Sunday, June 14, 2009

Zip A Tone

Zip A Tone, an adhesive shading film that was cut by hand and applied to artwork, ceased to be manufactured somewhere around May 1992. I'm picking this date only because of the death notice printed in Eightball No.8



Zip A Tone has been on my mind because I recently received "Two Eyes Of The Beautiful" from Ryan Cecil Smith, who is currently living in Japan. Some equivalent of Zip A Tone (in virtually unlimited variety) is still widely available in Japan, despite the advent of the computer. "Two Eyes of the Beautiful" is all about Zip A Tone, from simple dot patterns, to trees and foliage......even buildings.

Indeed, it is pretty easy to recreate the same effects of the adhesive sheets in Photoshop. Kevin Huizenga frequently employs this technique.




But comics from Japan are the main place that I see lots of Zip A Tone (or its digital equivalent) these days. The combination of the dominance of B/W pages and the use of assistants probably helps.

DRAGON HEAD by Minetaro Mochizuki:



20th CENTURY BOYS by Naoki Urasawa:



However much I love the work of the above artists.....their use of tones is an embellishment. The work might suffer without the additional tones, but it would remain fundamentally readable.

Which brings us to this piece:



Whenever Zip A Tone is mentioned, I can't help but think of Matt Wagner's "Heist", printed in BATMAN BLACK & WHITE #3.

Could this piece have been done on the computer?
I suppose so.

Could this piece exist without the fields of tone?
Absolutely not.

In these pages, Wagner barely uses any outlines at all, and cuts out areas of tone without "containment lines". Take away all the tones and the artwork would be virtually unreadable. When I asked Ryan why he wasn't just applying the tones digitally, he replied that although the computer was probably more efficient, it was a lot of fun carving up the sheets by hand. I think this shows in "Heist" as well. There's a real sense of physicality to these pages.

"Heist": a true Zip A Tone tour de force.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Cymbals Eat Guitars B/W Version


I basically obliterated a lot of the inking with colored pencil after this.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Hot Wheels

Alex Toth is, by far, one of my favorite cartoonists.
I found a copy of a "Hot Wheels" comic last week.
Didn't Toth draw some of these?
I flipped it open to this page, and did not have to check the credits.




Alex Toth died three years ago today.

RIP

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Flower-Corsano Duo: The Four Aims



I just received some copies of the double LP by the Flower-Corsano Duo, entitled The Four Aims. I had the pleasure and honor of doing the artwork for this recording. The LP has 3 extra tracks and features a gatefold drawing as well. I would love to post an MP3 of my band with Chris Corsano when we were teenagers, but unfortunately, it would be more embarrassing for me than him, so it remains buried in the world of the cassette. You're better off buying the Four Aims, which is great.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Cymbals Eat Guitars


I'm currently working on some LP art for Cymbals Eat Guitars. Here's a rough sketch of the cover.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

West Side Improvements


I have a 12 page piece in SYNCOPATED, which was officially released today. My piece is about the tunnel under Riverside Park.

I spent a few months on this one, and I'm really proud of it. There's a release party coming up on June 5th at Rocketship.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Gus Powell


I just got this week's issue of the New Yorker. I was struck immediately by the photo in the "Goings On About Town"......enough so that I stopped working on a Magic Hour page and drew the photo in my sketchbook. The photo is by Gus Powell. I also liked the Lunch Pictures on his site.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Site Update

I added some illustration work and sketches to my website:

www.alexholden.com