Hi, introducing myself - Dave Fisher. I wear a variety of small hats at Aardvark-Vanaheim -- from reference photographer to video-editor to art dealer, to now, apparently, part-time blog contributor. You may have unwittingly seen my background "work" appearing in a number of venues, from the cover of Dave Sim's Collected Letters Vol. 2 (photos of Harvey Pekar and Chester Brown -- a story for down the road), to the cover of The Comic Eye (Sim staring into a crystal ball and recoiling in horror), and too many episodes of Cerebus TV to mention.
What am I doing here? I'm here for a couple of reasons:
1) To assist in keeping the blog rolling along with fresh content and contributions, from my behalf especially to anything relating to Glamourpuss and Sim's up-coming The Strange Death of Alex Raymond, which I can confirm to you right now is looking pretty darn awesome; and
2) I'm currently going through Sim's Glamourpuss output pulling together original art-work for auction. Now, these finished original pieces typically fetch a price-point beyond the affordability of most fans, especially my wallet. Therefore, in the spirit of practicality, affordability, and unfathomably hardcore super-fannery, I am also going through the Glamourpuss archives pulling together sets of Sim's raw working material -- specifically his tracings and draft compositions -- as well as some special cover mock-ups with Sim's water-colours and hand-lettering -- and will be making these available for auction on eBay at low opening bids of $1. This will be happening shortly. Stay tuned to this space for announcements!
Most of these will probably be claimed for peanuts, but I reckon fans and comic-book artists will be fascinated with these exclusive unique packages. Having recently re-read Glamourpuss in its entirety, I'm currently pulling tracings of particular interest, particularly as they relate to Sim's new Strange Death of Alex Raymond. These tracings are the sui generis of what will be a monumental work. They're rare & unique, and Sim is going to sign it all and sweeten with some tremendous offers. Right now I'm preparing shipping rates and a schedule. Again - keep your eye on this weblog for announcements!
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Until then, to the first order of business, -- blog content (and aren't you glad you're still reading?) -- here's something you probably haven't seen before...
The source photos for the penultimate pages of the last issue of Glamourpuss (No. 26, pages 16-19) with Alex Raymond and Stan Drake freeze-framed in tragic freefall in Drake's 1956 Corvette convertible.
Aardvark-Vanaheim not being in the position to acquire an antique '56 'Vette or afford a crane to hoist one skyward to shoot the undercarriage, Sim did the next best thing and purchased a scale model. Or, at least something close enough, his toy being a hot pink modified late fifties Corvette with mag wheels.
We crossed referenced the toy's undercarriage to small bits & pieces we could jigsaw together from google images. It was close enough to accurate to proceed. I suspended the toy from a chandelier with fishing line and photographed it from a dozen angles onto b&w film. Sim made his selections, traced, penciled and inked them, eliminated the mag wheels, exhaust and hard-top, and added rain, motion and a terrified Drake. I own a digital camera now, which makes the film & darkroom printing obsolete, yet here you have it -- comic-book photorealism in action!
3 comments:
This may seem like a strange question to ask, but would you happen to know the name of the model company that made that toy car?
A slightly less strange question.
Any idea when the Glamourpuss Artists edition is coming out?
Eddie, I am guessing that Sim still has the toy model car -- I'll ask him when I see him.
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