As I mentioned before, I was heavily involved in publishing Christian comics and graphic novels years ago. Initially it was a very grassroots effort and then towards the end, we were working with Zondervan. I recently came across this quasi-political cartoon I drew of the nature of Christian comics and, of course, my own personal nature.The image of the little boy is a charicature of myself handing Jesus one of my “Christian” comics. The boy is pleased thinking Jesus will be proud of him, but in truth, the comic is full of the nasty things the boy still likes. But he thinks Jesus will like it too because now the comic book has Jesus’ name on the cover. As you know, the common themes in secular comics are demons, violence and porn. This cartoon is a commentary on how my work and the work of the Christian comic community wasn’t anything different than what you could find from secular publishers.In interviews I always said that because we serve a living God, we would have better stories to tell… but I have yet to see in the Christian community something that isn’t a copy of the secular world. Oh, I believe there are exceptions out there, but it is extremely rare.After much contemplation, I believe the reason why I wasn’t able to deliver anything new myself is because, in truth, I wasn’t new. I still love all of the things of this world… so, like the cartoon, Jesus accepts my offering with a kind smile but still waits… hoping he’ll get to be the art director.
Visual Commentary
The Daily Heller today displayed a “head’s up” alert that got my attention. It seems that R. Crum has finished illustrating the Entire Book of Genesis! I can only hope that he keeps going through each book of the Bible through Revelation… that would be AMAZING! I will be ordering my copy today at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393061027). Here’s Amazon’s description:
From the Creation to the death of Joseph, here is the Book of Genesis, revealingly illustrated as never before. This eagerly awaited graphic work retells the first book of the Bible in a profoundly honest way. Peeling away the theological and scholarly interpretations that have often obscured its most dramatic stories, R. Crumb—using the actual text word for word—has imagined the Bible as it really was. Now, readers of every persuasion—Crumb fans, comic book lovers, history buffs, and believers—can gain astonishing new insights from these harrowing, visceral, and even juicy stories. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis reintroduces readers to Adam and Eve’s Eden, Noah’s Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Pharaoh’s Egypt. Using clues from the text, Crumb fleshes out the parade of biblical originals: from the sensitive dreamer Joseph to the crafty Jacob, to the still-fetching Sarah, to God Himself. The result, four years in the making, is a tapestry of extraordinary detail, the finest work of Crumb’s legendary career.
Photo Caption Contest
OK Von, don’t hurt me, but I came across this picture of you in my iPhoto archives… at ICON in Philly.
I think we need to have a caption contest. This was a rare moment. OK, I’ll start:
“Needs Salt”
Sometimes, I have to thank God that there are those clients out there that LOVE what we do. SO MANY times as I get done with a project, before sending it off, I make ruthless edits in order to cut out details that I am sure that the client will deem too fun, or too playful, or too modern, etc. I recently submitted one of those types of presentations. To my surprise, their only feedback was, “These don’t look like they came from you… we want you to be more Illustrative, that’s what we love about your work.” I was shocked and flattered at the same time. Below, you’ll see a horribly formatted group of logos that I submitted to RealRentals.com - I’m finishing off new logos for them today. I’ve never been so excited to do revisions! LOL!
My Idea of Easter
Hello everyone! Let me introduce myself to those who don’t know me. My name is Sherwin Schwartzrock. I’m an “illustrative designer”(to steal Von’s description) working out of Minneapolis. My career has primarily been as a graphic designer, but I transitioned into illustration in 2001 when I started freelancing. In 2003 I worked full time creating Christian comic books with Community Comics and helped Zondervan start their own line of graphic novels. Comics were a fantastic failure for me so now I’m back making a living in design/illustration again… which I love so I’m not complaining. Here’s a piece I created that sprung from my thoughts about Easter. I chuckle every time I read about God’s interaction with the Devil. Lucifer doesn’t appear to be the brightest bulb on the tree. God puts out a trap and He falls for it every time. For instance, reread the opening of Job again, the weak attempt to kill baby Jesus by Herod or how Jesus has to inflame the Jewish leaders in order to help them move along the crucifixion process… which again was part of His plan from the beginning. In this image, I like how helpless Jesus looks as the dragon devours him… but Jesus ends up being the dagger that pierces his head. I also like how this image looks nothing like what you’d find in a Christian bookstore. I’d love to make a tee shirt of this one day.
Over the last year, I was commissioned to render 12 full page endangered animal illustrations for KONO Magazine. Kono is a monthly publication run out of Scottsdale, Arizona and geared toward kids who are involved with martial arts. Here are a four of the 12 images I’ve done for them over the past year..
Hello and welcome! It’s been a year since the formation of the 1241 group… This marks the first posting of a project that started more than 6 months ago. The group initially started out with Rob Schwager, Von Glitschka and Paul Howalt coming to the conclusion that there needed to be a community of nationally published illustration talent that shared the common bond of Christian faith to come together for exchanges, constructive criticism and encouragement from a faith based perspective. The group grew from 3 to 12 members… a name was chosen, and then group grew even larger. After constant ‘clogging’ of member’s email boxes with ongoing exchanges on all topics from Communication Arts to Harry Potter Books, we decided that a 1241 BLOG SITE was a MUST! Well, this is it! So Gather ’round everyone, critique, post, inspire and participate in the back and forth. We welcome input from people of all faiths and social/political views! We simply ask that contributors respect each other’s unique perspective as we all try to navigate our courses through life.
