www.dannyzabbal.com

Commodore Eugene Linder-Flowman and Adventure Fish

Commodore Eugene Linder-Flowman lives in a man-sized aquarium at the zoo, with his very best friend Adventure Fish. After nearly ninety years of thrill and peril, he’s decided to give himself the golden handshake and call it quits. Nowadays it’s sleepy afternoons and writing his memoirs.

Satellite Maps

I don’t usually do write ups for music, my pals over at www.saidthegramophone.com usually take care of that. In spite of that I feel like I need to talk about this band, Satellite Maps. They’re from Montréal and they are, in my opinion, super-groovy. I’m not really qualified to talk about music, I don’t really know too much about the technical details, I just know what I like. Besides, it’s so very rare for me to discover some secret band that no ones knows about. Okay, okay, I’ll fess up that I know three of the members (Gary Janz, Amy McDonald and Shevaughn Battle), but that doesn’t mean anything; they’re my best kept secret, mine alone… regardless of my sharing their existence with you.

Anyhoo, enough of my pointless yammering. Go to their myspace and sample their melodies: Satellite Maps. And, if you’re in the area try to check out one of their shows.

Mike Manley

Boy I wish I had a last name like Manley.

Mr. Manley is an established cartoonist and animator. I know him from his inks in Power of Shazam, and his pencils for Quasar, and Darkhawk. His art is, I would say, essential. Insofar as it is the essence; the essence of the scene, the essence of the story and the essence of the emotion. He’s a consummate storyteller who doesn’t waste a line on tomfoolery and never lets wastefulness get in the way of the progression. His work always just read really well.

I guess that’s a little smothering and kind of pretentious. Still, its how I feel. Let me put it to you this way, when I was a pear-shaped pimple-faced teenager with high hopes of one day drawing comics, I’d look to artists like Manley. He didn’t sugarcoat his compositions (pencils or inks) with the erratic torrents of line or horribly disproportioned figures, the kind so popular in the nineties. His work taught me the importance of the craft of drawing comics. A rare lesson at such an impressionable age.

I also thought Darkhawk was really cool.

I implore you to go to his blog: Draw!

Survey his work, and please take the time to read his ‘about me’ section, its very eloquent.

Herman the Manatee

This is a webcomic about a manatee who’s always getting smacked on the head by boats, or his own foibles. Poor Herman, poor soul. I’ll admit the premise is bizarre but Jason Viola manages to get this hypnotic, rhythmic narrative that’s sort of, well, addictive. Check it out, you’ll laugh and weep, and then laugh again: http://herman.manateepower.com/

The Book

I’m hard at work oscillating between Journey in the 6th Dimension and this as-of-yet unnamed short story book. When you hop back and forth you start to discover strange things about your work habits. For example, I spend as much time on a full comic page as I do on one tiny illustration. That’s not necessarily surprising, though when I hold them up side-by-side I can’t see the discrepancy in hours

In any case, everything is chugging along smoothly.

Below is an illustration for one of the sample chapters Etan and I agreed on. We thought we’d start with Eugene Linder-Flowman, I think mostly because he strikes the right balance of the mundane and fantastic. This, as you can probably tell, is one of the more exciting images the story evokes. I enjoy the composition, although frankly I’m not too sure if I’ve pushed it too far and weather or not the coloring is appropriate. Experimentation will answer all questions, great and small. If I learned anything from concept art, you never nail it on the first try.

Still, I’d appreciate any thoughts you might have so please let me know.

Nick Derington

Boy I tell you, I really like this guy’s work. Everything is so solid and confident, and his subject matter rides the a subtle wave of abstraction.  Peruse his flickr set and you’ll definitely agree. Also, make sure you drop by his website www.nickderington.com. You can scope out some his previous work and, if you’re as intrepid as I think you are, go and buy some of his books. I say, festoon your walls and shelves with his art, because it’s super-cool.

I’m pressed for time so this week I’ll be short, and sweet. Well, I’m always sweet.

Page 6

As you can see, I’ve decided to go black and white. When it comes down to it, printing cost is a major factor. At this point it’s just not feasible to do a color sample pitch on the budget we have. I have a feeling I’m going to change my mind later, but for now that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Salgood Sam

I can’t believe I’ve never written about this guy before. He’s great, his artwork is great and his personality is great; he’s really nice. If I were you, I’d go and peruse his wonderful blogs. He has one about the Canadian comics (Sequential) and another about himself (www.salgoodsam.com). Both are definitely worth subscribing to. There’s always tons of neat stuff to read. While your at it, you should glide through his flickr gallery, too.

Star Crash

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen this movie, but I just got tuned into it. It’s the most bizarre mish-mash of sci-fi tropes I’ve ever seen. Everything from a take-off on Ming the Merciless to light sabers. The trailer alone will wet your palette.

My week’s been swamped, I’ve doing a lot of drawing and it’s left me a little brain dead. I started working on this project with Nick Papaconstantinou of  Elephant Words. It’s too early to show the fruits of our collaboration, but it’s coming along very nicely.

Now, I’m wandering around my studio slack-jawed, as if it were the catacombs of some ancient tomb. I’m a drooling zombie begging for fresh and human heads to suckle.

Signed Papercuts + ::Cloudberry Records::

Here’s some album art I did for a single by Signed Papercuts. The piece was a commission for Roque Plastilina of Cloudberry Records, a small indie label.

It’s very rare that I get to do album art, and rarer still that I actually like the band. Signed Papercuts is up my alley, I really like their stuff. Visit their myspace page and take a listen. While you’re at, visit Cloudberry Records as well, there’s a nifty jukebox in the corner so you can listen to some music while you shop. Oh yeah, don’t forget to buy some records.

The Book

Everything is rolling along nicely, nothing dramatic to report. Etan just finished some more stories and they’re fabulous, so look forward my friends. This book is going to be a really great read.

I rather like this one. Trying to take an original approach to draw an aquatic-themed superhero daydreaming about the good old days of adventure, is challenging in just the right way.

The Bitter End

Speaking of Etan, he and my good friend Daniel Beirne are doing a live sitcom called The Bitter End. If you’re living in Montréal you should head over to Theater St. Catherine and check it out. If you’re not, then check out their site (http://thebitterend.tumblr.com/) and enjoy the video versions instead.

The Bitter End – Episode One: Magna-Vision PART 1 from daniel beirne on Vimeo.

Filmed in front of a live studio audience.