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:

Submachine 8: the Plan

I just updated the Submachine Exploration Project to new version. Since I came up with a brand new architecture of this project, literally everything had to be redone. That took me entire month of January to finish. Now we’re sporting a brand new, fresh and shiny Subnet 3.0. Also added few new lcoations to the catalogue, so the experience is refreshened as well. Enjoy!

 

This year, as any before was marked with few intertwining year-long projects as well as occasional high-endurance ones. Let me recap for the sake of remembering just what the hell happened in 2012. [for the impatient ones: 14 games and 2 comic book albums happened].

1)

 

First of all, there was a project of creating a one small game per month. 12 games all together. The results are as follows:

• Pigeon Phew
• Daymare Invaders
• Mission to Uranus
• Garden Door
• Mr. Mothball 4: Zen Moth
• 10 Gnomes in Porto Petro
• Daymare Kite
• Mission to Mercury
• Castanea
• Lightem Out
• Mr. Mothball 5: under the Cherry Tree
• Where is 2013?

The reasoning behind this project is simple. I’m a completionist, I’m trying to get a closure on unfinished series, and there were few game projects just laying around on my hard drive, reminding me that they’re still not done. You can see couple of “mission to…” games, mothballs, two games expanding the daymare town lore, as well as few standalones. The mothball series is probably done, as I have no fresh ideas on how to approach this character anymore. The last one was actually a rebuild of an old small game that maybe few of you remember from this page’s header. The header game. But that was way back in 2008, so this game was waiting for an upgrade for four years. Daymare Kite was in the to-do folder since Daymare Town 2, Garden Door’s pictures were shot in 2011 and so on. The only ongoing series left is “mission to…” as there are two games left, and I’ll be damned if I don’t finish this as well. The remaining two are Sun and Earth (Pluto does not count, sorry) :D. Adding to that couple of regulars, such as 10 Gnomes and Where is 2013? and we have a full list. For the curious, yes, I still have unfinished small projects on my drive, yes, I’ll be making them eventually, but god forbid I’ll commit to making one per month anymore – that was… exhausting. Especially in the light of other 2012 projects, such as:

 

2)

 

I also created two big games from major series:

• Covert Front 4: the Spark of Life
• Submachine 8: the Plan

and with that, the Covert Front is finished and done. Phew. The story of Kara following German scientist Karl von Toten has run it’s course. A big sense of closure right there. On the other hand – the Submachine is as strong as ever. There was a minor confusion whether this would be the last Submachine ever, which it isn’t. Let me once again reassure you – the Submachine will go on INDEFINITELY. Sure, the main storyline ends at Submachine 10, but that doesn’t even mean that this series will be over. I’ll make standalone Submachine games from that point on, such as Submachine: 32 chambers, ancient adventure or FLF. We’re good here, don’t you worry. The sky is clear over the Submachine. Wait, is there a sky in Submachine?… :/

 

3)

 

Another big step forward in 2012 was the attempt to bring you even more quality – this time for a small price. The idea of creating full screen, standalone, browser-free games was in my sights for a long time.

• Submachine 8 HD
• Submachine 7 HD

Luckily I was able not only to overcome the technical obstacles, but I also figured out how to actually handle a monetary transaction of such item. I did it my way and I’m proud of this.

 

4)

 

Moving on, let’s not forget the pastel games. Me and my buddies from the company were able to create 5 games together:

• Rizzoli and Isles 2
• the Fog Fall 4
• Sneak Thief 5
• Monster Detective
• the Scene of the Crime: Dream of murder (not yet published);

The Sneak Thief series is finished with the fifth installment, however we’re planning a brand new series with Kamil Kochanski, the artist behind Sneak Thief, the Great Escape games and Halo & Pixy. You know, the funny, cartoony one in our pack. The new series is still a secret, but it’s coming, I can assure you. As for other series – time will tell. The future of those series doesn’t depend on me, but people writing and drawing them, so I can’t tell what will become of pastel games in 2013. Let’s wait and see.

 

5)

 

Are we done yet? Not even close. Remember when I said something about year-long projects? Here’s another one. This one was also a simple premise: create one-page comic every week. I started this project back in October of 2011, so to complete a full year cycle I had 42 weeks to go. And I did. The new 52-page album, entitled Tetrastych is going to be published in may. Here are few pages, which also explain the bizarre title of this album.

• Tetrastych sample pages

 

6)

 

However that previous project was not the most important comic book work of 2012. This one is. Again, a simple task. Create 46-page comic book album in 46 days. That would be one page daily for 46 days straight. The outcome is the newest Rewolucje album, and you can read more about this right here:

• 46/46
• Rewolucje 7: we Mgle

Now this one is my absolute best project of 2012, not only because of it’s bold outcome, but this one is by far my best graphical work to date. Let’s not forget that it also sports a killer of a scenario written by Jerzy Szylak. So… are we done?… No.

 

7)

 

This next project was a bit different. Yeah, I had to paint a cover and title-page graphic for it, but it was mostly an archaeological work of picking a good material from the sea of old crap. Everything had to be retouched in photoshop, as most of the originals were kind of destroyed by father time. This album shows my old ways from times when I wasn’t Mateusz Skutnik, the Submachine creator, but just simple Mateusz Skutnik. :D

• Komiksy znalezione na Strychu

 

8)

 

Bare with me, we’re almost done. Normally I wouldn’t list the following here, but this kind of out grew it’s premise and became a larger-than-expected thing. This is a series of 7 movies showing how to waterpaint a comic page. Well, maybe it’s not “how to” per se, it’s just a showing of how I do it. Nevertheless – a project of it’s own, realised during that period of Rewolucje 7 daily painting.

• How to waterpaint a comic page
• a shorter version (album trailer)

 

And with that, I’m done. That’s it. But wait, from the looks of it, is it true that in july I was:

1. Making Daymare Kite
2. making a one-page comic story each week
3. painting Rewolucje 7 – one page daily
4. creating Submachine 8

all at the same time??

Yes, yes it is true. That’s how it went down. That’s intertwining right there. And frankly speaking I forgot about another small project that I was slowly but steadily creating. The subnet got few small expansions as well. So there. Thanks for reading through up to this point, right now there’s a reward for you for being stubborn enough to dig through this list. Ready?

 

2013

Let’s talk about 2013. Get some insight.

To be honest, 2012 was exhausting. It was a year of closure (well, attempted at least), a year of different experiments, and now I have to take that all in, process the data and come up with a reasonable plan for the future.

plan A)

Is to create 4 games this year, these are, in chronological order:

• Daymare Town 4
• 10 gnomes in…
• Submachine 9
• Where is 2014?

Yes, I focus on my four major series this year. This is the top priority list of must-do games.  Besides this I also intend on doing:

• Rewolucje 8: in Space (Rewolucje w Kosmosie)

Of which I have already 46 finished pages. I could call it a wrap and just publish it as it is. I could. But I won’t. This album needs another 40 pages or so.

 

plan B)

Once I’m sure that plan A will be fulfilled, there are other smaller side jobs. Those include:

• further expansion of the subnet
• creating specific series oriented websites for all major ones, such as Covert Front, 10 gnomes, Daymare Town etc. I’d like to move away from the regular online games portal and create game hubs for each series. The one I did for the Fog Fall was received warmly and I think it’s a good direction for the future of our catalogue
• releasing HD versions of older Submachines, starting with Submachine 6 HD
• finishing the “mission to…” series
• other small games (also trying to empty my to-do catalogue)

 

plan C)

If time is kind enough I’d like to start painting another Blaki comic album. That would be fourth of the series and I’ve got it all written and sketched right here in my notebook.

And I think that’s it.

Once again – happy new year 2013.

It’ll be a good one.

 

 

 

play | polish review

Jeśli w onlajnowych flashowych grach nie przepadasz za zjawiskiem określanym jako „pixel hunting”, „Where is 2013?…” nie jest grą dla Ciebie. W przeciwnym przypadku możesz się rozkoszować urokami letniej Majorki.

Obok gier, w których tło jest renderowane komputerowo na wyższym lub niższym poziomie szczegółowości oraz tych, gdzie jest ono po prostu malowane (cyfrowo lub analogowo), są też i produkcje, w których wykorzystywane są fotografie rzeczywistych plenerów. Pastel Games od lat wykorzystuje tę technikę przy produkcji cyklu „10 gnomes” – gier, w których nie ma żadnej fabuły ani rywalizacji poza tą jedną: z samym sobą. Ot, w różnych miejscach przestrzeni mniej lub bardziej publicznych, autor gry rozmieścił 10 skrzatów, które należy skrzętnie wyłowić z najgłębszych zakamarków – szczeliny między cegłami w murze, mroku kratki ściekowej, dziurki od klucza w bramie… Na czas, który upływa bardzo szybko.

Podobnie zrealizowano „Where is 2013?…”, najnowszą odsłonę cyklu „noworocznego”. W poprzednich okazjach zwiedzaliśmy między innymi plenery komiksów z cyklu „Rewolucje” oraz gier „Daymare Town”, tym razem Mateusz Skutnik zabiera nas na Majorkę.

Cóż nas tam czeka? Otóż stajemy przed problemem braku prądu, z którego to powodu prawdopodobnie Nowy Rok nie może do nas przyjść. A konkretniej, mamy przed sobą budynek stacji transformatorowej. Za nim bliżej nieokreślony budynek, dookoła zaś – sad. Za jedyną podpowiedź służy kursor, zmieniający się po najechaniu na któryś z nieoznaczonych obszarów aktywnych (hotspots). Zwyczajowo zmiana kursora u boków (i u góry!) ekranu oznacza możliwość przejścia gdzieś-obok, u dołu zaś – powrót do bardziej ogólnego widoku (o ile wcześniej znajdziemy hotspot kierujący nas do lokalizacji bardziej szczegółowej).