JohnnyEnzyme

Welp, here's lookin' at you, kid. It's my 2nd attempt to do a scheduled post, and hopefully it works this time. There's also several points of interest, here:

• I bumped in to this page on Horacio Altuna's excellent art stream and was struck by how different Mousse's style was here, compared to the lush, wild-ride pastels of Pastorius Grant, which honestly kind of baffled me, story-wise.
• Here, the art reminded me a good bit of Argentinian Eduardo Risso's stuff, which in itself reminds me of Frank Miller's early style. Are these imitative works, tributes, or is it not worth making such comparisons in the first place? Hmm.
• Anyway, what mainly struck me is that silent-era and early-'soundy' movie star Louise Brooks evidently has a BD bio! 😃 Me, I've watched a couple of her free movies on YT and found them surprisingly entertaining. (check 'em out, ey?)
• And then I read her WP bio, finding it quite fascinating, if also saddening and tragic. In short, like many actresses across the years, I feel that she wasn't treated with nearly the same leeway as her male peers. In fact, her laudably innovative acting in the soundy-era seemed to offend American audiences at the time, whereas someone later like Marlon Brando was embraced for a similar approach(!)

To nobody's surprise (haha), I've got various notes on this one:

• I tried this as a "WebP" this time, which should improve quality and reduce file size going forward. Various places have problems with that format, but it seems to be okay here, and I believe at the PixelFed instance, too, which should help me move away from (the chronically unreliable) Imgur, in general.
• I couldn't find the proper source or original title for this piece, so that's just me above coming up with a likely name. It's certainly a Martin work though, which can be confirmed by his siggy near the lower-right margin. Btw, one prior Martin piece I shared here was "P'pa! Ta braguette...!".
• Specific thanks to artist-creator Horacio Altuna for help identifying this one. If you're unfamiliar with his work, Altuna's probably best known for tasteful, erotic farce. Indeed, he's something of a legend at this point, so check out that Lambiek link above for more info. He's also got a great Twitter stream in which he routinely features cool stuff by other artists. The feed's been helpfully de-shittified, and can be browsed HERE.
• There's also an 'AI' issue here, and I'll explain: First, I used the nifty online tool "Waifu" to upscale the art and remove artifacts, then I manually darkened the lighting and bumped up the saturation a smidgen. And then I leaned in to ChatGPT to help confirm some of my thoughts about the piece, namely that it's set during and in WWI's Western Front, and depicts the French army moving in and out of a major city in NE France or Belgium. GPT postulated that it doesn't seem to be a specific city, but might be styled after Verdun, Arras, Reims or Metz.
• I've been occasionally murdered here (and elsewhere) for leaning too hard in to AI tools to lead or assist with various projects, but I must say... without such tools, this particular artwork would be much lesser in quality, and I'd have much less info to share about it. FWIW!

A few weeks back, I wrote a mini-article on r/BD about Goscinny's episodic series Iznogoud. After a good amount of feedback there, I wanted to update the article and post it here on EGN, but before doing so, figured it would be a good idea to read a couple classic Astérix albums so as to compare and contrast stylistic and other differences.

So then, the following is a fun little sequence that I guess we can all relate to. It's from the 10th album Astérix légionnaire, originally appearing in "Pilote" magazine, and later collected in to an album in 1967.

(zoom or right-click-open)

On the personal front, the past week has been a rather exhausting, sleep-deprived personal stretch, visiting with relatives and attending to medical issues, both. My effusive thanks to @cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com for helping with posting during that period! <3

Indeed, our two-year anniversary is coming up on Aug 1st, and I hope to get something together to mark that. Whoof, I guess we'll see...

Btw, on the personal front that directly relates to this sub-Pie/community: so far I've been laboring with a ~10yr-old PC running WinX, and with each passing month, it's been more and more like slogging through molasses (or treacle, for the UK). There's also the fact that M$ is evidently pulling support for Win10 in October.

So I finally... finally got myself a newer system. It's a Win11-installed, "Minis-Forum" UM760 slim PC, with a seemingly capable CPU (AMD Ryzen 5 7640HS I think), solid RAM (16GB DDR5), 1TB SSD, and built-in graphics card of Radeon 760M, all for about... $US300.

It's also HILARIOUSLY tiny, to the tune of... hmm, let's see... IMAGES: https://www.google.com/search?q=minisforum+computer+%22UM760%22+slim&udm=2

Two inches x five & 1/8" x 5". Which in metric that would be... 50.8mm x ~130mm x 127mm. So the size of a small postage stamp on steroids, I guess. 😂

GO, postage stamp, GO...!
And yet, this particular unit seems to earn pretty consistent, stellar views from all over the place. So what's the deal, mon? Where's the catch? Well, the most obvious critique seems to relate to the small number of ports and the limited expansion capability. *FAIR*

Anyway, this is getting a bit rambly here, so let's wrap it up: I still have ~two weeks to take this thing back, and I'm still working on getting it integrated properly, but one of the things I'm rather excited about is converting it to a dual-boot Linux machine, free from the M$ tyranny. And of course, it's going to be SOOOO much more powerful and pleasant to work with in terms of browsing, reading, and creating BD content. Which should directly relate to my ease-of-content contributions upon on our sub, believe it or not...

That said, if you have any concerns or doubts for me, moving on to this new, little postage stamp PC, please do speak up? 🤔

Daggit, I thought I'd scheduled this post for earlier yesterday, whilst my step-dad has been visiting me for the past few days.

(eh, I could use a little help for the next few days with content creation)

In any case, here's Jake Wyatt's cool body of work, more or less:
https://www.deviantart.com/jakewyatt/gallery

Thanks, mates!
(I'm a bit temporarily distracted, these days)

Hoppe is a Polish-German artist currently working in Brooklyn. His site:

https://paulhoppe.de/

As for the above, Mssr De MesMaeker is of course one of Spirou Magazine's most important clients, perpetually on the verge of signing lucrative contracts with office-boss Fantasio.

For those unfamiliar with this classic André Franquin series, it's a spinoff of Spirou et Fantasio, set in a cartoon depiction of the real-life Spirou offices in Brussels. The main character is "Gaston Lagaffe," a lazy, accident-prone, yet relentlessly inventive junior office worker who reports to Fantasio.

Unlike some of the longer narratives seen in S&F, this comic simply aims for light, familiar, amiable humor. It's not necessarily wickedly clever nor side-splitting, rather the pleasure mostly comes from seeing whatever lunatic scheme Gaston is working on, usually to someone's detriment.

Btw, these all come from Cinebook's Mind the Goof album, in which Gaston's name is translated to "Gomer Goof" for English-speaking audiences. To me that happens to sound ridiculous, but oh well.

Certainly, one of the first questions any reader will ask is: why the hell wasn't Gaston fired long, long ago? Or: is Fantasio the most patient, long-suffering boss in the world, with a natural immunity to cardiovascular events?

Gaston's *official* backstory is that one day he showed up in the mailroom, started working, and for whatever reasons got hired. But let's face it-- he's almost certainly a 'nepo-baby,' and the whole office is simply forced to put up with his antics, other than Miss Jeanne (seen above), who thinks he's a genius.

Haha. Gotta love it when the tables turn, as with these last two...

Pretty wild panel I thought worth sharing! And from publisher Humanoids page:

Things are not going well for Commander Kaimann. Luz, the love of his life, is dead, his home of Tortuga destroyed, his crew ghostly apparitions, and his crocodilian mutation taking over more and more of his body -- Kaimann is fighting for his life on multiple fronts. Just when it seems like despair may overtake him, a chance encounter with a strange violin connects him to Aurora, a woman living in a future where she is staring down almost certain destruction...

With his passions renewed, Kaimann hatches a bold plan to find a cure for his mutation and a future with his newfound love. However, Kaimann’s past is catching up with him, and Aurora’s future. --[link]

More imagery here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Incal+Dying+Star&udm=2

Also worth mentioning is that I thought writer Dan Watters did a downright remarkable job emulating the style of Alejandro Jodorowsky. It's uncanny, really.

Oh, btw-- Humanoids claims that this book is in the works to become a film, overseen by Taika Waititi ("Thor: Ragnarok").

As a nice little bonus, the book included a two-page 'reading order' list of the various Incal works, which have built up in to quite the impressive collection over the years. I believe this brings us up to 2025's chronology:

That's Enchanted Forest, above.

(zoom or right-click-open as needed)

Misty Moors

She's an independent artist, illustrator and photographer based in Finland.

The Night Garden

"I mostly make dream-like illustrations with fairytale, fantasy and nature themes. I work in a variety of styles that are based on various kinds of tools and techniques. I paint with watercolours or varied types of inks, and I draw with pens or coloured pencils."

Escape

"I mix traditional techniques a lot, and some of my works are partly digital. Even when I finish pieces in Photoshop, I like to do it by editing and combining drawings and textures that I’ve first created traditionally."

Valley at Full Moon

"Wild nature is definitely the most inspiring thing. Old-growth forests are an endless source of ideas, magic and peace of mind, and I try to visit the woods as often as possible. I also use my innate life as a fuel for my work – things like my dreams, memories, fears and hopes – but the way they sneak into my art tends to be subliminal, rather than intentional."

Wilderness

Full interview here:
https://blog.society6.com/now-view-ulla-thynell/

Swamp Tale

And her site:
https://ullathynell.com/

Note: slight edits above for brevity & clarity.

The above image jumped out to me on Pinterest of all places, in which I was simply enjoying the pleasant "LC" style. (for anyone unsure about the meaning of "LC," please see sidebar)

But dad-gum it, looking a little closer, this seemed to be from the age-old The Spirit franchise. I mean, I thought that one had concluded long before creator Will Eisner's death, with it's classic run being from ~1940 to the early 50's, or so.

But, no... turns out that unlike some properties (such as Tintin), the Eisner estate evidently allowed The Spirit to be continued on in to modern times, with DC comics being the publisher behind this particular issue:

https://i.imgur.com/PRLjU4O.jpeg

What's interesting here is that our lead image is like an LC-styled version of the official cover, with significant little differences everywhere you look, and yet it *still* seems to be by the same artist, "Moritat," i.e. American Justin Norman clocking in with a Euro-style pen-name.

But let's backtrack a bit when it comes to my assertion that Europe 'loved' The Spirit. Like... why would that be, man? For example, from Lambiek:

In Europe, Eisner gained followers in the U.K. (Alan Moore, NG), The Netherlands (Stefan de Groot, Gleever, Erik Kriek, Minck Oosterveer, Peter Pontiac, Joost Swarte, Typex, Piet Wijn), Belgium (Steven De Rie), Germany (Flix), Switzerland (Zep) and Spain (Belatz, Julio Ribera).

Personally, I also have a folder of Spirit-style tributes from various BD authors, which I'd never quite thought to post before or put more thought in to, yet today's finding explains a lot to me, I think.

https://i.imgur.com/KVXfeSZ.jpeg

Now, the above is totally, classically Spirit to me, lol. That is-- physically, he's a big, strong, two-fisted action-hero, with a good, thinking mind, but Eisner was a downright genius at depicting what a miserable failure all that could add up to as an 'urban hero,' of sorts.

And that is perhaps part of the key, I suspect. I.e. the Europe of the 40's and 50's had no use for 'American superheroes' of the day, which I suppose would be totally invincible-types such as Captain Marvel and Superman, et al. I would guess (and I could be totally wrong), but fantasy heroics was relatively useless to Euro audiences, which cemented perhaps a kind of shift towards the 'amusing everyman,' such as Tintin, Spirou, and countless others who essentially had to navigate their way mainly via resourcefulness, cleverness, and so forth.

TBH, this is kind of a shitty post, in which I'm trying to cover two main topics, and neither of them very well. So for one thing, I'd say just go here for more on the genius of Eisner, and how he evolved comics storytelling in the overall sense:

https://www.lambiek.net/artists/e/eisner.htm

But here's one last little comment upon DC handling the Spirit franchise:

https://i.imgur.com/4yrp3mY.jpeg

Dang, I love that colorful, bright lettering! Oof... and I actually *did* read through the entire 20pp comic book, and found it some of the most miserable fare, ever. I.e., a two-fisted anachronism socking out dozens of gun-carrying gang-members, inspired by the rescue of 'the princess.'

Eh, que ridícula. Show me the money, Lebowski!

NOTE: the above post was written while conspicuously sleep-deprived, but what the hey... content is content, lol.

Very good book, published by Fantagraphics.

https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/daughters-of-snow-and-cinders

This translates to "Dry Cleaning," and was published by Rue de Sèvres in 2022, a publisher I don't remember hearing about before.

https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-78913-BD-Nettoyage-a-sec.html

(zoom or right-click-open to expand these images)

Mertens is Flemish-Belgian, born in 1968, and seemingly worked in film most of his career, only turning to BD novels in 2019, doing this one and Béatrice so far, both as artist and writer.

As for the story, it's a classic slice-of-life look at François, an aging middle-aged man whose main ambition is to win the lottery, which would enable him to give his younger female friend and daughter the kind of life he feels they deserve. Meanwhile, he works a rather uncertain job as a delivery driver for a local dry cleaner. All in all, his is not *quite* a pathetic existence, but one can feel it inevitably slipping in that direction.

Perhaps the main theme here is actually "rain," and that's conveyed almost ceaselessly across almost every page. François is perpetually forgetting to bring his umbrella along, and therefore walks around across the entire story not unlike a drowned rat. Indeed, things take a turn for the tragic (amidst bitter irony) when it comes to his relationship with water.

But about the art-- I don't think I've ever seen rain in a city-scape portrayed with such lushness and power. Mertens very definitely takes some liberties with shading, lighting and coloring, and I'm pleased to say that he produces some of the most stunning BD art I've ever seen. Truly, this work can be thoroughly enjoyed in either the Dutch or French versions without needing to understand a single word. It really is that kind of wonderful.

If there's a weakness with this one, at ~140pp I feel that it probably could have been edited down a bit to tell the story a bit more efficiently and dramatically. But it's hard to care too much when the art is this incredible, and to be fair-- it's a strong story that feels reminiscent of classic Euro film.

Please settle down, silly geese...