Messages

My hostility?? Listen mate, don't worry about - we won't be having anymore internet disputes because you're going on the ignore list. Prick.

I don't think you know what you want Fonky, or give a shit. I think you just get a kick out of stirring things up for the sake of it.

Agreed Preacher, I've got the first two of these mammoth collections and have absolutely adored them, great news about the third too.

Ooh, I've just ordered the first trade, can't wait to get it.

This thread should be nuked. I honestly think Fonky was sent here by malignant forces to try to confuse, bait and just plain annoy us all. In future when you start a thread like this Fonky, I'm not going to bother responding at all.

I absolutely love 'The Company of Wolves'.

Nice.

My liking of a work of art on a gut level has nothing to do with content necessarily, and is more often precisely because of the form. I appreciate what you say about dead white males being officially recognised as canonical, but you're never going to convince me that painting peaked with Picasso.

I think we're just diametrically opposed in our worldviews Fonky. I'm not really interested in arriving at a consensus on the best example of a work in any medium. I'm just on this earth to respond to works of art that I love personally.

True enough James. I haven't seen the Duellists for years - will have to check it out again, cheers for the reminder guys 

[Surfer Blood]

That's a beautiful sleeve Stevie, makes me want to give it a listen based on that alone.

Currently hammering Surfer Blood - their album Astro Coast is a blinder!

In complete agreement that Scott hasn't made a truly great film for eons, but for some reason I've gone and got all worked up about this film. Something about it promises greatness - the cast, the production values, the story, the cinematography - all of this gleaned from what tiny excerpts I've seen so far of course, and I@m fully aware it may be a case of Phantom Menace syndrome - ie having faith in a hack director to recapture what made them fleetingly great about 30 years ago (I did it with every one of the SW prequels - 'I know the last one was shit, but THIS time he'll do it, he'll recapture the magic and it'll be like old times!').

Still, Scott did give us Blade Runner and Alien (and Legend, seriously, I love that movie), so let's wait and see.

Plus my favourite painters came after the advent of photography. Photography wasn't the death knell of painting, just photo-realism in painting (thank god), and just inspired painters to push the form, hence expressionism.

There must come a point when any medium reaches it's zenith and is exhausted and can't be surpassed.

Films are a long way off from this.

The novel form reached it's zenith with the likes of Joyce, painting with Picasso and the advent of photography.

Surely a time comes when you are just churninig out the same stuff and repeating yourself?

Fonky those are some pretty grand sweeping statements there. The older I get the more I believe everything is subjective. I've studied art all my life but personally Picasso's never done a thing for me. I understand why he's lauded though, it's just that I don't like them on a gut level (as opposed to appreciate them on a critical level).

Care to give a little more detail Grimm?

You did ask for that in your original post didn't you? Well, it's not really my style to argue why something is good, it's just a current favourite of mine. For me, it's everything I love about comics, done really well. Guy Davis' art - mindblowing creature design, deceptively simple line work (on the surface of it) but in reality there's so much going on and suggested in those scribbles.

Dave Stewart - his colour palette is second to none. I'm colouring a GN for Accent UK myself at the moment and the writer steered me towards Stewart for inspiration, and I've slowly realised he's everywhere - American Vampire, Umbrella Academy, Joe the Barbarian, Hellboy & The BPRD. Plus he's another one who deals in simplicity - something which itself looks easy to pull off but is actually massively difficult.

Mignola is just a master at what he does. His covers are so striking in their sense of design and minimalism it's ridiculous. And again, another case of less is most definitely more.

And John Arcudi just writes a mean tale.

Caveat: I always have far more to say about the art than the writing I guess, but then that's my background and the visuals are the main reason I read comics.

BPRD written by John Arcudi, drawn by Guy Davis and coloured by Dave Stewart with covers by Mignola = comics perfection.