.

However, the knowledge that their combined enthusiasm for communication design has essentially transformed them into conference hobbyists capable of drawing the most talented and erudite image makers and designers from around the world to speak at their event somehow makes OFFSET even more special than the list of internationally renowned speakers on the schedule suggests alone.

As is to be expected at such events, some speakers are more comfortable on stage than others, with some more naturally inclined to candidly reveal their journey from humble beginnings to star creative than perhaps others. I suppose it stands to reason that the speakers who work in a team or in a busy studio are probably naturally more adept at articulating their thought processes than those that work alone. That said, some of the most revealing talks were delivered by lone practitioners.

Illustrator Von on the main stage, shot by Gary Boylan

In each of their respective talks illustrators Von (above, showing some recent work), Steve Simpson, painter Conor Harrington, and poster specialist Olly Moss each revealed to the audience their earliest influences and shared their creative journey – showing that their styles and approach to their work has developed over time to become more accomplished and confident.

Whilst Harrington (above, shot by Gary Boylan) and Moss both charmingly admitted their early work was pretty crap, they both demonstrated that early failure, compounded by a desire to succeed, provided the stimulus to work harder and to get better.

Above: one of Conor Harrington’s paintings from his sold out Dead Meat show currently running at the Lazarides gallery in London

A few chips on shoulders were also tellingly revealed: in 2006 Von “got sacked by a rubbish graphic design studio”, Harrington had a college tutor who told him point blank that she would never go to one of his shows, and Simpson’s well-known cartoonist uncle, the late John Keith Geering, once said of him that he had no talent and would never amount to much. Were these put downs vital to their eventual success? Did these incidents install a steadfast determination to succeed?

“If you’re going to create a character that’s going to get shot at all day by Nazis, why give him a great big target to hold?” Olly Moss, questioning the character design of Captain America at OFFSET 2012. Above is a poster he created to promote the recent Captain America film.

More main room highlights came in the form of engaging and erudite talks from Pentagram‘s Michael Bierut and also Stefan Sagmeister. Both speakers chose to share knowledge and learnings with the assembled crowd, suggesting ways of thinking about the world, design briefs and also approaches to happiness that couldn’t be demonstrated simply by showing completed design projects alone.

The Happy Film Titles from {group theory} on Vimeo.

Sagmeister showed a trailer from his forthcoming film The Happy Film (directed by Hillman Curtis, opening titles shown above) which included footage of the designer struggling to successfully ask girls for their numbers on the streets of New York. Really looking forward to the film’s release later this year – more info about the project can be found at thehappyfilm.org

Some speakers demonstrated a raw and inspirational need to be creative – a hunger that has led them to be productive beyond their day jobs. Letterer, illustrator, type nerd, “crazy cat lady” and typographer Jessica Hische described her just-for-the-fun-of-it work as “procrastiworking” showing a slew of websites she’d built, each the result of a particular creative whim. Check out those projects at jessicahische.is/aprocrastiworker

Pentagram partner Paula Scher also spoke of her desire to create beyond client briefs, telling the audience she wanted “to create things that are luscious and complicated,” before showcasing her self-initiated, large scale colourful and intensely rich map paintings. “I do a lot of design work for free too,” she added, “just to do something new.” Above is her politically charged map of Florida, the key state in the elections that saw George W Bush beat Al Gore to become US president in the year 2000.

As well as the main auditorium action which comprised eight hour-long talks each day, a second room in the venue (Dublin’s Grand Canal Theatre – now renamed due to sponsorship to the Bord Gais Energy Theatre) offered more intimate discussions, panels and interviews. There were sessions that looked at routes into design and also into advertising; a panel discussion about children’s book illustration, another on the future of advertising, and yet another on the subject of staying creative.

There were also interviews with Seymour Chwast, Stefan Sagmeister and Shepard Fairey to check out – if you could bear to miss any of the main room lectures. Above image (by Myles Shelley) is of Pentagram’s Paula Scher and Michael Bierut during their Room 2 interview session.

Yet more highlights were delivered via theatrics. Artist duo Sam and Tury from Friends With You kicked off their talk with a special performance by their character Malfi who danced around to a delighted crowd. Apparently Malfi was in fact a volunteer chosen via Twitter from the OFFSET crowd to don the inflatable outfit. Later in their presentation, to demonstrate their desire to make people happy, Sam and Tury got the entire auditorium on its feet to shake hands and hug people around them they didn’t know. Then they got everyone dancing, which was (to use FWY’s favourite expression) awesome.

The very final lecture of the conference wasn’t so much a talk as a carefully choreographed series of readings and performances, orchestrated by London-based creatives Niall Sweeney and Nigel Truswell from Pony (above), plus a host of friends that performed with them. Who could have guessed that OFFSET ticket holders would see a drag queen perform with a ping pong ball, or that the conference would close to a man singing acapella wearing an albatross costume?

Shepard Fairey on the main stage, shot by Peter O’Dwyer

OFFSET maybe a relatively young contender in the world of international design conferences, but it exudes a hugely positive energy. If three young men in Dublin can create and run an event on this scale and with this ambition in their spare time – well the rest of us have no excuses at all for not being inspired to go forth and create something amazing ourselves.

I realise that I haven’t mentioned a slew of other brilliant creatives that spoke at this year’s event such as Shepard Fairey (above), Johnny Kelly or Erik Kessels, Eike König of HORT, United Visual Artists, Kyle Cooper or Rinzen – but hopefully you get the picture: if you miss OFFSET next year, well, you’ll be missing out.

iloveoffset.com

CR in Print

Thanks for visiting the CR website, but if you are not also reading CR in print you’re missing out. Our March issue is an illustration special with features on Clifford Richards, Pick Me Up, the relationship between illustrators and writers, the making of the cover of the New York Times Magazine and a powerful essay by Lawrence Zeegen calling on illustrators to become more engaged with the wider world and accusing the profession of withdrawing “from the big debates of our society to focus on the chit-chat and tittle-tattle of inner-sanctum nothingness”.

The best way to make sure you receive CR in print every month is to subscribe – you will also save money and receive our award-winning Monograph booklet every month. You can do so here.

Lui è A. Micah Smith.
{Via}

In Tom Gauld’s new story, the Biblical tale of David and Goliath is retold from the giant’s point of view, making for the comic book artist’s most accomplished and moving work to date…

At nearly 100 pages, Goliath is Gauld’s most extensive graphic narrative yet and his first for a major comics publisher. Self-publishing for the best part of a decade, his commercial illustration projects have seen him contributing regular strips to The New York Times and The Guardian, but in signing up with Drawn & Quarterly he is welcomed into an esteemed comic book stable.

Readers familiar with his drawing style will recognise the cross-hatched characters and landscapes in Goliath, and the existential theme that has framed much of his work from Guardians of the Kingdom in 2001, to the Hunter and Painter series of 2007.

In a Gauld comic, ‘action’ isn’t necessarily high on the agenda; instead there is often a fair bit of waiting around, even some well-crafted silence – life, even life within a Bible story, always has a lot more mundanity to it than the superhero comics let us believe. And there’s always a bit of admin to do, too, as in Goliath of Gath’s case.

This version of the story is concerned with the foreground to Goliath’s famous meeting with the slingshot-wielding David – and in the lead-up to that event there is plenty for Gauld to play with.

Goliath is depicted as a bit of a pacifist but he seems to acknowledge the irony of being in the army. While he doesn’t like bear baiting (“It’s not really my thing”), he can still appreciate the feel of a decent suit of armour (“It does feel rather good, actually”). Gauld is a great draughtsman, but what also marks his work stand out is his keen ear for dialogue and tone of voice, and how this is paced within the narrative.

One detail I particularly liked is the way that Goliath is occasionally drawn with his head just out of the panel: he’s too tall and cumbersome to fit into the comic. Indeed, as in his earlier work, Gauld often infers things are happening beyond the confines of his frames – he isn’t afraid of using white space or text-free passages, either, and employs both to powerful affect. On the left hand page, below, the boy’s proud but silent fascination with his dagger in the second-to-last panel is one of many brilliantly observed moments.

And the progress of the approaching old man, shown below, draws a scene out agonisingly over two pages:

In Goliath, Gauld renders his obsessions with various aspects of daily life which we can all relate to: the middle management of the army captain serving his superior; the fantastically personal questions of the boy shield-bearer; and Goliath’s put-upon reluctance to be part of the army’s puffed up, gung-ho spiel.

As a character, Gauld’s Goliath gets our sympathy from the outset and his story is beautifully brought to life by one of the UK’s best. A win for the giant.

Goliath is published by Drawn & Quarterly; £14.99. Gauld is set to appear at a selection of bookshops in the UK where he will be signing copies of the book (see the events poster on his site, here). There is also a launch next Friday at Gosh! in London where Gauld has also created a Goliath window graphic for the shop and also designed a special limited edition bookplate for the book, which can be pre-ordered here.

Finally, Gosh! also has a good interview with Gauld who talks about how he made the new book and his move to D&Q. Talking of the David and Goliath story, Gauld says there are “big gaps” in the narrative so “my story could take place in those big gaps”. The film was made by Tom Crowley.

Outside David Shrigley’s Brain Activity show at the Hayward Gallery, London. Photo: Siobhan Watts

Illustration has become entrenched in navel-gazing and self-authorship, says Lawrence Zeegen. Obsessed with its own craft, it has withdrawn from society’s big debates to focus on the chit-chat of inner sanctum nothingness. It’s time for the profession to stop pleasing itself and engage with the world outside

If you’ve crossed Waterloo Bridge recently, you’ve seen it. Fight The Nothingness is the rallying cry proclaimed by a billboard-sized hoarding hanging from the side of the Hayward Gallery – a made-large David Shrigley artwork that utilises his trademark hand-rendered type alongside a clenched fist, drawn in his own unique naïve illustrative style. Shrigley’s Fight The Nothingness says everything and says nothing–  a call-to-arms or bland sloganeering, a statement of intent or another vacuous dictum? Shrigley, a some-time illustrator, cartoonist and animator is an artist, and as an artist has the responsibility, and opportunity thanks to the Hayward, to pass comment on our society. However, viewed in a microcosm, Shrigley’s mantra could be seen as a wake-up call to contemporary graphic art and illustration, a discipline he has always been keen to distance himself from.

Just across the river from Shrigley and the Hayward Gallery, and yet conceptually a million miles away too, Somerset House launches Pick Me Up 2012, now in its third year, featuring the ‘newest, coolest and most exciting talent in the graphic art world’. Here is an opportunity for the discipline to take on Shrigley’s battle cry and fight the nothingness; stake a claim into new territories, challenge preconceptions, perceptions and conventions. But is anyone listening? Who outside of the cozy world of graphic art and illustration is stepping inside to sample the goods? And once inside, what is there to be discovered? Are we offered much more than contemporary eye candy? Are we offered much more than mere nothingness?

Illustration is, once again, in real danger of returning to its role as the cottage industry of the creative industries. The allure of the digital now over, the discipline has seemingly retreated into an analogue world of craft-driven aesthetics, where polite pleasantries are exchanged between illustrator and audience; an audience primarily comprised of other illustrators, albeit both student and professional.

Where is the content? Where is the comment? It’s all about the materials, rather than the message. It’s all about the quantity rather than the quality. It’s all about design doing rather than design thinking. It’s all style over content, function following form. Illustration has withdrawn from the big debates of our society to focus on the chit-chat and tittle-tattle of inner-sanctum nothingness.

Late last year’s announcement and launch of the Olympics Artists posters featuring gems by Tracey Emin, Gary Hume and Martin Creed (below) was decried nationally and internationally by graphic designers – how could such an opportunity be missed to commission the great and the good of the UK’s contemporary graphic design community?

Big protest noises from graphic design, yet deafening silence from graphic artists and illustrators. A prime example of a discipline so entrenched in navel-gazing and self-authorship that as another glossy new tome of back-to-back, jam-packed illustration arrives hot-off-the-press to take pride of place on the coffee table, it is clear that the discipline remains unable to peer over the fence at a world outside it’s own garden.

So where does illustration go next? How does the discipline move forward? If the subject has stalled, isn’t interested in reflecting upon the big issues or commenting upon the here and now, where is the future for the graphic arts? With today’s practitioners forging increasingly independent career trajectories, less dependent on commissions from within the creative industries and more focused on the creation of artefacts ­- prints, books, ‘zines, clothing, bags and badges – what drives a make-do-and-mend economy to step up and trade up? If social comment doesn’t float the boat, could big business fly the kite? Could the deciding factor in determining illustration’s future reside in a more pro-active and business-focused attitude being taken on by the sole-traders of the discipline?

A recent lecture by Barcelona-based illustrator and graphic artist Javier Mariscal, hosted by Central Saint Martins in January, showcased the work of this master of the drawn line; yet as staggering as the work itself was the breadth of work. Mariscal, interestingly a one-time official artist for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and adept at running a creative studio as a successful business, presented an immense body of work; project after project, commission after commission for a vast array of international clients – from hotel chains to fashion retail companies, from banks and financial institutions to bars, restaurants (Tragaluz shown above) and furniture manufacturers. Each and every large-scale project presented was evidence of large-scale thinking, all emanating from a studio led with passion and vision by this illustrator with a big personality and unbelievable self-belief.

But the studio model isn’t a new model, it is just a very rare one that works well – think Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast at Pushpin Studios in 1950s New York (Bad Breath anti-Vietnam War poster, 1967, above), think George Hardie and Bush Hollyhead at NTA Studios in 1970s London, think Kiki and Loulou Picasso at Bazooka in 1970s Paris. Of course, there are models of good practice in the 21st century too, but the best of what is happening appears to be in home-grown niche publishing ventures – Nobrow, the London-based independent publishers of beautiful books by illustrators; Ditto Press, print-publishers specialising in digital and analogue print for illustrators and graphic artists, and then there’s Landfill Editions, Panther Club…. Where are the illustrators, studios and collectives coming from with a will to transcend the discipline of graphic art and explore the potential for working with and communicating to a wider audience?

Peepshow Collective, interestingly not that new – having set up in 2000 – but cool and exciting nevertheless, take up their 10-day residency at Pick Me Up 2012, following in the footsteps of Rob Ryan in 2010 and Anthony Burrill in 2011. But will they seize the opportunity to promote more than mere polite graphic sloganeering? Can Peepshow, through the presentation of their event, The Museum of Objects & Origins, take up the Shrigley challenge from across the Thames and Fight the Nothingness? And if they can, will anyone other than the new, cool and exciting be watching and listening?

Lawrence Zeegen is dean of design at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. David Shrigley: Brain Activity is at the Hayward Gallery until May 13. Pick Me Up is at Somerset House from March 22 to April 1

CR in Print

The above article also appears in the March issue of Creative Review magazine and is an example of the longer form content readers can enjoy in print. Our March issue is an illustration special whihc also has features on Clifford Richards, Pick Me Up, the relationship between illustrators and writers and the making of the cover of the New York Times Magazine.

The best way to make sure you receive CR in print every month is to subscribe – you will also save money and receive our award-winning Monograph booklet every month. You can do so here.