The Ephemerist

Comics remix

sparehed — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:51:02 +0000

What happens if you cross the storylines (and covers) of two of the most iconic of all Franco-Belgian comics ? Blake & Mortimer vs Tintin, that’s what !

Books, not spinach

sparehed — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:13:50 +0000

Popeye keeps popping up in advertisments across the world. Ads of the World’s latest example is this poster, for the Asociación Salvadoreña de Agencias de Publicidad in El Salvador. It would seem that, in order to become strong, you’d better feed your head. Concept and illustration by Estivens Romero

Randall for hbl.be

sparehed — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:09:50 +0000

Het Besloten Land, only the best comics store in Belgium, just launched its new website. This time, Flemish cartoonist and knowitall Randall.C provided the illustrations. And they look pretty !

Unmasked

sparehed — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:25:34 +0000

With Halloween just around the corner, it’s only fitting that The New Yorker magazine included a strip by Chris Ware on the subject of hiding, masks and disguises in its annual Cartoon Issue. You can read the whole four-page piece in glorious hi-res online.

Also in the website is a cartoon kit competition with art by Alex Gregory. In the paper magazine, you’ll also find cartoons by P. C. Vey, Frank Cotham, Bruce Eric Kaplan, William Haefeli, Victoria Roberts, Matthew Diffee, Drew Dernavich, Mike Twohy, David Sipress, and Jack Ziegler, and a hilarious take on Facebook by Roz Chast.

Googlix !

sparehed — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:15:27 +0000

Today everybody celebrated the 50th anniversary of the famed French comic star Astérix, and even Google joined in the fun.

Instead of ketchup

sparehed — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:42:03 +0000

Indeed, in Holland, they drown their fries in mayonnaise – see the soundbite below.

But apparently they’re also keen on different condiments, as this cover by Luc Cromheecke for a future issue of the Dutch comic magazine Eppo illustrates.

Van der Veken for The New Yorker

sparehed — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:50:45 +0000

Flemish illustrator Jan Van Der Veken will be doing the cover to the January 11, 2010 issue of The New Yorker. Last week he announced on his Facebook page that his design had been approved, but this morning Flemish comics news blog Stripgids made it official.

Congrats, Jan !

Burns for Brooklyn Festival

sparehed — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:34:36 +0000

Charles Burns created this illustration for this year’s edition of the biannual Brooklyn Comics And Graphics Festival. I like the realistic Nancy and Tintin !

(via The Beat)

Adidas Comics

sparehed — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:09:05 +0000

In order to promote its soccer gear, German sportswear manufacturer Adidas has published three online comics on its website, featuring three of its star players (Emmanuel Adebayor, Steven Gerrard, and Ricardo Kaka). The comics feature artwork by Jae Lee, JG Jones, and Ryan Benjamin, and are available as an online page-flip affair, or as a pdf or cbz for download. I like the way an ad-hoc file format like cbz is slowly gaining recognition as a bona fide distribution format.

Later, the stories will be collected in a hardcover book that will be for sale in Adidas stores around the world.

Ford for Adventure !

sparehed — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:21:52 +0000

Continuing the theme of 60’s adventure comics in advertisments, this campaign by Ogilvy, London for Ford tries to shift the focus with regard to SUV’s back to adventure and fun. Your dad’s 4X4, instead of a gas-guzzling example of a-social behavior.

The illustrator on this campaign was Mark Thomas, typography was by Mark Osbourne. Check out Ads of the World for two more examples.