Mike Le Merde and Vehicles at SDCC 2010

OK, I know the title of this post is nonsense (and my former French teacher mother is going to read it and think the phrase “Vehicular Shit Slaughter” is increasing evidence that I’m losing my mind), but the Grass Hut guys have great senses of humor, and I’m going with it.

Some of the best booths in the SDCC toy cultyard were those that switched it up on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis. On Saturday, rounding the corner by the Gargamel/Grass Hut stall, I noticed some new vehicles by Le Merde and Arbito. Suddenly, things made sense. Le Merde’s mini-resin Burgerbuns? Check. Arbito’s scented silicone mini-Seekers? Check.

Each character now has his own fleet of resin vehicles with rolling silicone tires. Le Merde demonstrated the excellent roll-ability, and Arbito confirmed that those alluring erasers were a fortuitous byproduct on the journey to make those tires. The colors are rad, the tires have tread, and these pieces get high marks for playability. The vehicles (with removable character figures) were being sold at $150. I’m told these are painted protos and more are on the way!

Jeff Soto and Travis Louie at Hi-Fructose

Bigshot Toyworks was everywhere this year at SDCC (DKE, Hi-Fructose, Mike Mignola’s booth…) and their productions crossed many mediums (vinyl, resin, wood, plush…).  Sharing some similarities with DOUBLE SUPER’s showcase at SDCC, Bigshot showed off several sculptural works–playful in nature if not necessarily in practice. Perhaps, like art itself, the definition of toy is really best left to the beholder?

Whether you want to call it an art toy, a sculpture, a bust or something else entirely, Bigshot is making 3D “objects” from 2D imagery by Jeff Soto, Travis Louie, Brian Taylor, Nathan Jurevicius and Mike Mignola, and as a collector of such objects, I find it exciting. Also exciting: exchanging compliments in person with the man who calls the big shots: Klim Kozinevich. Check out some of the Toyworks I found walking the aisles.

DOUBLE SUPER, an upcoming range of figures by San Francisco’s own STRANGEco, made its debut at Comic-Con. Representing great hope for art toys, which in recent years have dropped the “art” from the equation, DOUBLE SUPER features intricate, high-quality sculptural editions by Nathan Ota, Bob Dob, Mars-1, Ron English, Feric and Will Sweeney. Each figure has been created faithfully from an original painting by the artists, and read this twice toy junkies: they have NO articulation. The sizable works are made from vinyl, and though prices aren’t set as of this posting, they are expected to be in the $120, $150 and $175  ballpark with low run sizes. I, for one, am double-super-stoked.

Frank Kozik might think purple Telegrinnies “are for girls”, but purple revolutionaries apparently cross gender lines. He just sent over a shot of his purple personal version of the Dead Che Bust. It’s an edition of 50 pieces with 25 reserved for Kozik subscribers and the other 25 available to the general public for $200 plus shipping (& CA tax if applicable).  Email FrankKozik [at] SBCglobal [dot] net if interested.

Speaking entirely personally here, Ron English’s Telegrinnies were the sleeper hit of my Comic-Con 2010 experience. While the majority of my central nervous system despises surprises, a tiny area of my brain delights in a sensory shake-up. I’ve always been on the fence about toys involving broad strokes pop culture appropriation, so I wasn’t expecting to even really like Ron’s Telegrinnies. Instead, it was adoration upon visualization.

The toys are eight inches of shiny, candy-colored vinyl produced by Made by Monsters with perfect paint application. Like the Teletubbies on which they are based, each figure sports a different “antenna insignia”. They all have the matte-skull signature “grin” of Ron’s Grins series, plus a transparent red rib cavity. They are, in a word, wonderful.

Thanks to the power of Twitter, I was able to find someone else similarly smitten with these enough to split the $175 pair. In a perfect world, I’d have the whole smiling set and smile right back at them. Isn’t that what it really comes down to with art toys? This glossy green piece of plastic makes me feel something–and that feeling is happy. Perhaps that’s the intended effect: subverting the typical programmatic reaction to Peanuts characters or Barney the dinosaur (or Teletubbies) by giving them a “scary” skeletal smile, which somehow only actually makes them seem sillier and cuter. Call it the visual version of binaural beats: your brain combines your expectations with the creepy vs. cute waveforms your eyes are absorbing. Um, yeah. Or something.

I know many people were similarly surprised to see me walking the Comic-Con aisles with what a quick glance would appear to be a Teletubby. My pal Frank Kozik expressed it the most eloquently by saying simply that “Teletubbies are for girls”. Maybe they are, and maybe cigarettes are for idiots, but when it comes down to it, those of us who make stuff, make stuff we like, and those of us who buy stuff, buy stuff we like. And in case you didn’t notice over the weekend by being in San Diego or reading the blogs, there’s more than enough STUFF to go around. I like some stuff that smorks, and some stuff that grins.

Ron English was around all weekend signing at several booths. He was even cool enough to re-sign something for me after I smeared it seconds after he was done. Nice guy. I anticipate a Meet Your Maker interview in the future…

I wonder how many times I walked by the DKE booth at Comic-Con inquiring whether the Scott Wilkowski x JAMUNGO BUDCAT exclusives were available. (I bet Sarah Jo Marks knows the answer to this…) Due to luck and lingering, I scored this black resin fella. When the gents showed up for their Friday signing, the popular BUDCATS had already all been adopted.

As to whether there are actual skeletal remains incorporated into the resin bud platform, that would be no. However, it really, really looks like it. So does the fire cracker, which according to FERG is “not real…but they look real as fuck.”

If the objects aren’t real, why am I calling them Zymoglyphic? Well:

1. Zymoglyphic is a made-up word by Jim Stewart, and he seems cool with a little creative rule-bending.
2. Like these BUDCATS at SDCC, the Zymoglyphic Museum is only available to the public for one day.
3. In my opinion, the BUDCATS meet this Zymoglyphic criteria: “Of, or pertaining to, images of fermentation, specifically the solid residue of creative fermentation on natural objects.”

The 4-inch BUDCATS were sold in pairs including a clear version and a darker version that ranged from grey to black. They are handmade, and they are awesomesauce. Most of the BUDCATS went home as sets, a few were divvied up amongst friends, and all are gone. Your best bet to find one is through the Jamungo fan forum. And a cool endnote: I didn’t know it at the time I wrote the story, but Scott W has two (live) cats of his own, and therefore is a member of Cats of the Toy Art Scene.

photo courtesy of Jamungo’s Collect & Destroy forum

Milo Manara Is Not A Crime! Or, Why You Should Stop Worrying & Love the Bande Dessinée - A Review by: Joe Keatinge

I understand not everything translates.

What works for readers in Europe may confuse comics’ fans in the United States. Superheroes, the dominant genre here, bore the majority of readers there. Cartoonists who are massive in one country just won’t do anything for the other. Even formats can be tricky, as the oversized album format popular with French comics – otherwise known as Bande Dessinée – hasn’t made its hold on American audiences.

Case in point: Marvel Comics recently released a one-shot entitled X-Women, illustrated by famed Italian cartoonist Milo Manara and written by Chris Claremont.

Here’s the thing: Manara is known for a lot, including being the favorite comics artist and collaborator of 8 ½ director Federico Fellini, but the one thing that comes up more than anything else is that he obviously enjoys drawing the female form. Whereas the states tend to not mind violence, but balk at sex, an artist brought up in Italy and working in France tends to not worry about sexual content. It’s not an exaggeration to say his take on American icons such as the X-Men was split.

As a fan of Manara’s, I was disappointed to see the format was shrunken down to standard comic size. Most albums are around 9 x 12, whereas American comics are closer to 6 x 10 inches. When an artist is illustrating with a larger format in mind, especially one as line intensive as Manara, details often get lost. Unfortunately, this loss of line art wasn’t helped by the coloring, which while technically well done, ended up covering up more than it helped.

Now, those are just minor gripes and what’s happens when a foreign creation is brought to a different audience. It’s still spectacular, at least it is to me.

A large number of X-Men fans disagree.

People seeing Manara for the first time called him sexist. Those who did a cursory Google search backed up their claims with out of context pictures of his more sexually driven material like Butterscotch, Guillvera or his take on the Kama Sutra. They felt his versions of beloved X-icons like Kitty Pryde, Psylocke and Storm resembled blow up dolls instead of the characters they’ve come to love. This wasn’t their X-Men, and in that regard, they’re right.

Manara isn’t an American cartoonist, nor is he a European cartoonist who has heavily worked in the American system. Throughout his nearly forty-year career, he’s produced in a very different society. He’s produced a massive body of work ranging from adventure to romance to comedy and just about everything in between. His collaborators included the aforementioned Fellini, artistic legend Hugo Pratt and El Topo filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky. The guy’s done extremely well even with only stepping foot overseas in the rarest of occasion.  If all you’ve read are mainstream American comics, I can see why it might take you off guard. He doesn’t come from that school of thought at all.

So, in a sense, I agree: his first trip down X-Men lane probably isn’t the best gateway drug to all things Manara.

I invite you to judge for yourself as Dark Horse Comics, the last publisher to bring you Moebius and reintroduce BlackSad, releases The Manara Library. These new editions, projected at nine volumes, will feature material not reprinted stateside in nearly twenty years, with all-new translations by Fantagraphics’ Kim Thompson. In addition, the first volume will feature an introduction by the master cartoonist behind THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and 300, Frank Miller. Keep on the lookout for Neon Monster’s upcoming exclusive interview with Thompson for more information on the project.

Still not convinced?

The Manara Library won’t be your only chance to check out the master’s work. Humanoids, the publisher who introduced the world to many of Europe’s finest with their anthology Metal Hurlant and reprinted Eurocomics masterpieces Incal and Freddy Lombard, are returning to the United States. While they have previously worked with other publisher’s, this marks the first time in decades they have came in on their own. In November, they’re expanding their stateside library with Manara’s  Pandora’s Eyes, a noir-inspired graphic novel.

Between Dark Horse and Humanoids’ offerings, I hold faith even the strongest naysayer of Manara’s X-Women will get at least an appreciation for why so many people the world over praise this guy’s work to no end. In the end you may still find it’s not for you, but there’s no point in not giving it a try.

Something may translate.

Shepard Fairey’s first original toy in 11 years (blogged here) is now available in our San Francisco store and online. Both colorways are already sold out through STRANGEco, so here’s your final shot at owning a piece of street art history. Mr. Spray is made of rotocast vinyl and stands 11 inches tall. He comes in illustrated card box packaging with an OBEY mini stencil. These are some of the last Mr. Sprays out of an edition of 348 pieces each. Don’t sleep!

Frank Kozik and Eddie in San Francisco

If you’re reading this story, you’re probably not at Comic-Con in San Diego. Since you’re missing out on toy overload, the least I could offer in my absence is a big batch of cute overload. I’ve been saving up this “fluff piece” for just the right occasion. Ever notice how a lot of artists have cats? I did. “You can use Stripes even though he doesn’t like you,” said Eric of 64Colors. “He doesn’t like anyone because… he’s a cat!” All cats are different though. Adds Stephen Donaldson of Tomopop, “Samkin loves figures of all types and sits and looks at them all day long.” Just like toys, cats come in all shapes and sizes. (Don’t tell Dodgrr’s Sam he weighs 30 pounds or Ernesto’s female cat Prince she’s named after the singer!) There are Persians, Bengals, tabbies and tuxedos among us, but Sergey Safonov gets the prize for his most unique Peterbald feline companion: “He’s the son of world and Europe breed champions, but he has a slight ‘defect’ so we bought him cheap.” Awesome!

Tofu lives with artist Sergey Safonov in Moscow.

Bailey and Mitch live with blogger/collector Jeremy in the Bay Area.

Artist Lunabee and Gwen in the UK

Mao lives with artist/blogger Andy Heng in Singapore.

Stripes lives with artists 64Colors.

Artist Jay222 and Ella in the Bay Area.

It keeps getting cuter.

Onitsuka is the My Plastic Heart housecat.

Sam lives with artist Dodgrr.

Samkin lives with blogger Stephen Donaldson.

Daisy lives with artist Mark Nagata in San Francisco.

Bell lives with blogger/artist John "Spanky" Stokes in San Diego.

General Guster McWheezypants and Specimen live with artist Shingyin

Jon Burgerman is a cat magnet while traveling.

Prince lives with artist Ernesto East in Miami.

This cat and custom Cranston live with blogger Leah Bayer of Tomopop.

Le Tigre Gato lives with artist Spencer Hibert in Phoenix

Jim lives with collector Deb (and Gary Baseman by proxy).

Pepper lives with collector Rob in New Jersey.

Nigel lives with blogger/collector Jeremy in the Bay Area.

Artist Daniel Goffin of Kassel fondly remembers his cats by drawing them.

And a couple movies to lead you into your weekend…

Cris Rose’s “Jet”

Jon Burgerman and a cat

It’s cool to get in a groove, but don’t end up getting stuck in one. Life has lots to offer. Try a different style of music. Check out some new art. Talk to a total stranger. Mix it up.