MadInkBeard Reviews Stars, Crosses, & Stripes

Derik A. Badman, who writes the MadInkBeard blog, which anyone interested in the formalist and conceptual dimensions of comics will enjoy, has just published a nice review at Comic Book Galaxy of C Hill's limited edition gallery comics, Stars, Crosses, and Stripes.

Molotiu's Abstract Comics Meet the Gallery

Andrei Molotiu has long championed the concept of abstraction, or
non-figurative imagery, in comics, not only in his writings and lectures, but in his art. Those abstract comics presented in the realm of the gallery form one of the more exciting frontiers in the field of gallery comics. Molotiu’s beautiful art, sometimes in frugal black and white, sometimes in lush colors, graces the surface of the canvas or the page. In The Cave series, some prints clearly reveal the grid structure so typical of the comics page - what André Franquin, the famed comic artist who invented the Marsupilami, teasingly called the Belgian waffle grid. Yet, that familiar structure dissolves, with only hints remaining as the viewer progresses metaphorically in the cave. Darkness overcomes and beams of blinding light transform our perception into abstractions. Molotiu presents several other series on his site, some remarkable gallery comics, including the vivid and rhythmic Splashes series and the mysterious Expedition series, which clearly suggests a pursuit, but never reveals the identity of the terrain.

Oblique Angle Publishes "Hold Me"

The online literary and art magazine Oblique Angle includes on page 4 in its March issue “Hold Me,” or C Hill’s very first gallery comics (the one he nicknames his “gallery comics zero”). “Hold Me” is nicely paired with Tara Alfano’s poem, “Behind the Door.”

Panel on Gallery Comics at 2006 CAA

Michelle Ollie, Andrei Molotiu, Mark Staff Brandl, and Joanna Roche have all worked on gallery comics, but from very different perspectives. They spoke of their experiences at a panel organized by fellow gallery comics pioneer, C Hill, at the College Art Association 94th annual conference (Boston, Mass. - February 25, 2006).

For the first time, the artistic and academic community saw examples and heard voices from the growing world of gallery comic artists. Ollie, co-founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies, described the struggles of art students and faculty in accepting and adapting a traditionally “non-gallery” medium – comic art – for the space of the gallery. Molotiu, assistant professor from the Fine Arts Department of the University of Louisville (Ky.), addressed the singular experience of viewing originals of comics pages, what they reveal that is otherwise invisible on the printed comics page, and how conservators can care for these artifacts. Brandl enthusiastically shared his experience as a gallery comic artist producing work in Western Europe, and how his American “blue collar” background interfaces with his process and how it interferes and teases the fine art world. Roche, associate professor of art history at Calstate Fullerton (Calif.), closed the session with a “pre-history” of gallery comics, or an initial survey of this new branch on the family tree of comic art.