#6 Modesty Blaise by Jim Holdaway

I always envy comics artists who can create seemingly random and out-of-control lines for perfect drawings. 

Two of them, Yaroslav Horak of James Bond, Jim Holdaway of Modesty Blaise are English. 

 

If you need any proof, just look at Jim Holdaway's signature. Of course, I also love Modesty Blaise comics because of his characters. But sometimes in the rush of lines and deadlines, artists lose track of some other aspects of the drawing. 

 

A good example is this strip of Modesty Blaise's episode "Galley Slaves" from 1968. Just look how small M-16 is in comparison to the person in the middle frame. It looks like he is holding a toy gun. But then, who cares. Just look at how simple and beautiful the drawing of Modesty's hand is in the last frame of the comic.
 

You can see more Modesty Blaise original strips here1, here2, here3, here4 and here5.

 

 

The Move "Sretno dijete" (Happy Child)

In 2003, I was asked by Igor Mirkovic to appear on his documentary Sretno dijete (Happy Child). The documentary was about the beginning of the Punk and New wave in my home town Zagreb/Croatia. After the documentary was done, Igor asked me to design the poster for it. 

I decided to ask the photographer to take photos of the coffee shop Zvecka where we were hanging out and from which everything all started. Also I was trying to figure out something very punk in the attitude, not necessarily in the look. I came up with the idea to create a glued fold on the poster. That way, the poster became square-shaped and it looked more like a record cover. And to see the title and the main part of the image, one needed to lift up the fold. 

Of course, there was also a little provocation here. Lifting up the thing in the middle you will make a happy child. 

 

Mayor Daley by Ron Cobb

 

Lately, I have seen lots of writing about Ron Cobb.

The first time I saw his work was in "A History of Underground Comics" by Mark James Estren in the early 70s. I didn't see his work earlier because at that time, he was mostly publishing in underground newspapers. Unfortunately, at that time, American underground newspapers were not available in Communist Yugoslavia.

I immediately fell in love with his work not only because of the quality of his drawings which are very close to my heart, but also because of his ideas and concepts. Maybe then I was not lucky to have access to underground newspapers, but today I am lucky to have one of his originals from that time. What is quite fascinating about his originals is that how small and detailed they are. Even his signature and copyright line are extremely small on the original, and they are handwritten.

Ronald Ray Cobb (1937 – 2020) was an American-Australian artist. As well as being an editorial cartoonist he worked on numerous major films including Dark Star, Star Wars, Alien, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Conan the Barbarian, Back to the Future, The Abyss, Total Recall, and Southland Tales. He had one credit as director, for the 1992 film Garbo.

 

 

 

Topsy-turvy A.C.2020 comic

 

More comics here.

My A.C.2020 comic inspired by Avenue of the America.

More comics here.

A.C. 2020 comic inspired by Tomaž Pengov

My A.C. 2020 comic inspired by Tomaž Pengov song ′′ In the smile of someday ′′ From the album ′′ Travel ′′ (1973).

V nasmehu nekega dneva V nasmehu nekega dneva, stopiš na svoje križišče, in streseš pesek iz popotnih čevljev. Nekdo te vpraša kam hočeš, ti skriješ utrujene noge, in poveš, da si bil tam. Prijatelji ti odpirajo okna, in ne veš koga si ranil. Tvoja roka nikoli ni prazna, karkoli si storil, v nasmehu nekega dneva, si prinesel, prinesel s seboj. Med glasbo in njeno tišino, med senco in njenim telesom, med žensko in njeno lahko stopinjo, čutiš pot med besedo in molkom, in zemlja na katero si stopil, ti je vzela del potovanja Ko se vrneš, si sam. Ptice so zaprle poletje, in dež je ustavil ceste. Nad praznim vrčem prsti napnejo strune, in spomin ti verjame. V tišini pretrgaš zaveso, in stopiš, pred drevo, ki si ga posadil, v nasmehu nekega dneva, da odlomiš vejo, za na pot. In the smile of someday In the smile of someday, you set foot upon your crossroad, and shake the sand from your traveling shoes. Somebody asks you where you wish to go, you hide your tired legs, and tell them, you have been there. Friends open their windows to you, and you know not who you have wounded. Your hand never empty, and whatever you have done, in the smile of someday, you have brought, brought with yourself. Between music and its silence, between a shadow and its body, between a woman and her light footprint, you feel the path between word and silence, and the ground on which you tread, has taken from you a part of your journey, when you return, you are alone. The birds have brought summer to end, and rain has halted all roads, Above an empty jug your fingers draw the strings, your memory believes you. You tear apart the curtain in silence, and step, before the very tree you have planted, in the smile of someday, and break off a branch, for your journey.

More comics here.