RESEARCHING COMICS ART: Third Reading

Comics May 11, 2022

Welcome to another visit to my modest library collection of titles related to comics art…where I hone in on a small section of books on my shelves…select a book or two or three from that section…and take a closer look. As previously stated, the books are not shelved following standard library rules. They are stacked more by size than specific subject. They generally all have some connection with comics art…being either comics, collections of comics or histories and critiques of comics.

This post is a bit of a mixed bag…from Gahan Wilson’s PLAYBOY cartoons out of North America…across to France and the classic comics art of Emile Cohl…then down to Asia and surveys of manga including one from Great Britain! Finally, back to the USA for an appearance by the work of Ivan Brunetti. (Photo-©2022 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)
This is one book of a three volume set from Gahan Wilson of Playboy cartoon fame…below there is a photo I took of him at the Comic Con in San Diego in 2000. It was great to get to that amazing USA event Comic-Con and very privileged to be present at his presentation. (Photo-©2022 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)
He said some wonderful things about his job with PLAYBOY Magazine…about the generous amount of time he was given to produce his cartoons…and the supportive management he received from Hugh Hefner. He also approved of the generous remuneration Hugh provided. That’s another cartoonist, Sergio Aragones of MAD Magazine fame, sitting opposite Gahan. (Photo-©2000 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)
There’s my Professional Pass to COMIC-CON with the Gahan Wilson illustration. (Photo-©2000 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)
The wonderful illustrative style and humour of William Steig can be studied in abundance in this large volume. (Photo-©2022 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)
A biographical study of the French artist Emile Cohl, an important figure in the development of comic art and film. (Photo-©2022 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics) See My Comics Art Travels post on France for a visit to his memorial site.

And a brief visit to the field of manga…from a British perspective this time…with a detailed publication…based on an exhibition of manga staged at the British Museum from 23 May to 26 August 2019…and I just happened to be in London that month. Oh joy! Cited as “the modern graphic art of storytelling” by the Museum’s Director Hartwig Fischer…in this exhibition catalogue of 350 pages where manga is both celebrated and studied.

The MANGA exhibition catalogue for the British Museum.

And to conclude this post there are two Ivan Brunetti books. Misery Loves Comedy: the dust jacket was missing from this book when I bought it…probably stolen according to the bookshop staff…but I bought it anyway. I wasn’t going to deprive myself of his brutal humour over a cover…and being a collection of his work it had three covers in it in any case!

This Brunetti comic contains a complete collection of his early work…the first three issues of his comic SCHIZO published by Fantagraphics Books. Above is the cover of Issue No. 1. (Photo-©2022 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)

My RESEARCH posts form part of my graphic based material…that includes the fields of painting, printmaking and cartooning…including artwork for my comic and graphic novel BLOTTING PAPER: The Recollected Graphical Impressions of Doctor Comics…plus my scholarly research and study of the comics medium.

          (All text, photos and artwork-©2022 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).

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Co-creator and former Director of the Master of Animation, Master of Design, and Visual Communication Design courses at the University of Technology, Sydney, Dr. Michael Hill has a Master's degree in animation plus a Ph.D. in comics studies, prompting his introduction on ABC Radio as “Doctor Comics”. A member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Comic Art, and former member of the Comics Grid Journal of Comics Scholarship and the Advisory Committee of the Q-Collection Comic Book Preservation Project, he has delivered public lectures on Comics, Anime and Manga and held academic directorships in Interdisciplinary Studies, Animation, Design and Visual Communication. Having retired from academia and completing the donation of his collection of research materials on Australian alternative comics to the National Library of Australia, he is now active in the artistic domain, writing, drawing and printmaking, creating art postcards and prints and his own graphic novel: Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions of Doctor Comics.

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