Tag: collage

CATS IN COMICS: Busch

Comics December 18, 2016

I have finally managed to add another post to my series of mini-profiles of cat characters in comics! And this time I focus on another feline character of my own creation, Busch, from the comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics. Busch is a cat of German origin who loves to eat, especially seafood, and to occasionly read comics and even to draw, with a pencil or crayon on whatever paper is to hand, even if it already has an image on it such as a newspaper or magazine page or shopping receipt. He will generally expect that drawing results in the awarding of a fish snack.

Busch can eat and Busch can dance and sometimes he goes hungry, gets seasick, goes shopping, dresses up and has tantrums.

Eating noodles in a container-pen and ink drawing and collage-© 2016 Michael Hill

Drinking milk by the fridge-pen and ink drawing-© 2012 Michael Hill

Dancing in a Hamburg disco-pen and ink drawing-© 2015 Michael Hill

Doing tantrum graffiti on the bedroom wall-pen and ink drawing-© 2012 Michael Hill

A seasick cat at sea, pen and ink drawing-© 2015 Michael Hill

Emoting the fear of hunger-pen and ink drawing-© 2011 Michael Hill

Starving at the fish market in Tokyo-pen and ink drawing and woodblock print-© 2016 Michael Hill

Dressing up as his master-pen and ink drawing, collage and photography-© 2012 Michael Hill

Shopping with a canine friend in Germany-pen and ink drawing-© 2015 Michael Hill

Read all the CATS IN COMICS posts: Busch Cohl Doraemon Krazy Kat The Rabbi’s Cat plus Busch’s adventures in the Blotting Paper Production Reports: 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: 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 Tai 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

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.48

Art, Blotting Paper, Cats in Comics, Comics, Germania, Japanning February 28, 2016

I am happy to announce completion of production and commencement of publishing stage of the fifth and final issue of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics. The pages are being printed, collated, trimmed, bound and covered and copies will soon be mailed to my personal readers. Each copy will have an original postcard size print on the cover.

Original print on cover of new issue-© 2013 Michael Hill

Four years since the appearance of the first issue that I launched at Hondarake-Full of Books in Sydney in February 2012 a total of five issues have been produced and published in serial form and I am now considering collecting these in graphic novel form. This will provide me with the opportunity to make some revisions to the story and artwork. The five issues have generated 200 pages of material and I imagine there would be an additional 20 to 30 new pages to develop aspects of the existing material. And then again, there remains the possibility of yet a further new chapter. We’ll see.

Woodblock ink print and painting-© 2014 Michael Hill

Location photograph, Germany-© 2014 Michael Hill

Rough scan of artwork, Germany-© 2016 Michael Hill

Rough scan of artwork, woodblock prints, handwriting, cartooning Tokyo-© 2016 Michael Hill

Rough scan of artwork, illustration, sketching, cartooning, Tokyo-© 2016 Michael Hill

Rough scan of artwork, Photography, character design, Tokyo-© 2016 Michael Hill

Rough scan of artwork of a cat scanning artwork, Germany-© 2015 Michael Hill

For details of the production of all five issues of this artist book/comic and a continuing visual history record and time-line overview of the project read all of the BLOTTING PAPER production reports on the following posts: 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 Tai 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

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.45

Art, Blotting Paper, Cats in Comics, Comics, Germania, Japanning September 4, 2015

This is the first report documenting production of the fifth and concluding chapter of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics. It continues on from those previously posted on the first chapter/issue The Ingurgitator, the second chapter/issue A Blot On His Escutcheon, the third chapter/issue The Chthonian Turn: The Cats’ Revenge and the fourth chapter/issue Beer, Chocolate and Comics (see links to posts #1-44 below). Creation and production of the new issue 2 Tickets to Tokyo Bay has begun. The story deals with the continued adventures of the cats Busch and Cohl and their canine acquaintance Barks. Set in Germany and Japan it follows these characters in funny animal cartoon style and contains more recollections from the archives of my alias, Doctor Comics.

Barks and Busch are on their way to Tokyo Bay-© 2015 Michael Hill

The view at sea, print-© 2015 Michael Hill

Printmaking is again involved in the design of this issue with woodblock, linocut, rubber, bakelite and wooden stamps along with drawing, collage, calligraphy and handwriting plus a continued move into cartooning. The intention is to produce the comic in an artist book type format and to have it more or less ready for self-publication around the end of the year.

Japan, fish island, collage-© 2015 Michael Hill

And home of Otafuku, ink painting-© 2015 Michael Hill

For details of the production of all four issues and a continuing visual history record and time-line overview of this project read all of the BLOTTING PAPER production reports on the following posts: 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

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.43

Art, Blotting Paper, Cats in Comics, Comics, Germania, Japanning May 8, 2015

Almost done! Completion of the art and text on all pages of the fourth issue of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics has nearly reached the finishing line. After that all that will remain is the publishing production process of those pages. This includes the sequential stages of the pages being printed, collated, trimmed, covered and bound. Similar to the preceding three issues the present one has a total of 40 pages plus endpapers and covers. For this issue these covers will feature a wraparound print that includes the title. And being an artist book there will be a limited number of books published, in this case 30. Each book in this first edition will be numbered and signed by the artist.

Planned wraparound cover for Issue #4 (Monoprint-© 2011 Michael Hill)

With some spot colour still to be added plus a few paragraphs of handwriting, a bit of toning touch-up here and there and a little overprinting that might get overlaid I have spread out the pages in a probable sequence on the floor of the studio to get some sense of how the story flows and whether the juxtaposition of the page-spreads works throughout the issue. So there may still be some alterations to the sequencing in the final edit. I try to see a sense of rhythm in the overall progression of pages.

Pages from Issue 4 in layout spread-© 2015 Michael Hill

The next post should be the post-publication post! For details of the production of all four issues and a continuing visual history record and time-line overview of this project you can read all of the BLOTTING PAPER production reports on the following posts: 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

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.42

Art, Blotting Paper, Cats in Comics, Comics, Germania, Japanning April 9, 2015

Not quite there yet! I might still need another month to finish this issue. So I’ll say again, this time with the added word “hopefully”, that this looks like being the penultimate report documenting production of the fourth issue of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics, Chapter 4: Beer, Chocolate and Comics before completing the final chapter tentatively titled 2 or 3 Tickets To Tokyo Bay?

Chapter title page, handwriting on painted paper collage-© 2015 Michael Hill

The cats go to Germany with Doctor Comics’s stash of comics related books, mementos and research materials. They meet a canine character who kindly assists them in arranging matters. Beer is drunk, comics are consumed and a plan devised.

Chapter page, collage of painted paper, woodcut print and ink drawings-© 2015 Michael Hill

One of the cats, Cohl, sorts through Doc’s research materials and reflects on some of his deeds including one that involved Belgian comics. Cohl also attempts to emulate Doc’s art practice, making sketches and playing with art materials, more drawing than printmaking. The other cat, Busch, enjoys what Germany has to offer in the way of beer, fish and fun. Both cats and their canine companion enjoy the chocolate.

Chapter page detail, inked calligraphy brush on paper-© 2015 Michael Hill

Chapter page detail, collage of photograph and found graphic packaging-© 2015 Michael Hill

More visual developments and an update on progress will be posted on this blog in around a month’s time as I bring this chapter to completion and start moving towards Japan as the setting of the next chapter. In the meantime, for a continuing visual history record and time-line overview of this project that covers all four issues, you can read the BLOTTING PAPER production reports on the following posts:

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

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.40

Art, Blotting Paper, Cats in Comics, Comics, Germania February 2, 2015

Here is the fourth report documenting production progress of the next issue and chapter of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics- Chapter 4- Beer, Chocolate and Comics. The story continues with both cats arriving in Hamburg in a shipping container on a freighter and ends with them, possibly accompanied by a newly acquired canine friend on another freighter bound for Tokyo Bay, Japan being the setting for the subsequent chapter. This scenario may of course be altered in coming weeks.

The 0909 lines document-ink stamped on paper-© 2015 Michael Hill

I am continuing my graphic experiments with ink and paint on paper, printed, torn and drawn, and sometimes collaged, to create documents, scenes and settings as well as thought and voice balloons for the characters.

Graphic Thought Balloon, ink and paint on paper-© 2014 Michael Hill

Graphic Voice balloon, ink and paint on paper-© 2014 Michael Hill

Set design, painted paper collage-© 2014 Michael Hill

Ink and watercolour drawing of Hamburg-© 2007 Michael Hill

These were quick sketches made on my previous travels in Germany. They were kept in notebooks and forgotten till it seemed they had both relevance and resonance for this project and consequently led to my finding ways of working them into this chapter.

Ink and watercolour drawing on paper of design details in Germany-© 2007 Michael Hill

More visual developments and an update on progress will be posted on this blog in three or four weeks time as I continue to close in on completion of the comic. In the meantime, for a continuing visual diary record and time-line overview of this project’s all four issues, you can read the BLOTTING PAPER production reports on the following posts:

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.39

Art, Blotting Paper, Cats in Comics, Comics, Germania January 3, 2015

This is the third report documenting production of the fourth issue of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics. Titled Beer, Chocolate and Comics this chapter has a European focus.

Linocut, type, roller and ink dish after a print session. (Photo-© 2014 Michael Hill).

In addition to collage there were ink and paint printed images of an abstract nature that serve as backgrounds, settings or sometimes even graphic expressions of the characters’ thoughts.

Abstract print image from Blotting Paper comic-© 2014 Michael Hill

The art work also features several words and images made with pen and ink including some quick-sketch location drawings from previous visits to Hamburg and Hanover and more recently to Berlin.

Dip pen with nibs by Gillot and Muller and ink from Lamy.

Quick Ink and watercolour drawing of Hannover-© 2007 Michael Hill

For location drawing I usually carry a small leather bag of art tools…

Packing my art bag for a location drawing session. (Photo-© 2014 Michael Hill).

UPDATE 20 JAN 2015: In response to a query in the comments below I have now added examples of how I might use the abstract landscapes as backgrounds or graphic expressions:

Using abstract landscape as background-© 2014 Michael Hill

Using abstract landscape as thought balloon-© 2014 Michael Hill

More visual developments and an update on progress will be posted on this blog around the end of the month as I near completion of the comic. In the meantime, for a continuing visual diary record and time-line overview of this project that covers all four issues, you can read the BLOTTING PAPER production reports on the following posts:

BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.38

Art, Blotting Paper, Cats in Comics, Comics, Germania December 2, 2014

This is the second in a series of regular reports documenting the production of the fourth issue and chapter of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics. These reports are updated approximately on a monthly basis. The new chapter Beer, Chocolate and Comics deals with the cats recovering from the demise of their patron and their travels in Germany and the world of European comics.

Double page handprinted spread from Chapter 3–© 2014 Michael Hill.

Continuing the turnaround of events and forward momentum that the above image from Chapter 3 illustrates the cats begin to get on top of things, take control of their situation and consequently develop and express their characters on their travels abroad.

Beer label collage character from Blotting Paper comic-© 2014 Michael Hill

I have been playing around with a beer label collaging idea, mostly from Belgian and German bottles, and have come up with this character so far but I expect there will be others. With the European theme and setting I am also considering including some bilingual content, preferably English and German and possibly even doing a combined issue #4-5.

Fish woodcut from way back-© 2002 Michael Hill

Fish woodcut with pyschedelic sauce from way back-© 2003 Michael Hill

The subject of fish and the technique of woodblock printmaking also return. And there is cooking too, of both fish and comics!

The Busch approach to managing a comics collection-now available as a postcard-© 2014 Michael Hill

More visual developments and an update on progress will be posted on this blog around the end of the year. For a visual diary record and time-line overview of this project that covers all four issues you can read the BLOTTING PAPER production reports on the following posts: