Doctor Comics

MY COMICS ART TRAVELS: Australia.

Comics November 22, 2022

On my travels to comics art and animation events, galleries, museums and stores, I have endeavoured to study other creators’ works. Sometimes I have even managed to meet and chat with them. I met legendary Australian cartoonist Jim Russell at a comics event in Sydney in February 1994. What a comics art hero and really nice guy! We had a very good chat. There is also some mention of my role in education carrying the comics flag in Australia. This includes the staging of the first comics conference to be held in Australia,. This was the 2002 Sequential Art Studies Conference. It took place on April 19, 2002 in Sydney at the University of Technology. To begin this post, a brief mention of another legendary creator and things anime and manga… when they started to impact on the local comics and animation scene in Australia.

_{There was a lot of interest in anime and manga amongst my students at the University of Technology, Sydney. When Ghost In The Shell director Mamoru Oshii visited Sydney, he met with fans. He also attended a screening of his film at the Glebe Art Cinema in Sydney’s Inner West. (Photo-©1999 Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{I took a group of my students to see the exhibition, TEZUKA: The Marvel Of Manga. It was at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It covered a selection of Osamu Tezuka’s massive amount of manga work plus references to his anime work.}

_{Based in Sydney, the bookshop HONDARAKE full of books was a good source of manga material. I made good use of this when teaching at the University of Technology, Sydney(UTS). The store obtained regular new additions from travellers returning from visits to Japan… also from Japanese coming to stay in Sydney and wanting to offload some of their collections. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

_{OZCON, Sydney comics convention program promoted superhero comics, local Australian work and the burgeoning manga boom. The cover design has Spiderman swinging from the Sydney Harbour Bridge with the Sydney Opera House in the background.}

_{Cosplayers rehearsing on the roof of a building at the back of the Sydney Town Hall for a manga convention. They were preparing for a parade on the stage downstairs. (Photo-©1999 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{I met major Australian cartoonist Jim Russell at a comics convention in Sydney in 1994…where he was launching his instructional video on cartooning! We had a good conversation about cartooning and his career in that field. (See first paragraph of this post, above.)}

_{I am a member of the International Journal of Comic Art’s International Editorial Board as Australian representative…I first met up with the Journal’s editor John A. Lent at a comics conference in Washington, D.C. in 1999 to which he had brought along the first issue of the journal. (Photo-©2018 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

NOTE: TO BE ADDED-Call For Papers notice for first conference on comics in Australia…organised by myself and staged at UTS.

_{I have received invitations to diplomatic meetings and events for representing the study of the comics medium…(this is from a page from my own comic BLOTTING PAPER: The Recollected Graphical Impressions of Doctor Comics.) (Photo-© 2002 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{I also participated in a comics based group show at a gallery in Sydney as a comics artist. (Photo-©2003 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{A post University career promotional sheet as Doctor Comics, written and designed by my excellent agent Andrew Hawkins.}

_{For my academic career details see the CRITIQUING page…and for my creative profile see the CREATING page on this website.}

_{MY TRAVELS posts form part of my graphic based material that includes painting, printmaking and cartooning.}

IN THE STUDIO-Session 3

Art, art postcards, Comics, experimental, in the studio, printmaking August 15, 2022

These graphic production stage series of posts were made over several years. They show selected, shots of the “making” stage and my methodology…whether for animation, comics, postcards, prints or paintings, in a small studio setting, with music playing in the background. I always work to music. Sometimes I include an image or thought about the music I was listening to in the studio that day. Some photos show the music equipment and/or the selected CD I was listening to at that session.

_{Working on my graphic novel BLOTTING PAPER here…you can see the title block around the middle of the photo, towards the top….it’s a printmaking moment…the letters of the title are in reverse in this photo…when printed will be the right way round. I use printmaking a lot in the generation of images. That drop-cloth underneath all of the objects has a history of being printed on…a wonderfully random pattern of spillages and stains. (Photo and artwork-©2013 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{I can take this case with me if I happen to be working on location somewhere, like in a park. You can see that it is quite battered but it still closes shut, firmly…and is chock-a-block full of printmaking bits and pieces. There are some different versions of my signature stamp printed on the box in the case that contains these stamps. (Photo-©2013 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{I also have a tin of colour pencils…I love those water-based aquarelle types…the brush and the water dish is for use on pencil marks…I go over the lines with a wet brush to make the drawing appear painted or inked. There are also a couple of rulers, one wooden, the other steel…useful for measurement or obtaining a straight edge to an image…plus pencil shavings and part of a CD cover. Those versions of my signature stamp, mentioned above, are more visible here…there are no fewer than 5 of them on the lid of the box that contains them. (Photo and artwork-©2015 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Or I can start with some wet drawing with a brush dipped in ink…still in the studio. There’s a linocut block face down on the drop-cloth here, next to some brushes and an open jar of ink. (Photo and artwork-©2018 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{I also have a set of rollers for inking blocks of wood and lino for printmaking…all the ink and paint stains on the drop-cloth are a result of printmaking sessions over time… I can barely recall when it started out as a plain cream coloured roll of canvas cloth…back in the day! (Photo-©2017 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Following printing of the image is the stamping of my name…completing the postcards with a touch of that classic red Chinese ink. I have a few versions of my name stamp. (Photo and artwork-©2019 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{I like the sense of magic, even mischief, that this figure with the glowing eyes and mixing bowl exudes. There is a different name stamp on this one…as I said I have a few versions…all designed by me…M for Michael…and that’s how I write my letter “m” in scripted upper case. (Photo and artwork-©2021 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{A bit of a hectic printmaking session here with 5 different designs of postcards being stamped…and there’s another version of my shaped “m” on these cards…half writing, half symbol…developed with a Japanese colleague…a hilly landscape in the shape of the letter “m” for Michael…but also for “hill” from the Latin mons, mantis…mountain or hills…and there’s a zucchini in there…was it a snack or did I use it as a stamp? Possibly both? I don’t remember. (Photo and artwork-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

_{Raw vegetables that one can print with…I am finishing off with a plate of them on the printmaking table in the studio…this lot is not only good for eating but excellent material for printmaking…particularly the flat bits dipped in ink and pressed onto the selected print surface…a messy but good source of abstract textural patterns.}
_{(Photo-©2022 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

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.

PRINTMAKING: Fish Five

animation, Art, experimental, Film, printmaking February 8, 2022

This is the fifth post documenting the production of the experimental prints that I made with woodblock printmaking techniques…for both gallery exhibition and also as frames in my experimental animated film Toxic Fish (see photos below). The fish in this sequence is the gizzard shad. It has static shape on the woodblock…this contrasts with the flooding of toxins from commercial pollution which are overlaid around it which eventually poison the fish. Variations in the volume of ink and the choice of hue produced a range of similar but different outcomes. When edited in sequence these contributed to the creation of the illusion of movement. The film was screened at CINANIMA, the Animation Festival in Esphino, Portugal…and at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney…and also at the Big Day Out rock festival. also in Sydney. (See certificate and photo on previous post: PRINTMAKING: Fish Four).

_{A woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for my animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill. (Print of image for animation: green ink over black shape with red and green ink smudged overlay…for use as single and double frame sequence of the animation at 24 f.p.s.)}

_{A woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for my animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill. (Print of image for animation: orange ink over black shape with blue and grey ink smudged overlay…for use as single and double frame sequence of the animation at 24 f.p.s.) This print also stamped to be sold for framing as static artwork.}

_{A woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for my animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill. (Print of image for animation: pink ink over black shape with pink ink smudged overlay…for use as single and double frame sequence of the animation at 24 f.p.s.)}

_{A woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for my animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill. (Print of image for animation: red ink over black shape with red and grey ink smudged overlay…for use as single and double frame sequence of the animation at 24 f.p.s.})

_{A woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for my animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill. (Print of image for animation: blue ink over black shape with black and blue ink smudged overlay…start of disintegration of fish…for use as single and double frame sequence of the animation at 24 f.p.s.)}

_{A woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for my animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill. (Print of image for animation: multicoloured smudged overlay of ink…for use as both single and double frame sequence of the animation at 24 f.p.s.)}

_{These and other examples of the art from the animation have been posted on the Doctor Comics website (doctorcomics.com) under the post heading PRINTMAKING: Fish 1, 2, 3 etc.}

MY COMICS ART TRAVELS: Japan

animation, character design, comic art, Comics, Japanning, printmaking, Travels November 1, 2021

This post features one of my many visits to Japan to study and research anime, manga, comics and cartoons…not to mention fashion and food!

_{Doctor Comics in Japan, outside of Takadanobaba Station…under the railway tracks (see steel girder supporting a section of the tracks above the mural at top of photo). Here, near his former Tokyo Studio, is a memorial mural to the anime and manga artist, Osamu Tezuka, October 2016. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

_{Japan is sometimes referred to as the Character Kingdom. This is due to its massive merchandising of manga, comics, film and anime figurines and collectibles. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

_{Doctor Comics recognises Anime and Manga characters designed by Shigeru Mizuki, in the toy store, Yamashiroya, in Ueno, Tokyo. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

_{Doctor Comics studies an original scroll in a window of the bookshop area of Tokyo called Kanda. (Photo by Louise Graber)}

_{Another print shop in Kanda… (Photo-©2016 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

_{In a shop window in Kanda Doctor Comics finds figurines of characters from Shigeru Mizuki’s manga and anime KITARO. (Photo-©2016 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

_{A beer ad with cartoon figures (Doctor Comics often enjoys a beer whilst reading manga).}
_{(Photo-©2016 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

_{…and D.I.Y. printmaking, at Ogawamachi Railway Station. Here one can print the station logo on a post card at the stamp desk provided for passengers -see below}.
_{(Photo-©2016 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

_{Stamp and stamp pad plus work desk await.}
_{(Photo-©2016 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).}

The ON MY TRAVELS… posts form part of my graphic based material. This includes painting, printmaking, cartooning and scrapbooking plus the odd bit of animation.

POSTCARD ART: Eighth Posting

Comics August 19, 2021

Here is another post profiling the design and production of my art postcards. I have been designing and printing these for a few years now…see links to some previous POSTCARD posts below. On this occasion I am looking back at assorted batches. These have been made back since commencement of design and production in 2006…some subsequent batches from the following years are included.

_{Above and below, some of my art postcards on display. This exhibition accompanied the launch of the first issue of my comic BLOTTING PAPER. (Photo and artwork-©2012 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{I treat these postcards both as artworks as well as functional items of communication. They have been made by hand in limited numbers rather than commercially printed…no two cards are identical(see note below). (Photo and artwork-©2012 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{In some cases the flip side of the postcards carry a stamped greeting. No two cards are identical due to the variations in the printing…including hand-stamping, hand pressure, strength of ink, and position and alignment of the various letters, icons and details. (Photo and artwork-©2013 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Equipment used for stamping details on the flip side of the postcards. (Photo-©2006 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Production shot made in the studio with multiple cards at simultaneous printmaking stage…rather unusual for me as I usually only have one design in process at a time. Listening to music while I work, as always…this time Plastic Beach by GORILLAZ...Go Damon! (Photo and artwork-©2012 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Production still from that same session. (Photo and artwork-©2012 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Two more simultaneous postcard production runs…note the limited number of cards in a batch, the ink and paint materials, and the backing music…Bjork on this occasion. I always work to music and she is currently one of my favourite artists. (Photo and artwork-©2013 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Another time and another batch in process…this time with a bowl of fruit! I tend to get hungry during a an art postcard printmaking production run. (Photo and artwork-©2018 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{All photos, postcards, postcard art and printmaking by Dr. Michael Hill aka Doctor Comics.}

IN THE STUDIO-Session 2

Archive of Australian Alternative Comics, Art, Blotting Paper, Comics, printmaking May 21, 2021

These production posts document the “making” stage, whether animation, comics, postcards, prints or paintings, in a small studio. I always work to music and some photos in my blog posts show the equipment and the CD…not these, unfortunately.

_{Miro, our studio cat, in the foreground bottom, right, is keeping watch whilst a batch of background coloured postcards dry. Our cat offered a similar service for the printing of comics labels (see below). (Photo and artwork-©2015 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Exposure to sunlight for a batch of freshly printed postcards. This proved to be a quick method of drying the ink and paint. (Photo and artwork-©2015 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Printed sheets hanging out to dry. These long strips were sometimes cut into smaller pieces, depending upon their graphic application. (Photo and artwork-©2015 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{First stage in the printing of labels for an issue of my comic BLOTTING PAPER…labels would then be overprinted with the title (see below). (Photo and artwork-©2015 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Second stage…labels drying in the sun…different studio…a little windswept. These are some of the overprinted covers for my comic BLOTTING PAPER, following addition of second layer (see above). (Photo and artwork-©2015 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Second stage at the other studio…some of the comics covers have been blown into the grass. These are left to dry…usually pegged on a clothesline…but not these, left lying before being blown away…then being returned to the studio for overprinting with the title of the comic. (Photo and artwork-©2015 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Third stage, title block for the comics cover…with loosely assembled rubber type…becomes the third print layer. (Photo and printmaking block-©2015 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Third stage of printing…complete with labels following overprinting of title of the comic. (Photo-©2015 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Finally, the finished labels are glued to the covers containing the printed copies of the comic. (Photo and artwork-©2015 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

PRINTMAKING: Fish Four

animation, Art, experimental, Film, printmaking February 14, 2021

^{This is the fourth post documenting the production of my creative fish prints. I made these using woodblock printmaking techniques for use use in my experimental animated film Toxic Fish (see photos below). The fish represented in this sequence is the Kohada. Its static shape on the woodblock contrasts with the flooding of coloured toxins. These represent commercial pollution that is spread around the fish and eventually poisons it. There are variations in the volume of ink applied to the block and the choice of hue. These produced a range of similar outcomes when edited in sequence. This contributed to the creation of the illusion of movement. Film screenings: Animation Festival, Esphino, Portugal (see certificate at bottom of post),…Art Gallery of NSW and the Big Day Out rock festival}.

_{A woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for my experimental animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill. (Monoprint of image for animation in black ink for fish and surrounds).(For single and double frame sequence of the animation at 24 f.p.s.).}

_{A woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for my experimental animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill. (black ink with sepia wash overlay, for use as single and double frame sequence of the animation at 24 f.p.s.) This print has also been stamped with my logos for sale as static artwork.}

_{A woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for my experimental animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill. (Woodblock print with blue/black ink and green overlay; for single and double frame sequence of the animation at 24 f.p.s.) 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.}

_{A woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for my experimental animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill. (Woodblock print with purple/brown ink over black and green ink; for single and double frame sequence at 24 f.p.s.)}

_{A woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for my experimental animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill. (print of image for animation with use of overprinting out of registration to stress texture.) This print has also been stamped with my logos for sale as static artwork.}

_{A woodblock print with overlaid hand-colouring for my animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill. (Woodblock print with blue and black layers of ink to suggest induction of toxins.)}

_{Two woodblocks and one battered, old sharpening stone used in the production of my experimental animated film Toxic Fish-©1990 Dr. Michael Hill.}

_{Me, shooting the film on the Oxberry animation rostrum camera. All of the art was woodblock printed. I also wrote and produced the experimental electronic score. Dr. Michael Hill. (Note: This was in my pre-Doctor Comics period when I was predominantly involved in animation, film and printmaking…in addition to comics).}

_{Certificate of participation in the International Animation Festival, Espinho, Portugal, 1990.}

_{My excellent colleague Jeremy Allen…here enthusiastically pointing to the large screen projection of my film at the rock music event BIG DAY OUT. (Photo and artwork-©1990 Dr. Michael Hil).}

RESEARCHING COMICS ART: Second Reading

Art, Coffee Table, Comics November 7, 2020

_{Welcome to another post on books about comics art…where I hone in on a small section of my shelves…select a few titles…and take a closer look…and as I have previously stated, the books are not shelved according to normal library rules…but by size rather than subject…however, they generally all have something to do with animation or comics art.}

_{In this instance, despite the solid presence of a trio of books from the Marvel universe…I am going to start at the opposite end of the shelf with the two unjacketed books by Ronald Searle…MERRY ENGLAND ETC. and SOULS IN TORMENT. These books were bought second-hand from a dealer at a local market…and both had lost their jackets. Despite my unorthodox shelving policy…these books by an English artist happen to be shelved next to a title from another English author/artist…TAMARA DREWE by Posy Simmonds. The juxtapositional positions of the titles on the shelves throw up other amusing aspects…Posy Simmonds sitting next to Robert Crumb’s THE BOOK OF MR. NATURAL…Ronald Searle side by side with JACK COLE AND PLASTIC MAN…and Fletcher Hanks’ YOU SHALL DIE BY YOUR OWN EVIL CREATION near Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s DOCTOR STRANGE VOL.1. In the midst of these there is a journal on comics art titled COMIC ART, or comic art is… as it reads on the spine.… and at one end we have HOUDINI by Jason Lutes and Nick Bertozzi…whilst at the other end there are THE X-MEN and UNCANNY X-MEN tomes, both first volumes in a longer series…and there is another Fletcher Hanks title I SHALL DESTROY ALL THE CIVILIZED PLANETS! in the middle of it all with both of the Hanks titles introduced by Paul Karasik…but let’s return to the starting end of the row with a Ronald Searle. (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Ronald Searle delivers some cruel snippets of English life in his books Merry England, etc. (from 1956) and Souls In Torment…both of which feature collections of his single panel satirical cartoons…these are deftly rendered in pen and ink and left floating on the page without frames or borders. Whilst it is amusing his cartooning can be cruel. (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Also of English origin is a graphic novel on the countryside chronicles of rural based romantic relationships…these are displayed in Tamara Drewe…written and drawn by Posy Simmonds…whose treatment of the subject is markedly softer and less satirical than Searle’s but telling, nonetheless. (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{In contrast to TAMARA DREWE and the English countryside I also have tales from outer space and the jungle…these by the American auteur Fletcher Hanks, mostly from the 1940s. This collection of 7 or 8 page comic strips titled YOU SHALL DIE BY YOUR OWN EVIL CREATION! is a collection of short stories…with titles Space Smith In The Battle Of The Earth Against The Martian Ogres…The Super Wizard Stardust…Whirlwind Carter Of The Interplanetary Secret Service… and Fantomah: Mystery Woman Of The Jungle, as pictured above on the cover of the book. (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Also of North American origin is this first volume of the collected X-MEN comics…Nos. 1-31, from 1963-67…with the creator credits Written by Stan Lee and Drawn (or designed or illustrated or layouts) by Jack Kirby. It seems from the credits that Stan was always involved but from Issue No.20 he moved away from the writing to the editing with Roy Thomas taking over the scripting. Kirby, although involved up to and including Issue No.17, had some help here and there with the pencilling, inking and lettering. (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Next on display are Jack Cole’s humorous and stylistic talents in JACK COLE AND PLASTIC MAN…written and celebrated by Art Spiegelman and Chip Kidd. It documents Cole’s work on the comic and some of his contributions to Playboy magazine as a staff cartoonist. The principal character, Plastic Man, was an incredibly flexible and stretchable figure in Cole’s hands…able to stretch his neck up five times the length of his body to peer over the landscape’s horizon! This ability was referred to in the comic as “polymorphously perverse plasticity.” (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{Finally to Robert Crumb’s MR. NATURAL: Profane Tales Of That Old Mystic Madcap from Fantagraphics Books…more American work in this post, although Crumb did eventually move to France to live in 1990…so it can possibly be referred to as American comics art made in France. Essentially though it dates from the late 1960s…with comics art about the Hippy philosopher and his down-to-earth lifestyle. (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

^{To complete this post is a visual reference to an issue of a high quality journal…(possibly the absolutely highest quality visually produced journal on comics art that I have ever seen)…from that big country north of Mexico, titled COMIC ART. This journal, an annual from Buenaventura Press, has been sumptuously produced in full colour on quality gloss paper. It is issue No.9 Fall 2007. Sadly, it is apparently no longer published. This issue has stunning reproductions of extracts from comic strips and informative articles about the creators and their work…and some rare historical material on the work of George Clark by Donald Phelps…the latter whom I met a a comics conference in the U.S.). I would love to find further issues of this publication! (Photo-©2020 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)}

_{My COMICS ART posts form part of my graphic based material…this includes the fields of drawing, painting, printmaking and cartooning…including artwork for my comic and graphic novel BLOTTING PAPER: The Recollected Graphical Impressions of Doctor Comics.}

MY COMICS ART TRAVELS: France.

Blotting Paper, Comics August 19, 2020

_{On my travels, remaining in Europe and moving from Germany to France for this post.}

_{This one was not in France. It was a prior stopover on the way from the U.K….and a visit to the National Gallery in London to see a painting by William Hogarth…who looms large in the history of comics art…that’s my Wedding ringed hand gesturing to, and acknowledging a work by this master. Hogarth’s Marriage A-la-Mode, Stage 3, The Inspection, circa 1745…one of a set of 6 sequential paintings, later engraved and printed as an early form of graphic storytelling. Next stop, Paris! (Photo by Louise Graber)}

_{At the grave of Georges Méliès. June 2019 (Photo by Louise Graber)}

_{On arrival in Paris, the first priority is the paying of respects. First, at the Pere Lachaise cemetery…where I make an historical link between film and comics art…of a playful nature, visiting the grave of the film pioneer, fantasy director Georges Méliès.}