LOVE COMICS: Hey Oscar Wilde! It's Clobberin' Time!

Dirk Deppey links to Hey Oscar Wilde! It's Clobberin' Time! regularly. It's Steven Gettis' art collection of authors, literary figures and characters as drawn by, well, everyone in comics.

Chrestomanci as drawn by Bryan Lee O'Malley:



And, just for arcana_j:

Harry Potter by Humberto Ramos:



It's brilliant. I wish there was a book.
I wrote to Steve and asked to contribute and found out he'd been trying to reach me for about nine years! I'll be doing something for the site. I'll let it be a surprise.

Go have a look and enjoy.

HURT COMICS: WHAT THE FUCK, C@NSON? WHAT THE FUCK?!

I don't like to use swears so much in my subject lines, as it looks really bad in Google searches, but this REALLY merits it:




And this is FOR REAL! AGGGGH!

WHAT THE FUCK?
What dumbass at C@nson approved this? WTF is that artwork? I LOVE the idea of comics-specific art papers--but NOT FUCKING LIKE THIS!
WHAT comics pros are using something called "Fanboy" with some poor minger as a mascot? What comic pro could buy that without cringing or a paper bag over their head?
This is the most brutally ugly packaging I have ever seen. Thanks, C@nson, for completely cornholing a great idea with packaging that makes me want to take out a New York Times ad saying "US COMIC ARTISTS, WE'RE NOT LIKE THAT! WE DON'T USE THIS STUFF! WTF C@NSON?!"

Aggggh!

Look up the damn URL yourselves. C@nson isn't getting referral love from me.

My letter to C@nson:

To Whom It May Concern,

I am a twenty-year veteran of the comics industry, as
an award-winning writer, artist and editor. I have
published four graphic novels, an art instruction
book, and worked for the biggest companies in the
comics business, including DC, Marvel and Image.

I am writing concerning the awful packaging of the
Fanboy paper line. 

The the Fanboy line has not only the ugliest packaging
and amateurish art I have ever seen, but easily the
most insulting. You claim it is used by many comics
pros, and indeed Canson (not Fanboy) papers are. I
have used Canson, from sketchbooks to watercolor
paper, for my entire career as an artist.
However, I have strong doubts that any professionals I
know could buy this paper without being profoundly
embarrassed. Canson has made an unfortunate and
appalling connection between the art of making comics
and the ignorant cliches of obese basement-dwelling
men, exploitation art of women and "Biff Bam Pow!"
comics circa the Batman TV show (which is now 40 years
old).
The fact that you put the ugly basement dweller on the
packaging as a mascot demonstrates you have no clue
whatsoever about how much comics professionals, from
creators to sellers, have fought that stereotype.
Indeed, it strongly suggests no one at Canson thought
hard at all about making a paper line professionals
would be proud to buy.
If your target audience is aspiring artists rather
than pros, I fail to see the wisdom in selling them
with junky art, when your regular line features
tasteful packaging and inspiring art. Why should
comics art be any different? There are many artists,
including myself, who'd be pleased to contribute to
the art for a Canson comics line, and would show that
Canson continues to set standards to aspire to,
instead of flee from.

Art papers made by a premiere company like Canson and
marketed specifically for comickers is an idea whose
time has come. However, the Fanboy line has wound back
the clock.

I hope you reconsider your packaging, not only for
your reputation as a company, but for the artists you
purport buy your product, who don't wish to be cast
yet again as freaks and aberrations.

Lea Hernandez