Art

By now you have all seen the above image, which swept through social media yesterday with the tagline "Macho Man prevented the Rapture." In a world seemingly without order, connecting the senseless (and very sad) death of Randy "Macho Man" Savage, and the impending Rapture predicting by Harold Camping (inexplicably still alive) would seem to give us some joy. But where did it come from? Such viral images come and go so quickly on the internet, we thought it would be informative to see what we could come up with as an origin story.

From Michael DeForge at WHAT THINGS DO.

Filmmaker Maria Cabardo has posted a really poignant video of Jeffrey Catherine Jones talking about dying, and her acceptance of it. I know the word poignant is overused, but it truly applies here -- the content is sad, but it is also peaceful and in the end comforting.

Gene Luen Yang's new book, LEVEL UP, covers some territory that may be familiar to many people -- a young man whose parents want him to make something of himself, while he just wants to play video games. Drawn by Thien Pham, it's Yang's latest exploration of growth and personal identity, especially as it relates to Asian Americans. But the book isn't just about video game addiction. At Wired's GeekDad, he explains where the book is really coming from in his own experience.

It's to benefit the CBLDF -- a giant piece of art created by Molly Crabapple at Stumptown. Measuring 8 feet by 7 feet, you need a giant home to display it properly, but it will be a nice conversation starter:

Award-winning illustrator/cartoonist Koren Shadmi's graphic novel IN THE FLESH was published by Random House in 2009. Now he's working on a webcomic called THE ABADDON, which he describes as "Jean Paul Sartre meets Three’s Company" with humor and drama meeting existential dilemmas.

We just got back from SVA's portfolio day, in which seniors in the illustration and comics departments display their wares for visiting editors and art directors. We'll have some more comments on this tomorrow, but we'll leave you with some images from AJ Frena who delivers some powerful animal-based imagery. Her paintings are executed on heavy plywood and look even better in person.

Click for the larger version. Also notice how they ran out of time on some of the photoshopping. Via Dave G.

Thor is all around, no need to fake it.

Dan Hipp has drawn many things -- GYAKUSHU, THE AMAZING JOY BUZZARDS, BEN 10, and many, many more comics, and his MisterHipp blog is a dragon's lair of fun art. However these posters imagining STAR WARS, TRON and ALIEN as Tintin books are must-sees.

As you've probably heard elsewhere, Heritage Auction recently sold a piece of original comics artwork for...

La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles is having quite an opening show tonight: Pop-Sequentialism: Comic Art of the Modern Age, with original comics art by Steve Dillon, Brendan McCarthy, Frank Quitely and many more. Above, a page of PUNISHER art from the Garth Ennis run by Tim Bradstreet. All the art previewed in the link. Below, a page from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip's CRIMINAL.