Cropped Will Cardini artwork

May 29th, 2009

More Cartoon Utopia Drawings

Filed under: Inspiration — William Cardini @ 8:20 am

Ron Rege Jr posted some new drawings in his cartoon utopia series yesterday! It’s a really fantastic project, here’s a bit from his explanation of the ideas behind the project:

“At the beginning of 2008 – I started to create a series of numbered 4×6 inch drawings as an exercise – to start to flesh out ideas for a kind of ‘science fiction universe’ that I’ve been slowly imagining over the last few years – the idea of a ‘Cartoon Utopia…'”

I love the idea and I love the drawings, Ron Reje Jr has always been a force for good in this universe, everyone should buy the Cartoon Utopia mini he just put out!

Sam Gaskin @ Sunday Comics

Filed under: Inspiration — William Cardini @ 7:55 am

The always hilarious Sam Gaskin has a bed-time comic over at the Sundays comics blog, go check it! [2022-07-06 edit: link is broken]

Fav line:

“I’m a pajama jamma!”

Lebbeus Woods Drawing

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: — William Cardini @ 7:42 am

via his blog.

May 26th, 2009

Wizards by Ralph Bakshi

Filed under: SF Reviews — Tags: — William Cardini @ 12:04 am

I watched Ralph Bakshi’s movie Wizards this past weekend.


Images from the movie poster.

Until I saw this, I had never realized that Ralph Bakshi directed the half-finished live-action/rotoscope/animation Lord of the Rings movie! As I watched it, I wondered why more movies like it – animated fantasy epics – didn’t exist. I don’t know for sure, but I would think that this kind of movie is cheaper than both an entirely live movie and a 3D CGI verison. Then, during the special features, I discovered the reason – A New Hope came out two weeks after Wizards was released. Oh well.


Movie still.

My buddy Ryan Lauderdale pointed out that the strange mix of animation and color keyed stock footage is probably more interesting in 2009 than it was in 1977, now that that kind of mixed medium film is more prevalent out on the net and lots of people have access to video editing software. I wonder what someone in 2409 will think if they sit down (or download or mentally upload or whatever) and view Wizards – will any of it be relevant anymore? Or will they all be living out their own epic fantasy quests in a solar system that has been transformed into a Matrioshka Brain?


Movie still.

Unanswerable questions, really. I’ll just have to sit down and watch Fire and Ice.

May 24th, 2009

SMOKE SIGNAL Fundraiser

Filed under: Uncategorized — William Cardini @ 12:32 pm

I’ve submitted a half-pager to the all-comics newspaper SMOKE SIGNAL that the comic store Desert Island in Brooklyn is gonna put out. Here’s a panel from my strip, called SHAMANMAN:

SHAMANMANpanel6

If you want to see the rest, help make SMOKE SIGNAL a reality by coming out to the fundraiser, tomorrow (Memorial Day) at Union Pool! There’ll be a concert featuring

Uninhabitable Mansions
Ambergris
Boogie Boarder
Darlings

Doors open at 7, it costs $8 to get in – all proceeds go towards printing costs!!!

Union Pool is located at 484 Union Ave in Brooklyn, NY (718) 609-0484, right near the Lorimer L + Metropolitan G train stops.

TRANZ Review by Optical Sloth

Filed under: Press — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 11:33 am

TRANZ got reviewed over at Optical Sloth, here’s a quote:

“Everything looks great and William/Mark is certainly not short on imagination, I guess I’m just more old fashioned in my comics reading, what with my general preference for linear stories and all. Still, there’s a lot to be said with the ‘where the hell is this going to go from here?’ school of making comics, and I’m all kinds of intrigued to see what he does next and what he’s already done that might or might not be more accessible than this to the common folk.”

review

May 19th, 2009

TCAF Panel on Inkstuds and Kirby’s 2001

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: — William Cardini @ 12:13 am

Robin McConnell of Inkstuds has just posted the audio from a panel that he was on at TCAF with Frank Santoro, Dash Shaw, Robert Dayton, and Dustin Harbin. The panel’s an awesome discuss of how mainstream comics have influenced alternative comics (definitely true for me), especially work like late-seventies Jack Kirby and James Steranko.

One thing that Frank Santoro reminded me of (that I haven’t thought about since Austin Books started their renovation and hid their back issues, a problem that will soon be resolved!) is Jack Kirby’s late seventies 2001 series. The first couple issues are loosely based on concepts from the movie but then it just goes in this other wild direction of vaguely connected vignettes.

Here’s a sample page, pulled from Inkstuds:

May 17th, 2009

Mawwwr TRANZ

Filed under: Uncategorized — William Cardini @ 3:07 pm

Although I drew these pages for a show to benefit an art space, they’re a continuation of the ideas I was dealing with in TRANZ:

5x7meltstructure

5x7grow

5x7meltmark

This next (and last) one is my favorite.

5x7multiply

I’ve started working on a new twelve-page comic that incorporates the MULTIPLY idea into a longer narrative, I’m super stoked about it! I plan to have it ready for when I come to MoCCA Fest 09 so if you’re coming/tabling be prepared to trade me a zine for it!

May 12th, 2009

Kate MccGwire

Filed under: Inspiration — William Cardini @ 8:23 pm

Artist’s website, via INSIDE THE FROZEN MAMMOTH.

May 8th, 2009

Weird NASA Video

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: , — William Cardini @ 7:11 am

Who made this weird music video for NASA?

Thnx Grant!