dimland radio 2-3-18 show notes

Tales Of Art School

Every now and again I go full self-indulgent and wax on about some topic or topics that might just be interesting to me. I may have done that the first half of this show.

I got to thinking about my art school days. I talk about a very bad teacher and my desktop doodling. The tales involve German Expressionist Otto Dix and freedom of expression. And there's a bit of how context informs content. 

A Dimland Radio ARGH! 

According to the internets, I'm not the only one who lets out an "argh!" when seeing a certain ad for Apple's iPad Pro. The ad follows a 14 year old girl as she spends her day on her iPad Pro. She chats with friends, writes a blog, makes art, etc. At the end, she's laying on the grass in her back yard and typing away on her tablet.

A nice neighbor lady comes out and asks, "What are you doing on your computer?"

That's when it happens.

"What's a computer?" is how the little shit responds!

ARRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!! 

10 Things A Facebook Friend Thinks Are True 

A Facebook friend (more like acquaintance) had posted 10 things he claimed to know were true. The ten things reflected his skeptical nature and his atheism. I thought I'd give my impressions on what he "knows" is true.

I agreed with much of what he stated, but I did express a certain agnosticism on a few items. 

I mentioned an InFact video on two simple proofs humans are causing global warming. Here's the link to it.

Top Three Cool Things Of The Week

Here's Three Cool Things from this week.

3) Sometimes, at the comic book store, we get a customer who is just so sincerely excited to be getting a particular comic, that we can't help but feel good about it. It was his first purchase of an early issue of Amazing Spider-Man drawn by his favorite artist: Steve Ditko.

2) The issue that customer bought had a really good cover. I noted to myself to remember it for my monthly examination of great covers in my blog for the store. I mentioned the blog to the customer and he let me know that he reads it! His enthusiasm was so heartening, I told him I would write about that cover for February's great cover installment.

1) I have an art commission! A friend asked me to draw Marvel's swamp creature, Man-Thing. He's leaving the design to my discretion and he'll pay me for it!

Movie Recommendation: Singin' In The Rain (1952)

Yep. A musical. Normally, I'm not much of a fan of musicals, but a friend encouraged me to watch this one. I liked it. The song and dance numbers didn't slow the story down, which is one of my problems with most other musicals.

I talked about the skill level of the performers, the directors (the star Gene Kelly also co-directed the movie), and the crew needed to pull off those elaborate production numbers. Very impressive. 

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Go!' by Tones On Tail & 'All That Jazz' by Echo & the Bunnymen

Second ad break bumpers: 'I Apologize' by Husker Du & 'New World Man' by Rush

Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

Please subscribe on iTunes! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

you know who is great?

I’ll tell you. Alan Davis. Who is Alan Davis? Alan Davis is one of my favorite comic book illustrators, that’s who! Back when I was still buying new comic books (I stopped years ago), I discovered Alan Davis when he was penciling Detective Comics for DC. His Batman was terrific. Davis’ style is fluid and graceful. It’s every bit as powerful as comicdom’s other greats: John Buscema, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Will Eisner, John Byrne, Jim Lee, Alex Ross and the like.

When he finished up on Detective Comics on the middle of a story run (he was replaced by the extremely overrated Todd MacFarlane, I’ll talk about him in a moment), he moved over to Marvel Comics. He went to work penciling Excalibur. And I went to work buying them.

I think Alan Davis was, unfortunately, overshadowed by the Todd MacFarlane craze. I freely admit I was impressed with MacFarlane’s work for about five minutes, but, as a nearly life-long student of comic book art, I quickly saw MacFarlane’s deficiencies as an artist. His work was dramatic and eye-catching, but his anatomy drawing was poor. His proportions were off and his women all looked wrong. His characters all looked like they were in danger of falling over (always leaning and their bodies tapering toward their feet). MacFarlane’s line work was way too busy and lacked weight and definition.

MacFarlane's art: Just how big is Spider-Man's butt?

Alan Davis’ work, on the other hand, was lush and disciplined. His line work was simple, flowing, elegant and expressive. His eye for page layout and design was outstanding. A mark of a really good comic book artist is being able to follow the story without having to read the narrative and dialogue. Davis’ pages never left you confused as to what was going on, while MacFarlane’s often did.

And the way Alan Davis drew women… AHEM.

Let's see MacFarlane draw a woman this well!

Maybe I suffer a little from the sour grapes when I look at MacFarlane’s work. I spent years trying to get into the comic book biz, but no go. Sometimes I’d get some praise, “You’re good, but you need work.” Sometimes I’d get slapped, “Have you had any drawing lessons?” This was asked of me by an editor after I had spent three years in art school. Often I would hear that my work was a little too cartoony. I’d work on improving my work and then I saw MacFarlane’s drawings. Cartoony?! Talk about cartoony! Are you looking at his stuff?!

MacFarlane's Wolverine (This cover did catch my eye at first.)

Davis' Wolverine

(To be fair, I have to say that although I don’t care much for MacFarlane’s drawing, his line of toys he later produced were fantastic!)

However, when I see great work, I marvel at the artist’s ability. I revel in it. I feel as though I’m witnessing something transcendent. It’s a beautiful thing.

MacFarlane's Hulk

Davis' Hulk (Drawings like this make me want to put down my pencil and let the pros handle it.)

And I think Alan Davis produced many beautiful things.