So, my plan to write about the connections between comics and fine art went out the window. I was going to talk about Picasso’s love of The Katzenjammer Kids, the links between Philip Guston, Robert Crumb and Öyvind Fahlström, and the more recent phenomenon of artists, such as Olivia Plender, using comics as the medium for their work. But the ‘best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, Gang aft agley’ as a famous Scotsman once said, and the greatest comic book writer/artist in the world was coming to the UK to do a talk.
Love & Rockets #21
I wouldn’t make an 800 mile round trip for just anybody you understand, but Jaime Hernandez (or Xaime as he signs his work) visited London last week for the first time in 25 years. THIS WAS NO SMALL BEANS PEOPLE! Along with his brother Gilbert, he has been producing the comic Love & Rockets in various formats for 30 years (with occasional contributions from older brother Mario). As I mentioned in Graphixia #100, the cover to Love & Rockets issue 24 is my favourite ever.
Love & Rockets #24
To look at a Jaime Hernandez comics page is to catch a glimpse of perfection. His artwork appears effortless but has evolved over the years; he mentioned that he gradually did away with hatching (along with the sci-fi trappings of his early stories) to leave the pages with clean lines and blocks of black and white. He is a master of chiaroscuro and admitted to preferring not to work in colour. I haven’t seen a page of his original art but the reproductions in The Art of Jaime Hernandez show them to be very close to the printed comics, with very little pencils or whiteout visible.
The Comica talk took place at the Institut Français as part of the Bande Dessinée & Comics Passion weekend. Jaime stopped off on his way to an appearance at Copenhagen Comics festival. He was interviewed by Woodrow Phoenix, also a man with a long history in comics and creator of the very fine book Rumble Strip. It was a long interview and Phoenix allowed Jaime to talk in depth, although his questions came from the perspective of a Love & Rockets aficionado and might have baffled any newbies in the audience (although one of the people I was with was new to L&R and he went out and bought Maggie the Mechanic the next morning!).
The latter part of the interview was a live talk and draw in which Jaime’s drawing pad was projected on the huge cinema screen behind him. This provided an excellent opportunity to see his drawings blown up to gigantic proportions. Personally, I love seeing comic art at ridiculously huge sizes; it changes the way we see the art and makes it into something new. As we shuffled into the auditorium the screen was showing the classic panel from Love & Rockets issue 21 with Hopey’s band La Llorona on stage and the singer Monica berating the hecklers with the immortal line ‘If you were really hardcore, you’d have thrown a full bottle.’ A line so good Jaime also uses it as his bio on Twitter.
Jaime Hernandez at the Institut Français 30th May 2013
One thing the talk and draw proved (as Phoenix pointed out), was that Jaime can’t talk and draw at the same time! When giving a long answer he tended to stop drawing but we were then treated to the sight of his very expressive hand movements projected onto the cinema screen. Unfortunately some comments from the audience were boringly predictable; the first question was about Maggie’s weight, a tedious topic that was surely put to bed 25 years ago. When asked what he should draw, the first request was for Penny Century, the glamorous pin-up and wannabe superhero from Jaime’s Locas strips. I would have preferred a drawing of H.R. Costigan, her horned billionaire husband.
After a session that ran over 2 hours in length, Jaime then graciously agreed to do a signing and about half the cinema gathered in a very orderly queue to get their books signed. I had a brief chat with Jaime as he signed my 1980s Titan Books editions of his work (with great covers designed by Rian Hughes) and wished him well for his trip to Copenhagen. Jaime came across as one of the sweetest, modest and generous folks that you could hope to meet and I look forward to following his stories for many years to come.
Woodrow Phoenix interviewing Jaime Hernandez
I used my fleeting London visit to seek out other comics events. The Roy Lichtenstein show at the Tate had closed (someone else who likes comics panels blown up huge) but the response show at Orbital Comics was still on. Image Duplicator was an interesting exhibition featuring work by Rian Hughes, Dave Gibbons and other cartoonists, illustrators and designers. Their work ‘re-reappropriated’ the original comics panels that Lichtenstein used in his work. The main difference with these works was that they credited the original artists, something Lichtenstein failed to do.
I also managed to catch Sarah Lightman’s exhibition The Book of Sarah: A Life in Drawings and Animation Films at the Occupy My Time Gallery in Deptford. This was a great show featuring work from Lightman’s ongoing autobiographical project The Book of Sarah, due to be published in 2015. Her pencil drawings dwell on the everyday details of unhappy experiences, making them into beautiful art. She studied at The Slade School of Art and initially struggled with where her work fitted into the art world. I chatted to Sarah in the gallery about comics, autobiography and art, and she mentioned how, as she slowly discovered comics, her work began to make sense. She is also a tireless promoter of life narrative comics and co-founded Laydeez do Comics with Nicola Streeten.
Sarah Lightman In Memoriam
Lightman’s art has a lot of space in it and the pencil marks are obvious and deliberate, you can see what the drawing was made with, unlike Jaime’s work with its solid blacks with no sign of brushstrokes. Even when reproduced in a different medium, such as the films Lightman makes of her work, the materiality of her pencil shines through. This is very deliberate and Lightman also spoke about showing the work respect, the drawings were beautifully presented in frames in the gallery space. I wondered whether there was a definitive version of the work, drawings, comics or film. I really enjoy this multi-media playing around with the comics form and I am fascinated to see artists embrace site-specific comics. Like Olivia Plender, Lightman is an artist who happens to use comics as the medium to present her work.
So there you go I still managed to talk about comics and art!