rec: ART & comics: Fables & James Jean
ART & comics: Fables & James Jean
‘Bout a year ago I bought the first issue of “Fables,” by Vertigo Comics, and I fell in love with not only the awesome art of James Jean, but the story as well. The other day when I was in the book store treating my nephews to a book and a cake at the café at Books-a-Million (because they have a children’s play area that they can play at unlike B&N), I decided to look and see if they had any art books on James Jean to buy since I just can‘t go to a book store and not buy a book for myself. Well, like always happens when I’m confronted by many books I want, I bought the covers art book and the 4 issues of Fables that they had other than issue 1. It was a lot more than I planned or could afford as a student, but since I see it as inevitable that I would buy them anyways I squashed that guilty money spending feeling and allowed the sparkle of buying books to overwhelm any misgivings I had on spending money when I can’t afford it.
James Jean is to a certain extent a fairly famous artist. For those not into comics: he did a Prada commission for handbags and fabric for cloth designs a few years ago which I thought was stunning. I’ve heard some people describe his work as “grotesque.” They probably mean distorted in appearance, especially in a strange or disturbing way that blends the realistic and the fantastic in stylistic fashion. Usually when people think of grotesque they thing creepy, and there is a bit of creepiness to James jean’s art, however it (to me at least) doesn’t seem offensive.
James Jean web site: http://www.jamesjean.com/
My favs…
Art piece 1: http://www.jamesjean.com/work/swan.jpg
Art piece 2: http://cyanatrendland.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/james-jean-for-prada.jpg
Art piece 3: http://nummynims.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/prada-fashion-james-jean.jpg
Summary of “Fables” from Amazon:
From Publishers Weekly
This elaborate fantasy series begins as a whodunit, but quickly unfurls into a much larger story about Fabletown, a place where fairy tale legends live alongside regular New Yorkers. Years ago, fables and fairy tales like Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella "were a thousand separate kingdoms spread over a hundred magic worlds," until they were invaded and driven into hiding and, eventually, into modern-day Gotham. And so, on the city streets we find Beauty and the Beast in trouble with the law and Prince Charming reduced to a broke cad auctioning off his royal title, while his ex-wife, Snow White, rules over the de facto kingdom the fables created. When Snow White's sister, Rose Red, disappears from a blood-soaked apartment, the Wolf, reformed and now the kingdom's house detective, is assigned to the case. Willingham uses the Wolf's investigation to introduce readers to Fabletown's dissolute, hard-luck inhabitants, and he is at his best here, relishing one-liners and spinning funky background information of a world where fairy tale characters spend their time fretting about money and thinking up get-rich schemes. The mystery seems mostly an excuse to delineate Willingham's world, as the caper is easily resolved-in true fairy tale fashion-during a massive ballroom celebration. Willingham's dialogue is humorous, his characterizations are sharp and his plot encompasses a tremendous amount of information with no strain at all. The art, mostly by Medina and Leialoha, is well drawn and serviceable, if somewhat unremarkable, with occasional flares of decorative invention. But it's Willingham's script that carries the tale.
‘Bout a year ago I bought the first issue of “Fables,” by Vertigo Comics, and I fell in love with not only the awesome art of James Jean, but the story as well. The other day when I was in the book store treating my nephews to a book and a cake at the café at Books-a-Million (because they have a children’s play area that they can play at unlike B&N), I decided to look and see if they had any art books on James Jean to buy since I just can‘t go to a book store and not buy a book for myself. Well, like always happens when I’m confronted by many books I want, I bought the covers art book and the 4 issues of Fables that they had other than issue 1. It was a lot more than I planned or could afford as a student, but since I see it as inevitable that I would buy them anyways I squashed that guilty money spending feeling and allowed the sparkle of buying books to overwhelm any misgivings I had on spending money when I can’t afford it.
James Jean is to a certain extent a fairly famous artist. For those not into comics: he did a Prada commission for handbags and fabric for cloth designs a few years ago which I thought was stunning. I’ve heard some people describe his work as “grotesque.” They probably mean distorted in appearance, especially in a strange or disturbing way that blends the realistic and the fantastic in stylistic fashion. Usually when people think of grotesque they thing creepy, and there is a bit of creepiness to James jean’s art, however it (to me at least) doesn’t seem offensive.
James Jean web site: http://www.jamesjean.com/
My favs…
Art piece 1: http://www.jamesjean.com/work/swan.jpg
Art piece 2: http://cyanatrendland.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/james-jean-for-prada.jpg
Art piece 3: http://nummynims.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/prada-fashion-james-jean.jpg
Summary of “Fables” from Amazon:
From Publishers Weekly
This elaborate fantasy series begins as a whodunit, but quickly unfurls into a much larger story about Fabletown, a place where fairy tale legends live alongside regular New Yorkers. Years ago, fables and fairy tales like Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella "were a thousand separate kingdoms spread over a hundred magic worlds," until they were invaded and driven into hiding and, eventually, into modern-day Gotham. And so, on the city streets we find Beauty and the Beast in trouble with the law and Prince Charming reduced to a broke cad auctioning off his royal title, while his ex-wife, Snow White, rules over the de facto kingdom the fables created. When Snow White's sister, Rose Red, disappears from a blood-soaked apartment, the Wolf, reformed and now the kingdom's house detective, is assigned to the case. Willingham uses the Wolf's investigation to introduce readers to Fabletown's dissolute, hard-luck inhabitants, and he is at his best here, relishing one-liners and spinning funky background information of a world where fairy tale characters spend their time fretting about money and thinking up get-rich schemes. The mystery seems mostly an excuse to delineate Willingham's world, as the caper is easily resolved-in true fairy tale fashion-during a massive ballroom celebration. Willingham's dialogue is humorous, his characterizations are sharp and his plot encompasses a tremendous amount of information with no strain at all. The art, mostly by Medina and Leialoha, is well drawn and serviceable, if somewhat unremarkable, with occasional flares of decorative invention. But it's Willingham's script that carries the tale.