Category: Film

PRINT Fish Three

Art, Comics, Film, Japanning June 5, 2017

This is the third post on the fish prints I made with woodblock printmaking techniques for the experimental animated film Toxic Fish. The fish in this sequence is the Kohada or Gizzard Shad. Its static shape on the woodblock contrasts with the flooding of coloured toxins around it.

Inking prints for the animation in the studio.

Other posts of my graphic based material include: THE GRAFIK GUITAR BOOKBINDING THE GRAFIK GUITAR CARTOON MORE CARTOONS RESEARCH CARTOONS UNIVERSITY CARTOONS POSTCARD POSTCARD-Second Series POSTCARD-Fourth Series PRINT Fish One PRINT Fish Two PRINT Fish Three SCRAPBOOK SCRAPBOOK-More Pages SCRAPBOOK-A Few Pages More and my artist book/comic BLOTTING PAPER: Issue #1: No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8 No.9 No.10 No.11 No.12 No.13 Issue #2: No.14 No.15 No.16 No.17 No.18 No.19 No.20 No.21 No.22 No.23 No.24 No.25 No.26 No.27 No.28 No.29 Issue #3: No.30 No.31 No.32 No.33 No.34 No.35 No.36 Issue #4: No.37 No.38 No.39 No.40 No.41 No.42 No.43 No.44 Issue #5: No.45 No.46 No.47 No.48

PRINT Fish Two

Art, Comics, Film, Japanning January 28, 2017

This is the second post in my series of fish prints made using the woodblock printmaking method for my experimental animated film titled Toxic Fish. As the ocean fish are poisoned their bodies swell up then disintegrate. The static shape of the fish from the woodblock holds firm at first before being flooded by toxins. The method employed was to gradually over-ink the block so that details were dampened into puddles and definition reduced.

A woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for the animated film Toxic Fish-© 1990 Michael Hill.

Here is a photo of me carving one of the blocks using a Japanese chisel. Warning! This is not the safe way to do it. It should be done on a fixed bench and one should carve away from, not towards, oneself. The photo is condensed pose of the process for promotional purposes.

Hand carving one of the woodblocks for the animated film Toxic Fish-Photograph © 1990 Demetra Christopher.

If you liked this post you might like to look at others on my Blog. PRINT Fish One PRINT Fish Two PRINT Fish Three

SCRAPBOOK: A Few Pages More

Art, Comics, Film, Japanning August 22, 2016

In this post I’m adding even more sample pages from my scrapbook, the previous postings of which can be found here and there. There is only one copy of the scrapbook so I like to think of it as another constructed artist book of mine. It contains images of other people’s work that I admire along with some assorted memorabilia of my own. These are images that I have collected and arranged, and in some cases, altered.

Japanese anime magazine with emphasis on profiling new work.

A Japanese anime magazine with an emphasis on the profiling of new work. One of the first Japanese words I learned from hearing it so often on TV was atarashi, meaning new.

Lex Luthor discovers his artistic side and has fun with paint.

Mixed Bag, from Nara and Mizuki to Van Gogh. I like the idea of using notebooks as well as some of the forgotten images you can find in them.

Baseball cover for Peanuts collection with Schulz’s wonderful criss-cross ink-line representation of grass.

Sports page-Formula One and Football.

Some Kamishibai cards.

San Francisco, sand and sea-the postcard is Californian but the beach is Australian.

Manga Bat Wing and monster on painted sea page. The comics panel is from a Japanese version of Batman.

Eisenstein with cats and dog and mouse-Krazy, Mickey and Norakuro.

Closure.

Posts of my graphic based material include: THE GRAFIK GUITAR BOOKBINDING THE GRAFIK GUITAR CARTOON MORE CARTOONS RESEARCH CARTOONS UNIVERSITY CARTOONS POSTCARD POSTCARD-Second Series POSTCARD-Third Series POSTCARD-Fourth Series PRINT Fish One PRINT Fish Two SCRAPBOOK SCRAPBOOK-More Pages SCRAPBOOK-A Few Pages More and the posts on production of my artist book/comic BLOTTING PAPER: Issue #1: No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8 No.9 No.10 No.11 No.12 No.13 Issue #2: No.14 No.15 No.16 No.17 No.18 No.19 No.20 No.21 No.22 No.23 No.24 No.25 No.26 No.27 No.28 No.29 Issue #3: No.30 No.31 No.32 No.33 No.34 No.35 No.36 Issue #4: No.37 No.38 No.39 No.40 No.41 No.42 No.43 No.44 Issue #5: No.45 No.46 No.47 No.48

PRINT Fish One

Art, Film, Japanning July 23, 2016

This series of posts will profile a collection of creative prints that I have made over the years, beginning with a series of fish. Using the woodblock printmaking method with variations in inking to make monoprints, the prints made could be used in animation. Seven species of fish were featured, the first of which, featured here, was the Japanese Tai or sea bream. I was very attracted to the idea of working in either animation or printmaking at the time but found it difficult to choose between the two. I found the answer in combining both mediums. Animation’s enormous greed for artwork could be more speedily satiated by using the print medium. I was doubly happy but have since settled on making comics which falls in the space somewhere in-between the other two.

Shooting my 1990 animation Toxic Fish on the Oxberry animation rostrum camera with artwork produced from woodblock printmaking.

Posts of my graphic based material include: THE GRAFIK GUITAR BOOKBINDING THE GRAFIK GUITAR CARTOON MORE CARTOONS RESEARCH CARTOONS UNIVERSITY CARTOONS POSTCARD POSTCARD-Second Series POSTCARD-Fourth Series PRINT Fish One PRINT Fish Two PRINT Fish Three SCRAPBOOK SCRAPBOOK-More Pages SCRAPBOOK-A Few Pages More and the posts on my artist book/comic BLOTTING PAPER: Issue #1: No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8 No.9 No.10 No.11 No.12 No.13 Issue #2: No.14 No.15 No.16 No.17 No.18 No.19 No.20 No.21 No.22 No.23 No.24 No.25 No.26 No.27 No.28 No.29 Issue #3: No.30 No.31 No.32 No.33 No.34 No.35 No.36 Issue #4: No.37 No.38 No.39 No.40 No.41 No.42 No.43 No.44 Issue #5: No.45 No.46 No.47 No.48

SCRAPBOOK: More Pages

Art, Comics, Film, Japanning January 11, 2016

In this post I am adding more sample pages from my scrapbook, the initial posting of which can be found here. There is only one copy and it contains collages of images of other people’s work that I admire along with assorted memorabilia of my own.

Scrapbook page 1

Above-collage of scenes from Walt Disney studio production, clockwise from top left: me visiting their studio in Burbank where I was able to study studied storyboards from their morgue; mixing colour; making synchronised soundtracks; character paint set merchandise.

Scrapbook page 2

Above-Osamu Tezuka at work at Mushi Productions making anime; early Mazzucchelli superhero drawing; spool of recording tape; Tetsujin 28-go manga cover; Klaus Voormann cover design for The Beatles album Revolver.

Scrapbook page 3

Above-mixed bag of Tatsunoko Production studio interior; Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Time Out cover designed by Sadamitsu Fujita; Shigeru Mizuki manga; Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps without their blue caps plus one of my signature stamps.

Scrapbook page 4

Above-Kamishibai frame and carry case; plus Yoshihiro Tatsumi gekiga manga panel from GARO magazine.

Scrapbook page 6

Above-Kyoto street and shop scenes; cartoon characterised Kansai airport tax card in Osaka; Mamoru Oshii; Fujii TV outside broadcast van; Tokyo record store receipt; assorted cartoon stickers and stamps including Doraemon and What’s Michael?

Scrapbook page 9

Above- postage stamps; B & W photo of Yayoi Kusama; illustration by Aya Takano; and centrepiece photo of my postcard printmaking production set-up (the black shape on the corner of the table is our studio cat, Tabi, quality controller of production).

Scrapbook page 5

Above- me sketching in the Botanical Garden at U.C.L.A.; and studying the Aztec Sun Stone in Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery in Hollywood Hills; bookshop postcard, Tokyo.

This book is still under construction but more pages may be posted in the future. Posts of my graphic based material include: THE GRAFIK GUITAR BOOKBINDING THE GRAFIK GUITAR CARTOON MORE CARTOONS RESEARCH CARTOONS UNIVERSITY CARTOONS POSTCARD POSTCARD-Second Series POSTCARD-Third Series POSTCARD-Fourth Series PRINT Fish One PRINT Fish Two SCRAPBOOK SCRAPBOOK-More Pages SCRAPBOOK-A Few Pages More and the posts on production of my artist book/comic BLOTTING PAPER: Issue #1: No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8 No.9 No.10 No.11 No.12 No.13 Issue #2: No.14 No.15 No.16 No.17 No.18 No.19 No.20 No.21 No.22 No.23 No.24 No.25 No.26 No.27 No.28 No.29 Issue #3: No.30 No.31 No.32 No.33 No.34 No.35 No.36 Issue #4: No.37 No.38 No.39 No.40 No.41 No.42 No.43 No.44 Issue #5: No.45 No.46 No.47 No.48

SCRAPBOOK

Art, Coffee Table, Comics, Film, Germania, Japanning June 7, 2015

In this post I am profiling another artist book I have made…my scrapbook. Only one copy, it contains images of other people’s work that I admire along with assorted memorabilia of my own. This book is not yet finished but once filled will possibly lead to another one. It does have some history though. Subsequent posts will be added to this one and the content of the book may change over time as images and pages are altered, removed and added. To begin with here are some sample page-spreads.

Double page scrapbook spread in progress.

Double page spread in progress.

Starting with a blank paged, hard-covered sketch book I covered the covers with cloth then painted some of the double page spreads in various colours and a range of textures. To these I added images that I had collected or made, gluing them onto the pages, sometimes in random fashion and other times in related groupings. This relationship might be in terms of colour or commonality of subject or simply a whimsical choice. The above spread shows Kamishibai frame boards on the left and animation drawings by the cartoonist Chuck Jones on the right.

Double page spread in progress.

This spread juxtaposes a theatrical illustration with an add for a Gary Panter book. The white blotch at the join is accidental resulting from torn paper from the closing of pages before the paint had dried then re-opening them. It looks good though, I think.

Double page spread-prints and seals.

Above are some printmaking images and a selection of Chinese seals.

Double page French spread.

Front cover has been covered with cloth.

Top edge shows extent of painted and pasted pages.

Side view of scrapbook on table.

Posts of my graphic based material include: THE GRAFIK GUITAR BOOKBINDING THE GRAFIK GUITAR CARTOON MORE CARTOONS RESEARCH CARTOONS UNIVERSITY CARTOONS POSTCARD POSTCARD-Second Series POSTCARD-Fourth Series PRINT Fish One PRINT Fish Two SCRAPBOOK SCRAPBOOK-More Pages SCRAPBOOK-A Few Pages More and the posts on production of my artist book/comic BLOTTING PAPER: Issue #1: No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8 No.9 No.10 No.11 No.12 No.13 Issue #2: No.14 No.15 No.16 No.17 No.18 No.19 No.20 No.21 No.22 No.23 No.24 No.25 No.26 No.27 No.28 No.29 Issue #3: No.30 No.31 No.32 No.33 No.34 No.35 No.36 Issue #4: No.37 No.38 No.39 No.40 No.41 No.42 No.43 No.44 Issue #5: No.45 No.46 No.47 No.48

ART AND TERROR WALKING TOUR-BERLIN

Art, Film, Germania September 19, 2014

On a recent walking tour of Mitte in Berlin with friend, former student, now animator, illustrator and printmaker Michelle Park, other walking tours crossed our path. It was a busy morning for walking tours in Berlin. Starting out in Bezirk Kreuzburg we passed the Deutsches Currywurst Museum in Schützenstraße, Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Friedrichstraße, then walked along Niederkirchnerstraße to the old Gestapo and SS Headquarters site.

Michael Hill and Michelle Park walking in Berlin. (Photo-© 2014 Louise Graber)

The Headquarters building had taken a direct hit from English bombing during World War II and was demolished after the war. It is now an open-air museum Topography Des Terrors (Topography of Terror) with some remaining rubble, a section of the Berlin Wall(without the barbed wire) plus information placards and a new building with displayed information. The exhibition on show was called Errfast, Verfolgt, Vernichtet (Registered, Persecuted, Annihilated). It was both grim and candid about the horror that had taken place there.

Site of Gestapo Headquarters. (Photo-© 2014 Michael Hill)

Section of Wall still standing. (Photo-© 2014 Michael Hill)

Next door at Martin Gropius Bau museum was the Hans Richter exhibition Begegnungen, Von Dada Bis Heute (Encounters: From Dada to the Present Day) that was part of the Berlin Festival, the David Bowie exhibition from London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s Evidence. This building had also suffered from the bombing, not as much as the Gestapo site, and had been restored except from some scarification from shrapnel and bullets.

Decorative fascia on column at entrance to Martin Gropius Bau museum. (Photo-© 2014 Michael Hill)

With both of us interested in animation and printmaking I wanted to show Michelle this wonderful exhibition of the artistic career of Hans Richter who had been born in Berlin in 1888 and was a key figure in 20th Century art and animation. Three sides of Martin Gropius Bau had been allocated so a lot of walking was required to cover the space filled with his woodcuts and paintings, his contributions to Dada including Dada magazine and his own zine G -Material zur elementarun Gestaltung (Material for elementary design), his experiments with painted scrolls that led him to the discovery of displaying images in motion through animation, his abstract animations and live-action films including Dreams That Money Can Buy, and some home movies, plus documentation of his film teaching work in New York. Added to this were works by colleagues Max Ernst, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Hans Arp, Raoul Hausmann, George Grosz, Francis Picabia, Viking Eggeling, Alexander Calder and Kurt Schwitters. Richter was a well connected man.

Hans Richter exhibition pamphlet at Martin Gropius Bau.

DADA: art and anti-art by Hans Richter.

With a life’s work on display there was so much inter-connected visual material in the exhibition that we found ourselves walking back and forth. We could have spent 4 or 5 hours watching the films, videos and documentaries alone. It was an exhibition that called for fresh legs and more than one visit. Good art, big show!

Blauer Mann, 1917, by Hans Richter

Visionary self-portrait by Hans Richter.

Stalingrad (Sieg im Osten) scroll painting by Hans Richter.

Stalingrad (Sieg im Osten) (Victory in the East), scroll painting by Hans Richter.

Dada-Kopf painting by Hans Richter.

Archive of Australian Alternative Comics: IMAGINARY WORLDS SYMPOSIUM

Archive of Australian Alternative Comics, Art, Comics, Film January 22, 2014

This symposium continued the association between the University of Technology, Sydney and Supanova of staging comics related academic events. In this case topics were not confined to the study of comics in general nor Australian alternative comics in particular. Rather, the papers reflected a more wide-ranging list of subjects that included connections between comics and fashion, film, animation, literature, calligraphy and computer games. There was even a presentation on the design of comics for young readers with vision impairment. The range of topics reflected a broader range of the university’s teaching and research areas and also had resonance with Supanova’s own broadening interests that had spread from an initial focus on comics (it was originally known as ComicFest) to a wider pop culture spread.

Page from the SUPANOVA program listing the event.

This symposium researchers focused on the use of the design elements of image and space and the manipulation of these in the creation of fantasy worlds in these various media forms. Co-curated by Dr. Vicki Karaminas and I the symposium was staged at the UTS city campus in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building on 14th October 2005 and was opened by the Dean of that faculty. This is the fifteenth in a series of posts called Archives of Australian Comics History that document moments in the recent history of Australian comics, particularly alternative comics and the Australian Small Press, however, as stated above, this post has a broader orientation. I started researching this subject in the late 1990s and it eventually led to my PhD thesis and doctorate: Ph.D. Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy, A Study Of Contemporary Australian Alternative Comics 1992-2000 With Particular Reference To The Work Of Naylor, Smith, Danko And Ord, 2003. On completion of the research I donated the materials and comics I had collected to the National Library of Australia: Michael Hill Collection of Australian Comics. Posts in Archives of Australian Comics History: Comic-Fest Comics in Record Shops Comics Workshops Down Under Ground Getting SMASH(ed)! Imaginary Worlds Symposium International Exhibition of Drawings OZCON Mind Rot Savage Pencils Sick Puppy Comix TiNA Arena MCA Zine Fair 2002 Sequential Art Studies Conference 2nd Sequential Art Studies Conference

COFFEE TABLE another fix

Art, Coffee Table, Comics, Film, Japanning January 19, 2013

There are football comics on the coffee table this month. Last year I saw a really good FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Brisbane between Australia (Socceroos) and Japan (Blue Samurai) and recently I attended a Sydney FC match and witnessed the Italian master Alessandro Del Piero (a.k.a. the little painter) play. Del Piero says he was inspired to play football by the Japanese anime and manga character Captain Tsubasa (see image below). Growing up in Australia with the SBS television broadcaster, the Special Broadcasting Service, I was aware of football’s cultural origins. Due to its coverage of ethnic programs SBS became an amusing acronym in the schoolyard for ‘Soccer Bloody Soccer’ especially for followers of the other football codes such as rugby league, rugby union and Australian rules, and later with it’s screening of adult art films prior to the early morning broadcast of live football matches from Europe, ‘Sex Before Soccer’.

Comic Book Guy red carded for invading the pitch. (Photo and staging by Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)

So some of my set of Simpsons soccer figures and Comic Book Guy comics are in play this time with the cast kitted out to fill a couple of soccer teams and Mr. Burns as the referee. Comic Book Guy seems to be miscast here, invading the playing field and shown the red card for not being a member of either team. There is no sign of the ball, lost perhaps in the long grass. Springfield is not known for its smooth playing surfaces. Perhaps Homer was supposed to mow it?

Comic Book Guy in his own series plus his enormous cosplay effort on Free Comic Book Day.

The Jack Kirby cover for the first issue of The Fantastic Four.

In the recent comic book series Death of Comic Book Guy, the first issue cover is a pastiche of the Jack Kirby design for The Fantastic Four #1 back in November 1961 with Comic Book Guy trading places with The Thing, Bart with Human Torch, and Homer with Invisible Girl(see above). Oh, did I forget to mention Billy the Fish?

Captain Tsubasa manga: Road To 2002 Vol.10 (2002 FIFA World Cup campaign)

All of the figurines in the set.

Springfield's finest-Homer with ball-Simpsons soccer trading card.

Springfield’s finest-Homer’s ball control. The Simpsons soccer trading card.

Grampa stops the ball in The Simpsons Springfield soccer team trading cards.

UPDATE #1(February 2014): The Simpsons show is currently cartoonising some of the members of English Premier League club, and my adopted team as I lived near the team’s ground in London back in the 1970s, Chelsea FC. (L to R in the photo below) are Eden Hazard, Fernando Torres, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Petr Cech.

Chelsea FC players standing behind their Simpsonised characters.

GIGANTOR AND GOJIRA IN THE HOUSE

Art, Comics, Film, Japanning April 1, 2012

I’m happy to now have two three dimensional flat sculptures of Gigantor and Gojira on the kitchen walls of our house: Gigantor the giant, remote controlled, peace-keeping robot, based on the manga Tetsujin 28-go (Iron man No.28) by Mitsuteru Yokoyama and adapted for animation, plus Gojira (Godzilla) star of the famous Japanese movie directed by Ishirō Honda. These plaques are the work of model maker, artist and comics creator Lewis P. Morley and were exhibited just last month at a gallery in Redfern, Sydney. Once installed, Lewis agreed to attend to their christening.

Gigantor installed… (Photograph by Louise Graber)

…above the stove in the kitchen. (Photograph and ceramic tile design by Louise Graber)

I have always thought that Gigantor’s body resembled a pot-bellied stove so I decided that it was appropriate he be positioned above the stove. His clunky design with rivets and pistons, prior to those more elegant mobile suit robots, such as Gundam that succeeded him, have some resonance with the metal stove and the various pots and pans on the shelves.

Gojira installed on the Japanese graduated toned wall. (Photograph by Louise Graber)

The whale eating Gojira, on the other hand, coming from the depths of the ocean and memorably seen in the 1954 Godzilla movie wading through Tokyo Bay, had to go over the kitchen sink.

Lewis and his magic silver signing pen signing Gojira. (Photograph by Louise Graber)

Christening Gigantor in steampunk style with steam from a boiling kettle. (Photograph and ceramic tile design by Louise Graber)

Christening Gojira with water from a metal jug. (Photograph by Louise Graber)

Job done: the artist poses in front of the installation. (Photograph and ceramic tile design by Louise Graber)

It was very kind of Lewis to come over, wearing his Gundam T-shirt and perform this ritual. He now has visiting rights. This post was first published on the Doctor Comictopus blog.

Doctor Comictopus alias for Michael Hill Ph.D (a.k.a. Doctor Comics) designed by Michelle Park.

UPDATE: GODZILLA GETS RESIDENCY CERTIFICATE IN TOKYO, June 2015

News photo: Godzilla officially welcomed to Shinjuku by the Mayor.

UPDATE: POSTER DESIGNS FOR THE NEW SHIN GODZILLA FILM, April 2017