By Brandon Graham (PictureBox)
ISBN: 978-0-9851595-9-7
Autumn is officially here, with its fire-storms, droughts and sunburns, so it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the Holiday Season is inescapably close. After all, the Christmas films have been playing on Sky Movies since early March…
Seriously though, if you’re prudent, it is time to start looking at gifts for your loved ones or family, and here’s one of the prettiest and most intriguing comics art-books I’ve seen in many a year…
Brandon Graham was born in Oregon in 1976, an inveterate graffiti artist who seamlessly turned his graphic gifts and narrative flair to comicbook storytelling, beginning with Ameri-manga publisher Antarctic Press (October Yen) in 1996, dividing his time with Alternative or Independent Publisher projects and gracing the mainstream with work for Image, NMB, IDW and Vertigo.
He is a founder member of artistic collective MeatHaus, and if you like comedy, science fiction, erotica, manga and Moebius, you might want to seek out collections such as King City, 24Seven, Escalator, Multiple Warheads, Perverts of the Unknown and others – as well as this book…
Walrus is a monochrome and colour compendium of “Drawings and Sketchbook Comics from 2009-2011â€, featuring artworks, working roughs, calligraphy, rendered thoughts and idle musings, finished pieces and found imagery that serve to introduce viewers into a beguiling world of fantastic futurity and mesmerising wonderment – and there are weird critters and hot chicks…
A roughly comicbook-sized paperback (112 pages, 240x173mm) with a beautiful gatefold cover, this marvellous compendium comprises snippets of reportage, designs, roughs and layouts from finished stories.
There are moments of tenderness and intimacy, peeks into the creative process, bizarre moments of communal reality, caricatures, gags, spoofs of and tributes to comics and movies (such as Fantastic Four #9, Dirty Pair, Conan and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly), a commemoration of Moebius (The Long Goodbye), deliciously funny and whimsical gags, complete stories such as ‘Far North’, ‘Work Weak’ and ‘Today in the Life’ plus a preponderance of pages dedicated to evocative, seductive post-modern glamour art.
Punky, funky, enduring, enchanting and sublimely entertaining, this is another perfect example of the kind of book that makes the reader hungry to get out and draw stories now! Now!! NOW!!!
…As well as being just plain wonderful to see.
All art-forms need such creators and Walrus might well be the book to get you – or your kids – off the couch and into a studio.
© 2013 Brandon Graham. All rights reserved.