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Even space travel is better done on a bicycle!

Death and the Cowboy by Ryan Licata

He knew by the burn of the saddle as he mounted his horse that day.  His shadow led him through the town. Old men and old maids brushed dust from boots and boards. He’d made his farewells with bullets.  In the desert his shadow left him, but a coyote, skin and bone still sharp of tooth and claw, took him the rest of the way.  A want, mistaken for thirst, held his throat as a lone figure rode out ahead, blazing fire behind him. He looked back, to the dunes rising like salt, and rode out to meet his maker.

Feltro nero di Undulant

Nebbia e buio ovunque, riesco a scorgere poco più di una silhouette tremolante. Potrebbe essere chiunque, ma non posso fermarmi. Non ora. Pensieri neri. La polizia è sempre in agguato, bisogna fare attenzione. E poi, diamine, non ho tempo per controllare la merce. Questo non facilita le cose. C’è chi ha pagato profumatamente punti esclamativi per poi ritrovarsi tra le mani un inutile mucchietto di i rovesciate. Sono finalmente davanti al tipo. Con rapida sequenza di movimenti sospetti si consuma il nostro scambio clandestino. Quindi lesto mi allontano. Sotto il braccio, a mo’ di baguette, un vecchio rotolo di feltro nero.

Notes

This might be the last installment of A Hundred Word Stories for a while…. but more about that later.

It’s been a hot summer so far. Not only because of the climate we had here in the region, but also because I’ve been on fire with work! The consequence is that I have become a bit “lazy” in relation to this blog. On the other hand, now that things are cooling down a bit, I have a lot of stuff to talk about, so let’s start!

Giètz! is not the only music related work I’ve done in the last year. In fact as I had forseen, it’s been a very “musical” year so far!

I had the pleasure to create an illustration dedicated to the great band Pere Ubu for the venue Il circolo degli artisti in Rome. Pere Ubu is really a very inspiring band for my work.

Being a fan of 80s darkwave tunes and retro horror aesthetics I was more than pleased when the Italian fanzine group Lamette gave me the opportunity to create a comic about Bauhaus. This comic was also a great chance to test my “parasite” techniques on a black&white format. I chose to work with a style that takes a lot from old horror movies (like those starring Bela Lugosi), which works perfectly in b/w.

The last one, is also the oldes of the three. Its a comic inspired by the song Spiracle by Soap&Skin. To quote myself earlier:

Spiracle is a wonderful song by Austrian songwriter Anja Plaschg aka Soap&Skin,contained in her first (and still only) album Lovetune for Vacuum. Andrea Provinciali, one of the editors of Il Mucchio, asked me several months ago to participate in this project called Pencil Song, where comic artists are asked to reinterpret a song of their choice in comic form. It was around that time that I discovered Soap&Skin and her sound just made me want to draw something to it.
As a funny side note, the issue in which this comic appears, is fittingly numbered #666.

I’ve got several other music related project which I’m currently working on, so there’s more coming soon!

Unfortunately today is another one of those days where I can’t post anything. I hope I can catch up tomorrow.

First of all, I wish all of you out there that this 2010 shall be a year of fortune, fun, happyness and fullfillment of your dreams!
For me this year has started with something turning to its end: Gietz. Which also means that I will be really busy working on it until the final deadline, which is the 11th of January. I will not be able to post anything here until that date… I’m sorry.

Anyway, as soon as that thing will be done, I have a lot of things I want to post here!

Elisabeth (Sbrizz) has this great design up for voting at threadless.com
Go check it out and vote for it here:
www.threadless.com/submission/245275/Join_the_Koalition

(you might have to register)

If you ever go to Vienna, go and visit the Kabinett Passage (which is in the MQ), a project gallery focused on comics and related stuff. The ceiling of the Passage has been painted by French underground genius Blanquet. That alone would be worth a trip to Vienna! Here’s some pictures (courtesy of Sbrizz) for your hungry eyes:

I always find it very interesting to see how other artists get from the first drawings to the final piece. So I decided to show this process in my works.