Vagabond 3 by Takehiko Inoue Inked drawing by Takehiko Inoue, coloring by me in Photoshop CS4. Tweet Review: With swords like that, why fight? If I can turn ANY club readers into graphic novel fans...I am going to be very happy, but then so will you. As most club readers are also artists, this challenge especially emphasizes the relationship between words and pictures. And, as in graphic novels and manga...that's exactly what you get! A little look into Japanese manga is enough to pique anyone's interest. The manga artists keep up with societies interests. The stories written are illustrated for all age groups; boys and girls, men and women. The series Vagabond , my April book is seinem manga which means it's written for men ages 18-40. But I don't think I'll be arrested for reading it. The first two things to know about Vagabond is that the artist Takehiko Inoue is also the author and his drawings are done, up until very recently, with a black ink...
Veins everywhere, a bloody theme with veins and marbling. The book reads 'Zoo' and 'Art War' and there is something 'spacey' or scientific about the image, as though it had been taken through a telescope - it is no accident that the moon struggles to emerge from the book. The eyes are half-hidden, so is the face underneath the intense light.
ReplyDeleteThe one vein across the face? A scar? There is something about the veins that is very ritualistic. They're like body jewellery or like chains (especially given the connotation from the Zoo). It's uncomfortable to look at and I think what's being emphasised is that human beings are not exhibits and art is more meaningful than that.
The chains could be seen as tears... Or worse yet, blinding... Is this a comment on the relationship between creating the world in the form of art (our pictures of the world and our 'cosmos') and violence?
The book is the Art of War by Sun Tzu. It is a triple image. The main figure is reading a book and looking at the viewer, it is a play off of a picture of me as a child where my mother snapped a shot of me sitting in the closet, reading the newspaper upside down (I think I was 4) and the look on my face was 'hey I am busy' without a doubt mimicing how my mother used to look at me. The picture is cut with two photos I shot of the pavement and sidewalk and sent through color filters. The crackes in the pavement had plants coming out of them which is an area of interest in photography. I mostly like "It's uncomfortable to look at and I think what's being emphasised is that human beings are not exhibits and art is more meaningful than that."
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