Joan of Arc by Jules Bastien-Lepage (1879)

I’ve been lucky enough to spend a lot of my life living in NYC, which means access to some of the most amazing museums in the world, including (my favorite) The Met!! Who has this painting in their permanent collection, and (if I may say) a jpg with a much more accurate color scheme on their website.

And any time I post a painting I like to write a little why. Since first going to the Met this painting caught my eye. First off, it’s huge. It’s over 8 feet tall, but it’s not overwhelming. Your eyes naturally rest on Miss of Arc before exploring the rest of the painting. Her fixed expression, her rigid outstretched arm- it’s such a serene, natural setting but she seems so tense, making a powerful juxtaposition.

However, my favorite part was when I first noticed the figures in the background. They blend in so well through the tree branches and the house that you don’t notice them at first. It’s so subtle, but then you notice how the angel’s sword is pointing straight at the back of her head! That’s like, the opposite of subtle!

I wish I could take all of you to the Met on a field trip to see this painting in person. Then we could go eat hot dogs afterwords, it’d be awesome. Every time I go to the Met I make sure and look at it. The way the golds shine through the leaves on the tree- everything about this painting is perfect. It tells such a powerful story from a historical figure who’s life is boiled down to some simple facts- but this painting makes you think beyond that. Here Joan is an ordinary girl who has just seen something so extraordinary that she’s dropped her wool, and is staring with such intensity that always leaves me thinking: “What could she be thinking?”

GPOY

DRACULA
written by Bram Stoker
illustrated by Becky Cloonan
out April 10th from Harper Design

I stood beside Van Helsing, and said, “Ah well, poor girl, there is peace for her at last. It is the end!”

He turned to me, and said with grave solemnity,”Not so, alas! Not so. It is only the beginning!”

Here’s a peek at an illustration from DRACULA! Out April 10th! If you’ve never read it (for shame!) this is a perfect opportunity! And if you own it but want an illustrated hardcover edition, this is also a perfect opportunity! What a coincidence :3

“There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear. I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips.” -Jonathan Harker

WHOA. THE SPINE!! And some trivia: Jennie One was my first published comic!!

brianwood:

The Channel Zero Collection… lives!  Check out that SPINE!

Six page preview of Conan the Barbarian #3 (out next week!) on CBR! Includes a wolf, some sharks and the shaman N’yaga! :D

Cleaning my desk I found a sketch of Cyndi & Mel from American Virgin! I loved drawing them, one of my favorite comic couples. <3

R. M. Renfield from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, out April 10th from Harper Design.

Check out this advance review (and more art!) on Multiversity Comics! Ah-ah-aaahh!

The illustrations vary from page to page, sometimes emphasizing the characteristics and design of a specific person or illustrating entire sequences over the entire page, swallowing up the prose within. Cloonan even mixes up her own artistic output throughout the book, sometimes delivering spot illustrations that could assumedly be found in her comic work and at other points creating lush visual designs that blend colors and would be very much at home in a framed print on your wall. Overall it is very much in line with the gorgeous work we’ve come to know Cloonan for, and yet it’s still something entirely new.