The following is a new animated video by Takashi Murakami for Louis Vuitton. Besides the LV logomania, the cartoon is rife with interesting visual references, from Yellow Submarine and Alice in Wonderland to Doctor Who, Pulp Fiction and C.S. Lewis.

The scenario: a meet cute involving a girl who goes back in time to the 1897 workroom of 14-year-old Gaston Louis Vuitton. How the events in this video affect the timestream is unclear–clearly this calls for a sequel.

I picked up a lot of interesting stuff at MoCCA, and flipped through even more, but I chose to write about this one first because it hit home for me in some ways and was utterly alien in others.

Miriam Libicki, creator of Jobnik! is like me an American Jewish girl born in the early 80s who loves comics. But Libicki moved to Jerusalem and enlisted in the IDF, and I went to college in New Orleans and volunteered for lefty political campaigns. I’m endlessly fascinated by people who do things that I’d never in a million years have the courage–or lack of impulse control–to do, but when I came to Libicki’s MoCCA table I didn’t know her story, just that she had a bunch of oversized not-quite-comics with gorgeous art and Jewish and Israeli themes.

The one I walked away with was “Towards a Hot Jew: the Israeli soldier as fetish object,” which Libicki calls a “drawn essay” and is pretty indicative of a title that will appeal to me.

Soldiers and military personnel in general receive the projections of an entire society, an entire world. They represent the country and absorb and absolve its sins, take bullets for it, are hailed as the “Greatest Generation” or reviled as “baby-killers.”

Libicki delves into territory that I explored not too long ago with Jeffrey Goldberg in his book Prisoners. Both Libicki and Goldberg served in the Israeli military, and Goldberg is explicit in his early chapters in his reasoning for joining up: he wanted to live out the “muscular Jew” fantasy.

Libicki, here, walks us through the popular conception of Diaspora Jews in the 20th century. The common stereotype is that Jewish men are nebbishy, neurotic Woody Allen characters, while women are loud, overbearing, and materialistic. Both of these stereotypes are curiously nonsexual, Libicki notes, and so the Jewish imagination perhaps longs for something sexier.

The choice to illustrate this essay, to make it a comic in some sense, is interesting, because the popular stereotype of comic readers is very close to the nonsexual Jewish male stereotype. The unathletic nerd who holes up in books and fantasies, right? Superheroes and war heroes, in comics, are a mental way out for the person who can’t be that in real life. Except with the option of the military, you can!

The Israeli army has a reputation the world over for being elite (despite including men and women, a subject for another time) and ruthless, for being some of the most efficient and skilled fighters out there. Krav Maga, the Israeli army form of hand-to-hand combat, is now taught to suburban families and Hollywood stars who will never need self-defense skills to keep in shape. (I’ve done it. It’s tough. And great fun. And does indeed make you feel sexy.)

Libicki traces the rise of the Jewish soldier as an alternate ideal along with the rise of Jewish “Birthright” trips to Israel, with the desire in an increasingly secular, diverse world for Jews to marry Jews and to keep the bloodline pure. She punctuates her essay with biographical notes (”though I have had both the most cited vaccinations, going to Israel and attending Jewish private school, it is looking as if I will marry out”) and citations from academics, quotes from friends, common Jewish jokes, and scholars.

Each page is hand-lettered in a faux typewriter font, and written around a lush, loving pencil drawing of an Israeli soldier, sexy, relaxed, often smiling, on one page holding a guitar in a muscled arm, on another pointing an automatic rifle off the page with a grin. The images are almost chilling in their beauty. They could be ads for the army; juxtaposed with Libicki’s deconstruction, they are disturbing.

Reading a “drawn essay” may not be for everyone, but it’s a startlingly effective way of getting a point across without too much academicese. Libicki’s art and observations have won me over, and I’ll be looking up Jobnik! next.

You still have one more day to hit the coolest comics party out there.

I spent most of yesterday walking in circles til my feet hurt, trying to decide which fabulous people to give my few spare dollars to. Luckily, plenty of people had minicomics, postcards, and other fun bits and bobs so that I could fill my bag with swag from a good chunk of the people present instead of dropping a big pile of cash on one thing–not that I wasn’t tempted by a Becky Cloonan screenprint or any number of thick hardcover books.

This year I noted what seemed like a bigger webcomics presence, and spent some time chatting with the boys at the Zuda booth about formatting and process for comics on the Web. Still, nothing beats ink on paper handouts for getting immediate attention–I might mean to go check out webcomics, grab a business card, write down a link, but if you hand me something tangible, I’m going to read it.

My favorite thing about MoCCA is and continues to be the amount of women exhibitors and fans. I love regular comic cons, don’t get me wrong, but the vibe here is more girl-friendly, with plenty of women who are self-publishing or published by small presses and don’t get nearly the attention they deserve.

I grabbed some very interesting stuff, so over the next few days I’m going to devote some time to individual creators and the work that struck me.

If you went or are going today, share your thoughts. What did you love? What would you like to see more of? Did you discover something new that blew your mind?

Attendees to both the upcoming MoCCA and HeroesCon conventions can add one benefit to going to the show: AdHouse Books is previewing a “98% complete” copy of the third volume of artist James Jean’s art book series Process Recess.

Process Recess is a ongoing series of artbooks documenting preliminary sketchwork and off-hand doodles done. Jean burst on the scene in 2001 illustrating covers for DC/Vertigo’s Fables series, which he did the first 75 covers, and won 5 Eisner awards for “Best Cover Artist”. In 2005 I interviewed him in a 2-part interview for the mothership.

It’s raining and I’m going to bed early to be refreshed for tomorrow at MoCCA and what’s sure to be an epic evening, so I have links for you.

Because it’s Scalped week, and because I have relocated away from my beloved Brave New Worlds comics in Philly and my friend there with whom I chat each week about how amazing that book is, I suggest you read Jason Aaron’s Scalped Secrets over at Standard Attrition. You will like them. And if you don’t, it’s probably because you have not taken my advice to read Scalped yet, and thus there is no hope for you.

Speaking of Standard Attrition, Joshua Dysart is the newest member of the coolest club on the ‘net. Go tell him hello and tell him you’re enjoying Unknown Soldier. (What, you’re not reading THAT, either? Do you people never listen to me?)

Via Kieron Gillen, a bit of meta news: the comic that’s sort of like a fanzine has its own fanzine. That’s right, Phonogram vs. The Fans will be out for San Diego Comic Con. Someone pick me up a copy, will you? The cover art is by Phonogram’s own Jamie McKelvie, and it’s gorgeous.

Molly Crabapple is in Inked magazine, talking comics, art and tattoos, and looking fabulous.

Comics Worth Reading reviews You Have Killed Me, by Jamie S. Rich and Joelle Jones, and makes me want to read it. (Though she hurts the film noir fan in me a little bit by snarking on the plot of The Big Sleep, one of the true classics of the genre…but y’all don’t want to hear me go off on Bogie ‘n’ Bacall, do you?)

Splash Page has more previews of 9, an animated film that looks breathtaking.

All right, my pretties, it’s time for me to curl up with the dog and watch some Angel. Enjoy!

Ain’t It Cool News’ Pitdoc checked out the Licensing Show in Las Vegas this week, and came back with some nice comic book movie posters, including this one of the Michael Cera action-comedy Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, due out in 2010:

If you click on the above link, you can see that Scott Pilgrim isn’t the only poster they have, however: there are also some teaser posters for Marvel’s lineup of superhero films in 2010 through 2012, such as Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, and the Avengers.

Well, since we’re on the tack of Marvel in the ’80s, Green Arrow/Black Canary artist Cliff Chiang has made his own clever pastiche:

Why yes, that would be the Mistress of the Hand, transported to that 1983 classic Flashdance.

“This was a blast to draw,” Cliff wrote on his blog, which has some other great sketches featuring Batgirl and Vampirella. “After years of brush inking, it was liberating to grab a pen and just mess around. I think the brilliant source material inspired me to experiment and play with the look of the piece, and it turned out to be a great learning experience.”

Chiang said on his blog that he would be donating the inked version of the above piece to the art auction at Heroes Con in Charlotte, which runs from June 19-21!

The only thing more relaxing to Darth Vader than killing a Jedi is when he’s taking a sith.

You can see more of these hilariously candid superhero shots by checking out Ian Pool’s photography gallery, known as “Super.”

They’re all pretty funny, but I think my second favorite of these has to be Doctor Octopus with his Jonas Brothers posters.

[Tip of the hat to Graeme for spotting the link]

Portland comics artist Joëlle Jones and writer Jamie Rich will be unveiling work from their new graphic novel You Have Killed Me throughout the month of June at the Art Institute of Portland Gallery.

For those who don’t know them, Jones has worked at Vertigo on Fables and Minx on Token, while Rich — formerly the EiC of Oni Press — has written four prose novels, including Cut My Hair, I Was Someone Dead, and the Everlasting. You Have Killed Me is set to be released by Oni Press in July.

The exhibit, titled “Comic Noir: The Art of Joëlle Jones,” will beging June 4th through the 30th, from 9am-6pm Monday through Thursday, 9am-4pm Friday, and 9am-2pm Saturday. On June 4th from 6-8pm, Jones and Rich will be on hand to discuss their creative process.

…For help for T-shirt quotes.

Over on his Twitter feed, Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley has enlisted fans to help out with some merchandising for the Oni Press hit:

radiomaruHelp me out today: Tell me your favourite lines/bits/characters from Scott Pilgrim for the purposes of t-shirts/buttons/ephemera.3 minutes ago from web

Rama readers, I’ve never seen you back down from a challenge yet — any advice for the creator? Scott Pilgrim’s star is only on the rise, as a feature film starring Michael Cera, “Human Torch” Chris Evans, and “Superman” Brandon Routh is due out in 2010.

[Image via CHUD]

This is kind of a short’n’sweet rundown on the articles I bookmarked this week, as I’m knee-deep in so much stuff right now I don’t have time to do them justice.

The Hathor Legacy on Warren Ellis’s Freakangels.

The Angry Black Woman says she would make a terrible superhero girlfriend. She also takes on being a sci-fi/comics fan and being a woman of color.

Johanna Draper Carlson wants to know what your geekiest thing is.

Racialicious revisits Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology and finds a few identities still missing.

Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, prone to outrageous statements, will be the latest politician to star in her own comic book.

Todd Klein does the Library of Dream.

Splash Page has five out and proud heroes who’d oppose Proposition 8.

Daryl Cagle sticks it to the Huffington Post on comics and editorial cartoons.

Colleen Coover has shown on her blog that Wolverine is the best there is at what he does.

And what he does…

…is freakin’ adorable.

Seriously, if it ever became a series, I would buy “Wolverine: The Tuff Li’l Canadian” and read it till my fingers bleed. If you click the above link, there’s an equally amusing back cover as well.

This sketch for the Wolverine: Weapon X #1 blank variant cover will benefit the Hero Initiative, an organization which helps creators in medical or financial need. Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber are also doing their own versions, all of which will be auctioned in the near future.

Recently, Hero has been helping out with creator Josh Medors, who has been battling cancer. Click here to get more news on that auction, which is still continuing.

It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m working and packing, so I thought I’d share with you all the fun things I stumbled across this week in the comics Web.

And since I mentioned webs, you have to check out the winners of Warren Ellis’s Spider Queen Remake/Remodel contest. From Ryan Kelly, Pia Guerra and Paul Sizer, three totally different and totally fabulous visions of a character from a one-paragraph description.

Comics come with teaser trailers now? Apparently so, and this one, for Jeff Lemire’s upcoming Vertigo book, The Nobody, is pretty cool.

Figures the night that I don’t watch Rachel Maddow she talks comics. From Comics Worth Reading, Archie’s Marriage on Maddow.

I’ve always got to have one overly academic link, don’t I? These are notes on a paper titled “Harshin Ur Squeez:Visual Rhetorics of Anti-Racist Work in LiveJournal Fandoms.” It sounds like a mouthful, but if that’s your thing, check it out.

And to wrap things up, a nice little post on “Growing up Vulcan” inspired by the new Star Trek movie (duh).

OK, it’s only tangentially related to comics, but it’s too good not to write about. Quirk Books (publishers of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, among others) has a new book of rock show posters coming out this month. Gig Posters Volume 1 (oh please, let there be more) is a gorgeous pile of musical impressions committed to paper, a walk through the visuals inspired by the best bands of our time.

Put together by Clay Hayes of GigPosters.com, the oversized book contains 101 full 11 x 14 posters by a who’s who of rock poster artists, including Tara McPherson, Casey Burns, Diana Sudyka, Drew Millward, Dirk Fowler, Eleanor Grosch, Jason Goad, and many more. The pages are perforated, so you can pull out your favorites and hang them on the wall, or save the whole book for long nights of rock’n'roll reminiscences.

Some of my favorites are the Jermaine Rogers rendering of Morrissey sharing a cocktail with Oscar Wilde, a stark jailhouse window for Hank Williams III by Little Jacket designs, Methane Studios’ overlaid gun for Pretty Girls Make Graves, and the above lipstick print by the Decoder Ring Design Concern.

Gig posters, like comic books, are shunned by the “highbrow” art scene, but we know what they’re all missing out on. Some of these posters are impressionistic, while others incorporate visions of the musicians. The styles range from photo prints to psychedelic bursts of color to detailed drawings, but they all capture something of the flavor of the band or artist they evoke. I’m tempted to get another copy so I won’t be sad tearing pages out of this delicious book.

There has certainly been a lot of controversy surrounding Marvel Divas, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and drawn by Tonci Zonjic. It’s been tagged as Sex and the City meets superheroines, but a lot of people took issue with the sexualized cover, drawn by J. Scott Campbell.

Well, late last week Tom Brevoort over at his Blah Blah Blog showed an image of the series (presumably titled Marvel Vixens during that stage in the game), showcasing the designs for Firestar:

Now, this art isn’t credited, but based on what I’ve seen on Zonjic’s blog, I’m willing to wager that this is definitely Tonci’s work. But if you’re still curious about what the art might look like, well, this link is an exerpt from Tonci’s blog, called Orange — and unless my eyes are deceiving me, it’s looking like Photon is in full force.

I know there was a lot of concern about cheesecake, about exploitation, about women being seen as romantic objects rather than heroines in their own right — but at the same time, Aguirre-Sacasa actually came to Marvel early in his career looking to write strong female characters, and this work by Zonjic seems to be sensible and semi-realistic, in a vein not terribly unlike Amanda Conner. Are readers simply judging a book by its cover — and if so, is it warranted? What say you, Rama readers?

Caleb mentioned this before, but I thought I’d give it its own post. Floating World Comics held its Full of Pryde art exhibit on May 7, and now a bunch of the art is up on eBay. All proceeds go to the Oregon Hemophilia Treatment Center.

I love seeing a bunch of different artists reimagining the same character, and I can’t think of a better way to raise money for a good cause. Plus, I’ve loved Kitty Pryde since the X-Men animated series back in my childhood, and comic shop art shows are great fun. All the images are up on the blog and more photos from the exhibit available here.

(Art above, and h/t for the story Joelle Jones.)

From Dave Kopecki via Joe Keatinge at Image Comics, please take a minute to read.

This is a call to action!

As many of you may know already, artist Josh Medors (Frazetta’s Swamp Demon & Sorcerer, Runes of Ragnan, 30 Days of Night) has been fighting a losing battle against a terminal form of cancer for well over a year, and it has recently taken a turn for the worst. The doctors and conventional medicine have all but given up on him and say there isn’t anything else they can do. But he has found an alternative treatment that has the possibility of extending his life a bit and can help improve the quality of his life near the end so he can spend it with his wife and son. There is even a slim chance it can make him somewhat better, so he has to try. But of course the treatment is very expensive and Josh has no medical insurance. (more…)

 

As you may have read a few weeks back, DC Comics Art Director Mark Chiarello, the mastermind behind Wednesday Comics, had alluded to Paul Pope doing a “1950s style sci-fi strip.” As soon as he said that, we’ve all been waiting for this:

Straight from the Batman: Year 100 creator’s Flickr feed, a page of the upcoming Adam Strange adventure in Wednesday Comics. Pope has already made some big splashes in the past, not just with Year 100 but also with a prequel comic for the upcoming Star Trek film, which appeared in Wired Magazine.

Wednesday Comics, a 12-issue weekly series printed on newspaper-sized broadsheets, will be out in stores July 2009.

Zenescope Entertainment seems to have landed one heck of a coup, based on the art below:

That’s right, Danger Girl artist and Amazing Spider-Man cover artist J. Scott Campbell, now working on a cover for Zenescope’s new series Escape from Wonderland.

The series follows the journey of Alice Liddle, who fell into a rabbit hole and spent years both building a life — and fighting for it — in the magical realm of Wonderland.

So many artists whose blogs I follow posted lovely stuff this week, I thought I’d devote an entire linkblogging section to pointing this out. So!

Molly Crabapple has CD cover art she did for a cajun band. Alligators in bowler hats! You love it.

Joelle Jones has a preview of Madman Atomic Comics #16, with her art.

Ryan Kelly has a “sketch” up from his upcoming DMZ #42. I put it in quotes because what Mr. Kelly calls a sketch is what many other artists would call finished art.

Fiona Staples has sketches as well, from the upcoming North 40.

The Phonogram boys have posted a 5 page preview of the long-awaited Phonogram 2.2. And I will have a review of it later this weekend, I promise.

Becky Cloonan has some fabulous sketches that she did at Emerald City Con, of the Sandman, Delirium, and Nick from Demo, among others.

Brian Wood put up the cover for Northlanders #20 (by Massimo Carnevale) and a page from Northlanders #18 (by Danijel Zezelj).

Anyone see any great art on the ‘net this weekend? Leave a link!