Da bambino ti amavo perché nessun altro osava farlo.
Perché le tue ginocchia erano sbucciate come le mie. Perché lanciavi le tue bambole sugli alberi e non t’importava se andavo a riprenderle.
Disegnavi giraffe variopinte e ti macchiavi le mani coi pennarelli.
Ridevo quando ridevi, senza mai chiedermi perché. E quando non lo facevi, e mi guardavi come un treno in corsa guarda un cane sui binari, mi veniva da vomitare.
Ma non sapevo niente di tutto ciò e nemmeno tu. Il mio rileggere quei giorni con gli occhi annebbiati è solo una menzogna preziosa. Per questo è così vera.
Believe me, I didn’t expect it, when I heard them call my name I thought they had just read the wrong part of the paper. But in the end it was all true and and I got the prize as best Italian comic artist, ex aequo with Stefano Raffaele at the Treviso Comicbook Festival 2010. It really feels odd… when I worked on Giètz! I would never had thought that I could win a prize for it!
Anyway, it’s a good feeling, and it was a good day! I spent it drawing “dèdicaces” on the book, and talking to friends.
Btw. I had the great pleasure to sit right next to the great French Author Alfred, who, as so often, turned out to be a really nice and humble person!
The jury was out. The chronicle had its front page. Tommy’s parents turned off the television; they’d seen enough. His mother, knitting another sweater for the hard months to come, stared red eyed at the framed photograph at her bedside: little Tommy with his curly locks, stark blue eyes and strange pouting lips, sat, dressed in a sailor suit, sword raised, on a rocking-horse; while his father, the good minister, gently rocked him back and forth with his foot, reading aloud from the book of Revelations: the opening of the second seal, the horse of red, a slayer of men.
Notes
Sometimes there is these really gratifying moments, when you create an illustration and show it to the author of the story (Ryan in this case) and he says: “It’s just the picture I had in mind when I wrote it!”. The wonderful thing about artistic collaboration is that it either works… or it just doesn’t, and there’s little help from science in explaining either outcomes. The more I grow into this life, the more I am thankful for the little things I can’t explain, it brings back a bit of magic.
Come sempre è il motivetto di Incontri ravvicinati del terzo tipo a svegliare Hannes. Una rapida
colazione nella bellissima tazza di Guerre stellari ed è già tempo di lavoro. La cartellina al solito posto,
tra le copie masterizzate di Battlestar Galactica e i Dvd del Pianeta delle scimmie (quelli belli non quelli di Tim Burton).
Mentre esce, neanche il tempo di sistemare la lucente spilla da membro decennale dello Star Trek Italian Club
sulla maglietta di E. T., che uno strano raggio bianco lo trasporta in una astronave sigaroforme.
“È stato davvero un bellissimo viaggio ” esclamò. Venti secondi prima di essere divorato dagli alieni.
Notes
It’s been some time since I last posted one of these hundred word stories… I’ve been busy, but you probably know that. I don’t know if I will be able to keep up with the usual, weekly, rhythm, but I’ll try. I have some ready for the next weeks, coming up are some more stories by Ryan.
Killer Aloe – die Rache der Heilpflanzen (which means something like “the vengeance of the medical plants”) is a short super-8 movie by Daniel “Analoge Widerstandsfront” Mahlknecht and Silvana Zancolò. I was asked to create a soundtrack for it a long time ago (probably more than 2 years) but only now I find some time to work on it. I’m still sketching out the intro, which I’ve been using to define the overall style of the soundtrack, and I think I’m starting to get somewhere here, at least that’s my feeling with it.
And now some info for the technically inclined: The theremin style sound, comes from the Novation Bass Station, and there is a bit of C64, which I’ve added to the low end of the composition. A Gakken SX-150 was used to add some FX and weirdness here and there. I had added some Atari Punk Console sounds, but have removed them here, they will appear further on in the score.
(the picture above is an actual frame from the movie of course)
I was asked by the Rational Theater in Munich to customize their Coffee Machine. Since the Brand of the Device was Wega, the idea was to illustrate the landing on the Wega Planet. I worked on it with Sbrizz, and it was a real fun! I’m still waiting for a picture of the customized part mounted on the machine (of course they only sent me the parts not the whole device), I’ll post them as soon as I get them.
Franz is a new magazine here in Bolzano. They publish on the web through Issuu, but print a small flyer with one or two articles from the current issu and an illustration on the other side, which for the current issue was created by me. The topic was street art, which was really inspiring!
My dear friend Vlou from France has finally gotten her first graphic nvel out! It’s called Petite Nouvelle. And if you’re in France, you should check it out! If you’re not, you should at least check out her blog!
Here’s the launch post on her blog: www.vlou.net
Get the book here: www.tribulles.com
Neuroticmaze – Out of Control
Hannes Hofer aka Neuroticmaze makes some great electronic music! His first album Out of Control, which elegantly blends synths, electric guitar and voice, is finally out and you can download a free single from his website here: www.neuroticmaze.com
