The Box Show: A Mazed Minotaur

As promised we return to the dreaded box--but no longer blank.

This year for the annual Box Show we decided to do a Minoan themed box employing motifs and images associated with the ancient city of Knossos (This is about as reasonable as any other theme we've come up with).

Here's the process:

Molly's begins painting the blank box. The images of woman are from the famed "bullfighting" (bull jumping?) fresco from the Minoan temple at Knossos on Crete.

Larry works up sketches for the Minotaur.

Final drawing transfered to a heavy weight art paper

Inked by Larry. Painted by Molly. 

Gel medium applied and image cut out.

Minotaur is inserted into labyrinth/ temple

The 15th Annual Box show runs from July 26th until September 8, 2013 at Gallery Route One in Point Reyes Station, California.  The reception is Sunday, July 28th.

For more about the Box Show check out:

http://galleryrouteone.org/box-show-archive/the-box-show/entries-2012.html

You can see more of Larry and Molly's previous box show pieces by looking in this blog's archives.

Return of the Dreaded Box

It's getting to be time for the annual Box Show at Gallery Route One.  This is the time of year that Molly and Larry spend staring at the dreaded blank box.

Tune in later. Soon this critter will be drawn, painted, glued and altered hopefully in some creative fashion.....

Comic Art in Greece

Here are few Greek humor and comics magazines I picked up in a used book store in Athens.

Unlike Istanbul, where I tended to easily find Turkish humor publications at the corner newsstands with ample contemporary social and political satire (see previous posts) I didn't see any current Greek humor magazines.  Maybe I just missed them. All the examples here are from the 1980's and possibly 1990's.

Para Pente a once popular humor magazine

Babel with a cover by French artist Moebius

Babel, a highly regarded publication, was another limited edition comics magazine that featured Greek cartoonists along with an international selection of artists including Jules Feiffer, Will Eisner and Moebius.

Babel would reprint classic American comic strips along with "underground" style Greek cartoonists such as Soloup (aka Antonis Nikolopoulos)

Soloup

A very popular contemporary cartoonist is Arkas

This small comic reprint was in a copy of Para Pente. Apparently an early Greek comic.

More Comic Art from Turkey

As promised here are a few more examples of humor papers from Turkey.

1983 edition

Here's a brief glimpse at an older publication--Gir Gir.  Gir Gir was an enormously popular publication back in the 1970's and '80', selling allegedly a million copies a week ! All of the work below is from the 1980's.

1986 edition

Gir Gir was the creation of cartoonist Oguz Aral apparently regarded as the granddaddy of Turkish comics. He influenced, taught and mentored many Turkish cartoonists in his time.

Oguz Aral had a lively zany style reminiscent of Mad magazine's Sergio Arragones.

Here's an example of one of his most popular features Avini the Gullible.

Gir Gir was banned around 1980 during a military coup. I showed a current edition of Gir Gir in the previous post on Turkish comics. That reincarnation began in 2008 and isn't considered the classic Gir Gir.

Here are a few clips from Gir Gir (crca 1983-86):

Cartoonist Behic Pek

I like Behic Pek's unrestrained style. He was a student of Oguz Aral.

Cartoonist Ufuk Uyanik

Ufuk Uyanik is creator of a comic book popular all over Europe--Viagraman.

Sarkis

A portion of a nicely drawn comic story, Kabus, by Kaan Ertem.

Happy 4th of July

Comic Art in Turkey

Here's  a selection of humor publications from a recent visit to Turkey. While we were in Istanbul demonstrations were taking place in Taksim Square and Gezi park over the heavy handed policies of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Uykusuz

(I believe the word baloon translation is: "I want my lawyer!")

Penguen

(featuring Erdogan on the cover)

Gir Gir

(This seems to be a resurrected version of the renowned humor paper Gir Gir. 

Again featuring Erdogan on the cover).

Caf Caf

Here's some of the content. Translation is an issue. For those of you a little rusty on your Turkish, I invite you to use the internet Turkish=English translation sites. The literal translations can be pretty hilarious. However, the general intent of many of the cartoons is fairly clear.

The mask from the graphic novel/movie "V for Vendetta" seems to be a common symbol for the demonstrators.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

("Tayyip Istifa" seems to be "Tayyip (as in Tayyip Erdogan) Resign" usually shouted by the protestors. In this case by Erdogan himself).

("Welcome to Fascism")

Here are a couple more humor papers:

Mandanoz

(With a feature on the late cartoonist Eflatun Nuri) 

Bayan Yani is a humor paper created by 19 women cartoonists.

by Feyhan Guver

by Sibel Bozkurt

More on Turkish comic art (some older publications) to come in the next few days.