Hey kids remember this?

Well it looks like they’re building a brand new gnome hideout right in the middle:

The works on next Rewolucje album has begun. Three stories scheduled to appear in this one needed some small upgrades. Two of them were cosmetic (translation and cleaning), but the third one needed a solid upgrade. As in – complete inking. This is the story from the Cartoonia comic anthology, and it was all done in pencil and waterpaint. For the sake of the new album integrity this needed to be unified with the rest of the material, hence the redo.

It took an entire weekend to properly ink all 20 pages. (March 22-24, 2013).

Is such a speedy work any good? Well, here’s a small example of the outcome (compared to the original version for your convenience). You be the judge.

Would you recommend entering the art field for professional work?

That’s not something anyone can recommend. You’d have to feel it yourself, not be lured by someone else.

you can’t choose this field of career. it chooses you.

Would you recommend going to school for art?

Not necessarily. I didn’t attend an art school. Hence they didn’t shape me using their own definition of what an artist is.

being an artist is very personal and schooling can damage that. Not always, but there’s a risk.

Did you complete any schooling?

I graduated from a university, I’m an architect.

Did you always know you wanted to become an artist?

No. even when I already was I always hated that term. I didnt want to be an artist. I always considered myself a craftsman. But as years went by it turns out I actually am an artist, however admitting to that is cringing.

Can you name any artist/artists past or present who has influenced you directly, or whom you admire? 

Hugo Pratt, Wada Che Nanahiro, Amanita design, Regis Loisel, Enki Bilal, Nicolas de Crecy  and many many more.

How did you get to be where you are now?

Don’t understand the question. Hard work and commitment I guess?

How did you aspire to become an artist?

I didn’t. Aspiring to be an artist is the first step to NOT becoming one.

What helped you realize this career would be best for you?

I didn’t realize that. I still don’t know what would be the best career for me. That’s the whole point.

How should an artist approach developing a style that is commercially appealing?

No idea. I guess try to do something that will please everybody. Which is like the opposite of being an artist.

Tell me about your style. Do you find that to be ‘commercial’?

Have you seen my style? it’s so far removed from being commercial that I can’t even see the path in this dark daymare forest that would lead me to a commercial highway.

How has your style progressed, and how have you improved?

Uhmm…. How it progressed?  By repetition. You wouldn’t believe what years of training can do for an ungifted person, which is what I consider myself to be.

Do you mostly do digital art or traditional art, why?

There’s just an artificial separation between these two. I do my comic books the traditional way, because there’s no way to get watercolour to look remotely real using digital tools. And I do my games the way of the digital, because there’s no way to do that fast enough the traditional way. Both sides of that coin complement each other, I’m glad I found two separate outlets to cultivate both.

Do you work from life, or from photographs or from imagination?

1. imagination.

2. photos, but only when I need something concrete to look realistic enough.

3. from life? No, that’s for the proper artists.

Which is more important to you, the subject of your piece, or the way it is executed?

The subject is the most important thing in all form of storytelling, whether that be games or comic books in my case. The execution is just fancy clothes.

So I was asked lately to draw an autograph before shipping in one of the books somebody bought from me. Ok, no problem, I pick up the book and to my surprize there is a drawing already done. Not only that, that’s a drawing created in 2006. And I can’t remember doing that. Clearly something lost and found. So I tweaked it a bit and there you go – a drawing which creation spans over seven years.

The strangest thing was to see how much my technique changed during these years, and this hybrid of a drawing sporting the old and the new. Really strange.

So there.

Rejs z mewą w tle.

Ocena: 9 / 10

Szukasz zajęcia dla swojego bohatera? Poślij go w morze. Choćby siedział samotnie w łodzi niczym Hemingwayowski Santiago, temat sam się niechybnie narzuci. Jak nie ryba wychynie za burtą, to na balustradzie przycupnie jakiś ptak. Podobna myśl zaświtała w głowach Mateusza Skutnika i Jerzego Szyłaka, którzy w szóstym tomie „Rewolucji” postanowili zabrać nas w komiksowy rejs. Nie posiadacie państwo biletów? No. To wchodzimy.

Na pokładzie odpływającego parowca razem z nami znalazła się reprezentacja niemal całej przedwojennej socjety. Mamy więc wątłą milady w towarzystwie opiekuńczego małżonka, słynną trupę teatralną w przykuwających uwagę makijażach, zapalonego kinematografistę, pogrążonego w zawiłych obliczeniach naukowca, rodzinkę na wywczasie z nadpobudliwym synkiem Antonim. Jest wprawdzie i groźny przestępca, który za pomocą samorobnej maszynerii mordował ludzi na odległość, ale kto by tam się nim przejmował, oprócz czytelnika, skoro siedzi zakuty w kajdany w pilnie strzeżonej kajucie głęboko pod pokładem.

Te jakże sielankowe okoliczności przyrody musiała zmącić jakaś skaza, a przybrała ona postać mewy. Najpierw jednej, potem dwóch i więcej, bo skrzydlatych gapowiczów zwykle na statkach co niemiara.

Mając na uwadze, że ewentualna krytyka mogła się pojawić, autorzy musieli zrobić tak, żeby tej krytyki nie było. Tylko aplauz i zaakceptowanie. Sztandarowa seria Mateusza Skutnika przeszła więc w tym tomie swoistą metamorfozę. Podjęcie współpracy z Jerzym Szyłakiem, pracownikiem naukowym Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, z zamiłowania zaś scenarzystą komiksowym oscylującym pomiędzy brutalizmem a pornografią, zaowocowała odsunięciem na dalszy plan inspirowanej steampunkiem myśli technologicznej znanej z poprzednich tomów na rzecz bardziej uniwersalnego, klasycznie poprowadzonego dreszczowca. Świadom obranej konwencji przy pisaniu scenariusza autor przytępił nieco swe Szyłakowe ostrze – zrezygnował zupełnie z nagości, przemoc z kolei zaserwował z maestrią godną współczesnego Hitchcocka. „Rewolucje na morzu” to idealny wzorzec dla młodocianych autorów próbujących zgłębić trudną sztukę scenopisarstwa, komiksowego bądź filmowego. Dialogi ograniczone do niezbędnego minimum, umiejętnie zaznaczone motywy mające wzbudzić niepokój, narastający nastrój napięcia – długo można by wymieniać zastosowane chwyty, wyuczone na klasycznych przerażaczach zachodniej kinematografii.

Jest oczywiście też Skutnik, wybitnie uzdolniony artysta komiksowy, pomysłodawca serii. Gdyby urodził się dwadzieścia kilka lat wcześniej, stawiany byłby na równi z Tadeuszem Baranowskim, Januszem Christą, Grzegorzem Rosińskim czy Zbigniewem Kasprzakiem. Kto wie, może razem z tą ostatnią dwójką podbijałby dzisiaj frankofoński rynek? Jednakże kreska Skutnika pozbawiona jest mainstreamowych naleciałości swoich słynnych poprzedników. Bliżej mu do artystycznych wizji Joanna Sfara czy Nicolasa de Crécyego, chociaż wypracował absolutnie własną, odrębną stylistykę. „Rewolucje na morzu” to w zupełności „analogowe”, wykonane akwarelami dzieło. Nawet charakterystyczna faktura papieru, na którym powstawały rysunki, pełni tu doskonale swoją rolę – potęguje wrażenie przebywania na morzu, jakbyśmy czytali w rytmie powolnie kołyszących się przed oczami fal.

Osób niezorientowanych w komiksowych „Rewolucjach” niechaj nie zniechęci szóstka wymalowana na grzbiecie tomu. Od numeru piątego każdy z albumów opowiada osobną historię. Ta rozgrywająca się na morzu winna pojawić się na półce każdego, kto interesuje się szeroko pojętą kulturą. Choćby żaden inny polski komiks nie miał się tam nigdy więcej znaleźć.

Artur Maszota

From the people who bring you Stripburger comes Workburger, an international roster of talent delivering their highly variegated interpretations of what the term “work” means. This is work in all its forms and meanings, as it’s transitioned from an act of daily survival, to an expression of self-identity, to a now ubiquitous aspect of existence that many can no longer separate from their leisure time. There are 43 pieces contained in this anthology and the standouts for me include the following… Martin Romero of Spain uses fine lines sans dialogue to emphasize that work is all a matter of context, so keeping an eye toward unintended consequences is key. Marcel Ruijters of The Netherlands uses skeletal reapers and copious ink to bring an alt-history lesson about the fundamental nature of work. Mateusz Skutnik & Szymon Holcman from Poland offer one of them most memorable visual experiences in the book, with an industrial ethic and aesthetic that shine a smoggy light on man’s plight in the working world. Arkadi of Germany composes a long treatise that functions as something of a centerpiece, a sort of off-kilter epic fraught with the dangers of materialism. Peter Kuper (USA) is always worth a look, and here he examines where power resides in the system, and takes it a step further to show that he who holds power also helps shape history. Teresa Camara Pestana of Portugal adds life to the proceedings with an autobiographical entry that has an artistic style both slick and visceral, which transcends its quotidian leanings with lyrical power about the tension in social circles. Janek Koza of Poland blurs the line between physical and personality traits showing the impactful nature of their emotional power. The book ends with Danijel Zezelj of Croatia, depicting a future landscape featuring a post-apocalyptic rise of the workers, because nothing can function without the backbone of the largely nameless faceless working class in many systems. By the time you get to the end, you see the corrolary of a creation myth. It’s iconic, memorable, and a great piece to end the experience with. Grade B+.

found on poopsheetfoundation.com

PF review

The Workburger International Comics Anthology features some of the finest masterworks of world-renowned artisans and craftsmen/craftswomen of the comics medium. This skillfully woven patchwork of diverse comic strip narratives, revolving around the topic of contemporary work, has been manually assembled from many serious and witty as well as provocative and investigative artistic takes on the topic.

Contributing artists, drawing from both theory and personal experience, have tackled this elusive term, bridled its creative momentum and harnessed its vast, explosive potential: one of work’s most useful and at the same time dangerous characteristics.

The book, lucidly detecting and generously displaying the various permutations in the meaning of the term itself, is thusly a document of its own time while still remaining a future classic by dint of covering one of the most universal human issues from time immemorial.

“No workarounds! Only comics that really work!”

-Simon, a guy in a suit

“Someone must’ve been working out…”

-Tina, the hot yoga teacher from across the street

“I knew that there was more to life than just working the turk! A real eye-opener!”

-Peter, trust-fund baby & master procrastinator

“All work and no play makes you a bad artist.”

-Unknown, art school toilet stall

Stripburger Enterprises proudly present some 50 working class heroes, who dedicate their thoughts, views, comics, blood, sweat and tears to the concept of work.

Lately I was interviewed about the submachine series. Here are the results: