AnasAbdin
Show & Tell
ojovivo

Kaledo Art

roma★
Stranger Things

祝日 / Permanent Vacation
Keni
noise dept.

Origami Around

❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
occasionally subtle
No title available

Kiana Khansmith
NASA
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
Not today Justin
i don't do bad sauce passes
almost home
Cosmic Funnies
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@willdinski
The Shape of Water
The big winner at the academy awards this year was Guillermo del Toro's The Shape Of Water. While I'm not normally a big fan of storybook horror, it's easy to enjoy this film. The best description I've heard of the of the plot describes it as an "R rated Splash, with a woman in the Tom Hanks roll."
It's also one of the few movies I can think of with an illustrator as the main character. I'm a sucker for a B-plot about 1960's practical illustration techniques.
See it in the theater, if you can.
The Job of The Wasp
The Job of The Wasp is the third novel I'd read by Colin Winnette. This most recent book, published by Soft Skull Press, is from the perspective of a boy who finds himself in an orphanage and then a swarm of murderous insanity. The boy is not exactly innocent, but parsing out his(?) culpability is half the fun. The obvious comparison would be to Lord of The Flies. But with lots of dead bodies. Get a copy direct from the publisher.
Read the full 6th chapter of Holy Hannah.
Bigsby Bear (2017) is written and directed by Dave Mcary, who spent the last six years as a writer for Saturday Night Live.
What can I say about the plot of this movie? Not much without revealing some of the more surprising and dark plot twists. Ostensibly, it's about a man with a seemingly unhealthy obsession with a children's TV show. It reminded me of a mix between Death to Smoochy and Be Kind Rewind.
Also, you get to see Mark Hamill utilize his voice acting chops.
Rent it from Google Play
Autoptic Festival
Autoptic, Minneapolis' Premier Comic and Independent Print Festival, is returning August 19th 2018.
Are you a cartoonist or print artist? Do you plan on debuting a book or project this summer? Then join the party: The Exhibitor Application is live and takes less than a minute to complete.
Expect more updates and events over the next few months.
Blank Book
Handmade
Hardcover w/patterned flower illustration
140 blank pages
Coptic Stitch
Review: Trying Not To Notice by Will Dinski
Trying Not To Notice is one of the final books to come out of 2dcloud’s Spring Collection and my first encounter with cartoonist and illustrator Will Dinski in long form. I read An Honest Performance in 2015, which was noticeable for its strong line and a sense that marks on the page were more instinctual than placed. Now Dinski is back with a 196-page graphic novel that tells the story of a comedian named John Sirleaf and his rise to fame and fortune through the stories of the people in his immediate orbit.
Dinski sets up a series of interconnected short stories in the same way: First, a statement of opinion, likely John Sirleaf’s gut reaction or positive spin on his experience with them; second, the character’s story, which generally contradicts or at least complicates John’s original statement. In the first of these stories, John notes that “my friend Kyle has got it all figured out.” But the truth, shown over multiple pages, shows a man without much future, a listless alcoholic who uses his stand-up comedy as a way to try to find a date. His self-loathing, his dour outlook, his reliance on self-help/dating books - he’s certainly not a man who has got it all figured out. We see this pattern play out with John’s co-worker Summer, his wife, Amanda, and finally himself.
From what I can tell, Dinski’s style has significantly changed from his debut graphic novel Finger Prints, which was published in 2010 by Top Shelf. The art is looser, more focused on expression via line making. I found the style fascinating. Characters shudder and writhe on the page, fold in on themselves, fall out of and come back into focus. Dinski uses parallel lines and stippling to generate various tones, and I see those lines moving in very intentional ways. Dinski’s cartooning also has some formally inventive touches; one character, a movie producer who can only remember people through the use of a headshot photo, doesn’t have a face.
Each of the characters featured in the comic has their own darkness, but Dinski takes a portion of the book to speak very directly about the dangers of the current information hoarding tech megacorps (think Google, Amazon, etc.). People give up their personal information, their desires, their purchasing habits so quickly and so easily, and manipulation of that information, or its use for nefarious ends, is the major hook of Amanda’s story. In this case, it’s one person with access making one bad choice – but Dinski seems to be warning about the potential for these sorts of choices to be automated or generated in an extrajudicial way. Amanda’s story stands out in Trying Not To Notice because of how ominous it seems in comparison to the others in the book.
I wonder about the way Dinski frames the entire story. The title of the book is “Trying Not To Notice” but it feels that “Oblivious” might be a better fit. Does Dinski, by titling the book in this way, convict his main character of looking the other way? Is John Sirleaf not seeing the truth, or is he seeing it and pretending it doesn’t exist? If Dinksi is to be believed, then it’s the latter, and that further complicates the story and its characters. Or perhaps it’s just that oblivion of this kind of magnitude takes some kind of foundational effort.
In Trying Not To Notice, Dinski has created a comic that explores the fundamental brokenness of people and the whitewash surfaces we paint over them. In hoping for the most uncomplicated, positive version of our friends and acquaintances, we cover their more complicated, more human selves. And if we work hard enough, we can even delude ourselves about the nature of our own lives. Trying Not To Notice is a comic worth mulling over.
Will Dinski is a cartoonist, illustrator and graphic designer. You can see more of his work at his website.
@2dcloud is a publisher of art/alt-comix based in Minneapolis.
Illustration I did for this smart article by Kellogg Insight.
My new graphic novel, Trying Not To Notice, will be in bookstores next month. You can pre-order it now!
Trying Not To Notice charts the meteoric rise of a stand-up comedian as told by the embattled people in his orbit.
“Dinski is an astute observer of the human condition, transcribing our fears, anxieties, delusions and desperation in his every line, taking care to remind us of the humor that can be found in one’s ongoing struggle with the myriad impediments inherent in our species.” — Joshua W. Cotter, Nod Away
$12.95 196 pages 5.25 × 7.75 inches 1 color offset
Caitlin Skaalrud and I worked on the announcement art for AUTOPTIC 2017 Autoptic Comics Festival AUGUST 27, 2017 ARIA 105 N. 1st Street Minneapolis, MN Applications Opening January 2017 #comics #autoptic #minneapolis #art #reading
Inspired by "If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler" by Italo Calvino #illustration #books #art #inkdrawing #reading #novels
Later sketch of the Oregon Coast. #sketchbook #illustration #inkdrawing #carvinskiretreat
Interview with Will Dinski of Trying Not to Notice
Will Dinski’s Trying Not to Notice is a part of our Spring Collection!
It has been very long (7 years) since your last book-length work.
I’ve been working on different comic projects the last few years. During that time, I spent a while expanding my bookmaking/printmaking experience and creating letterpress comics.
Also, I’ve found that writing novel length works takes a different mindset than short stories. I’m almost exclusively working on longer stories now, but it took me a while to get confident enough to work in that mode.
Trying Not to Notice is less experimental/formal than your minicomics published by 2dcloud. But it still has some formal inventions.
I love to read and love to be fully immersed in a narrative. In my own work, specifically when writing a longer narrative, I try to use techniques that are appropriate for the moment emotionally, and aim not to pull the reader out of the story too often.
Short stories I treat differently, and find their limitations more encouraging of a frequency of certain type of visual risk.
Which one’s more important? Form or narrative?
My favorite stories use both equally. When I work, the form drives the narrative.
Trying Not to Notice is drawn in brown color.
I thought it would look pretty.
(…)
Read more
Trying Not To Notice Will Dinski
Dinski is an astute observer of the human condition, transcribing our fears, anxieties, delusions and desperation in his every line, taking care to remind us of the humor that can be found in one’s ongoing struggle with the myriad impediments inherent in our species. — Joshua W. Cotter
Will Dinski’s long-awaited return to long-form comics following 2010’s Finger Prints sees not only a dramatic shift in style, but approach to storytelling as well. Focusing on the meteoric rise of a stand-up comedian as told by the people in his orbit, Dinski’s ability to create a layered, nuanced narrative is in top form with Trying Not to Notice.
View this title among four others in our Spring Collection, currently available via Kickstarter!
Right now 2dcloud is running their Kickstarter for the Spring Collection, and they could use your help. My book is part of the collection, but it’s likely you’ll be way more into these other amazing books: "Turning Japanese" by MariNaomi is a smart and thought provoking memoir about identity and her time exploring Japan. "Someone Please Have Sex With Me" by Gina Wynbrandt. Seriously, I’ve probably already told you about this book. Just get it and laugh your ass off. “Virus Tropical" by Powerpaola is just beautiful. We’re lucky 2dcloud has translated this very compelling memoir by the Argentinian artist. You can get all the books for only $39. What a discount! It would cost, I don’t know, A LOT MORE to buy them all individually. If you’ve already given, THANK YOU. You will not be disappointed. http://kck.st/28RU09U #2dcloud #comics #kickstarter #minneapolis #books #publishing
Today! I’ll be reading at Boneshaker books. 9PM 2002 23rd Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55404 Free! 2dcloud & Boneshaker Books present: Altcomics 5 Live readings and performances Will Dinski • Raighne Hogan • John Holden • Brett Elizabeth Jenkins • Joseph Nixon • Maitreyi Ray • Zak Sally • Caitlin Skaalrud #boneshakerbooks #2dcloud #comics #minneapolis (at Boneshaker Books)