Cropped Will Cardini artwork

May 29th, 2012

Catch Up on Sale; Kirby’s Influence on Art Comics

Filed under: Press — Tags: , , , , , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:21 am

Whew, it’s been a while since I’ve posted on this blog. I’ve gotten lost in drawing comics and I haven’t had time to put anything here but I’ve met most of my deadlines so I’m going to get back to my regular schedule of Tuesday/Friday blog posts. I’ve got two things to tell y’all about today:


Catch Up Winter Issue, cover by Max Bode.

The Catch Up Winter Issue is for sale. Josh Burggraf and I are the comics editors for this issue of the poetry/comics journal. It has comics by Box Brown, Victor Kerlow, Andrei Molotiu, Jo-Jo Sherrow, and others. You can buy it here.


A Jack Kirby drawing of a Celestial from the Eternals comics.

Robert Boyd, local Houston art critic and former Comics Journal staff member, has written a lengthy blog post discussing Kirby’s impact on art comics, in which he compares Vortex to comics by Jesse Jacobs and Jesse Moynihan. I’m honored to be discussed in such good company.

October 12th, 2010

Review of Hypermorph on The Great God Pan Is Dead

Robert Boyd reviewed my show Hypermorph at Domy Books Houston on his blog The Great God Pan Is Dead. I appreciate his thoughtful review, you can read it here.

In his review, Boyd quotes my description of the Hyperverse from the press release and then says that his “first reaction to this is that it seems pretty dumb.” Ha! I can dig that. Boyd goes on to say that, what makes my approach to genre dumb is that, unlike the Fort Thunder artists that I am (all-too clearly, I know) influenced by, my work lacks does not take genre ironically or satirically. Well, that’s true. I definitely take genre, even the most ridiculous parts of it, extremely seriously. If you want me to get all metaphorical on you, I feel like I do live in, to quote my description of the Hyperverse, “a realm filled with immensely powerful inhuman beings who battle over worlds with strange geologies and hoard advanced technologies” where “mountains shift from molten to crystal between moments and clumps of rock are inhabited by malevolent intelligences ready to hurl face-melting spells,” a cosmos of constant flux, “of constant magical warfare.”

I mean, look at these photos by Edward Burtynsky:

I’m just reflecting the world as I see it.

And I have a response to Boyd’s final question:

So, if creating boyish sci-fi worlds is an aspect of the whole Fort Thunder aesthetic, can we say that aesthetic is inherently male? And if we accept that, is there a female counterpart? And if so, are plush frog heads a part of it?

I definitely wanted Glade to be a part of my show. I’m well aware of how much of a “boy’s club” all of the collectives that I am a part of (Totally Wreck, The Gold County Paper Mill) slash admire (Okaymountain, Fort Thunder), with some exceptions, are, and it’s something that I don’t like about them. All I can say is, I am going to make sure that my first long-form comics narrative passes the Bechdel Test.