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Matt Madden

comics, education, translation, oubapo

Summer Intensive, the Last Day, Part 2: MoCCA visit with David Mazzucchelli

June 18, 2009 by matt 13 Comments

The Friday afternoon before MoCCA Art Festival our students were scrambling to get their comics finished up. Still, we made time to meet up at MoCCA after lunch, where David Mazzucchelli himself met us to give us a tour of his just-opened retrospective show, “Sounds and Pauses, the Comic Art of David Mazzucchelli,” curated by Dan Nadel.


What follows is an annotated selection of some photos we took that afternoon.

[reposted and slightly edited… and now featuring a jump!]



David introduces the show to the class, Jessica, and, on the right, Nick Bertozzi, who happened to be around that day. One thing worth passing along if you are going to see the show is that you can move clockwise or counter-clockwise, both ways lead you to the most recent work, the instant classic Asterios Polyp. (Heading to the right takes you via superheroes and to the left via Rubber Blanket and the Kodansha period. More or less.)


The blown-up panel that serves as the entrance to the show was painted by David himself after an elaborate transfer project involving a puzzle of 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheets of paper with little pieces of the blown-up image on them.


These four drawings are framed four-up because they are small, maybe 5″ x 3″. These drawings were used for the cover images of Batman: Year One, for which they were blown-up and colored–see the next photo:


This is an acetate overlay of the blown-up image, now something more like 10 x 15″, with painted color by Richmond Lewis underneath [correction courtesy Signor Mazzucchelli: Richmond colored all the interiors; David colored the covers himself–MM]. I asked and now forget if it’s gouache or acrylic. I think it’s the former. David loved the effect of these covers: the simplified, gestural inking which went on to become a hallmark of his later style. You can see the progression from the earlier to later pages from that series.


For example, David pointed out how you could see increasing amounts of white ink on the later pages where he had “undrawn” detail he had put in through habit. (Click the photo to enlarge.)


Just a shot of David talking about his work with various sketches and studies in the background.



A spread and one of the vellum overlays which enabled David to work in two Pantone colors on a story which changed a lot of cartoonists’ (myself included–see “Night of the Grossinator”) ideas about the potential of color and printing in comics, “Discovering America” from Rubber Blanket #2 (by the way there are copies of Rubber Blanket on sale at the show and I recommend you snatch them up before they’re all gone).


The final, printed spread (the red plate of the page on the left appears in the previous photo). David reiterated numerous times that the original pages are of little value to him; what counts—what is the real comic—is the printed book.


Kind of an illegible photo, but just to give you a shot of the two flat cases full of David’s notes, index cards, studies, and lettering samples for Asterios Polyp. He worked out the story on index cards, then sketched small thumbs in spreads (keeping the reading flow always in mind), and only then worked up final pencils and inks.


David did a lot of “post-production” in Photoshop. Here’s an example of a bunch of drawings (showing a strong, if semi-unconscious, Saul Steinberg influence) that he drew on a big sheet of bristol board and later pasted in to a page:


The printed page, in two colors.

There’s tons more to say about this amazing show from one of our favorite artists but I need to leave off here. We videoed most of the tour and with David’s blessing maybe some of that will make it on line at some point, maybe on the upcoming re-launch of the DWWP site.

 

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Filed Under: Comics, Teaching

Comments

  1. Matt Madden says

    June 18, 2009 at 4:22 AM

    Hm, now I gotta figure out how to keep the "read more!" link from appearing even when there is no more to read (as in the previous post).

    Reply
  2. Kioskerman says

    June 18, 2009 at 3:05 PM

    Thanks for the pics!
    I am waiting for a book to gather all his Rubber Blanket storys. I only have #3.

    Reply
  3. Don Hudson says

    June 25, 2009 at 6:35 PM

    I am a fan of David's work since his early Marvel days. It's a thrill to see his artistic evolution! Great to see the exhibit through your eyes.

    Reply
  4. jpleon says

    July 8, 2009 at 8:11 PM

    Love that preliminary stuff. Mazzucchelli is a master. His search for simplicity is a constant inspiration to me.
    I'll have to try and make it up to NYC before this goes away.
    Anything here from the City of Glass adaptation he did?

    Reply
  5. Matt Madden says

    July 8, 2009 at 8:16 PM

    I didn't get any good pix but yes, there's a whole display case of pages from City Glass which are well worth studying. What's most surprising about them is that they're quite small, only a bit larger than print size. Also mainly drawn with nib, not brush, which surprised me at first.

    Reply
  6. John A. Walsh says

    July 11, 2009 at 7:56 PM

    Great post! I got a copy of Asterios Polyp yesterday and am blown away by Mazzuchelli's talent and sophistication.

    This post was a nice way of seeing some of his process!

    Reply
  7. Bosch Fawstin says

    July 14, 2009 at 12:09 PM

    Thank you for making this available, Mazzucchelli is indeed a Master.

    Reply
  8. Peter Hermann says

    August 10, 2009 at 12:49 AM

    Phenomenal post. Thanks.
    I just got done with my third reading of Asterios Polyp. Blew my mind again. The overlap of story from Near miss in Rubber Blanket 1… sweet.
    Practically every time I read something by Mr. Mazzucchelli it amazes my how it is almost impossible to study his drawings without getting pulled into the story.

    I have a question which I hope you can help me with. You write that: "David reiterated numerous times that the original pages are of little value to him". If this is true, could you tell me where I can buy one of these pages? If he wishes to sell any of them.
    Also I have an extra copy of Rubber Blanket 1 (I got lucky in two ebay auctions at the same time a few years back). It's in okay condition, you can tell it's been read.

    Reply
  9. Matt Madden says

    August 10, 2009 at 9:22 PM

    I like that Near Miss connection, too.

    I don't know where you would buy David's pages but I know he did some Batman drawings a few years ago. If you search around you may find a dealer who has some.

    Reply
  10. Hex_Enduction_Hour says

    August 17, 2009 at 3:51 AM

    Just learned of the Asterios Polyp book and am anxious to purchase this book. I'm a huge Mazzuchelli fan.

    It is worth noting it appears D. Mazzuchelli was influence by the cartoon work of Saul Steinberg, another amazing artist.

    Did Mr. Mazzuchelli mention Steinberg's work influencing his latest work?

    Thanks for sharing the images!

    Reply
  11. Matt Madden says

    August 17, 2009 at 3:53 AM

    Thanks for commenting, H_E_H, Fall fans are always welcome here.

    If you re-read my post you will see that I talked about Steinberg and yes, he was an influence.

    Reply
  12. JavierOlivares says

    August 28, 2009 at 1:46 AM

    Awesome post, Matt!!
    Now I´m grren of envy fon cant see it!!
    Best from Spain to Jessicaa and you!
    Javier

    Reply
  13. JavierOlivares says

    August 28, 2009 at 1:46 AM

    Wow, Matt.
    Awesome post!!
    I´m now green of envy for cant see it!!
    Best wishes from Spain to you and Jessica!!
    Javier

    Reply

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