The Web Page Skin Is The Album Cover (sort of)

I was putting together a skin for an artists new album, and the thought dawned on me. Since we've long lost the 12 vinyl sleeve as as a means of visually communicating the album, and CD's booklets never seemed to much of a successor, the web page skin is the latest step in that evolution, and I think it's a positive one.

When the new Rakim LP showed up, and I'd hear it , the skin I'd seen is what came to mind. It was the visual reference I'd immediatley associated with the music, and I think that association is a lot more important than most think.

One of the most popular LP's of all time is Sgt. Peppers. The music on that album, as classic as it was, was only part of the picture. I'd argue that that album cover is one the most easily recognizable images in popular culture. If the LP had no cover at all, I'm not sure it would have made the same impact. While it'll never replace that experience that vinyl shoppers like myself one had of rummaging in the record bin, I think the 'web skin' is a promising new tool in the art of music visuals.

Don Martin

I'm always struck about how little I hear about Don's work. For me, he had to be one of the biggest sole influences on my illustration. And you can't help but notice his style in Matt Groening Simpsons or Family Guy. His bean-pole characters along with their huge feet endured torture and humiliation alongside a slew of illustrated graphic sound effects, that were as fun to read as the comics themselves.

Don got his start as a printer typesetter, and later was hired by newly founded MAD Magazine in 1956. He ususally ran 2 or 3 strips in each issue, usually with benign titles, that resulted in their protaganist being mauled or beat up in some way.

Don went on to contribute to some various animation throughout the years including this rare and early VH1 promo from the 80's:

Flip Book™

One of my first introductions to the science of animation was this flip book I bought when I was about 7-8 years old. I'm not sure with whose credited with creating this art, but, I think by the time this came out, Disney had one of their 'animation army' put this together. I originally held some hope that maybe this was some Milt Kahl artwork.

Zipatone®

As I'm inking and shading in the latest issue of 1985, I'm noticing how different and relatively simple the process of shading is. Line art that was once shaded by hand, or, used the luxury of being printed full color, usually involved something called 'Zipatone'.

Basically, it was a refined graphic element in the form of dots or lines to apply graytones to a page. It came in big sticker sheets, and you'd cut out the area with an exactoknife and lay it onto the area. Painstakingly tedious it could be, and some regarded it as cheating, but I like the even tones you'd end up getting.

Luv Deluxe- Cinammon Chasers

Really cool and creative music video:

The Commissar Vanishes

I have this pretty incredible book that involves some of the earliest 'photo manipulation'. It's called 'The Commissar Vanishes, and it's a collection of photos dated back to Stalins purges of the 1930's and 40's.

Basically, if you were a member of the Soviet Politburo, and you were on the 'outs' with Stalin (probably headed to the Gulag or executed) your image in a photo would be erased along with any memory of you. It was the ultimate form of damage control.


This picture below shows how the state would alter images for publication. In this case, creating a 'crowd' shot for Lenin, that appears 3 times as big as it actually was. Recently, FOX News had been caught doing something similar in it's footage of one of the 'Tea Party' protests.

Titles

Attached are some screen shots of some title work I did for a movie a friend and I made. It was a somewhat low-budget affair, but, had some great creative control. The movie was for an 'Extreme Sports' channel, so we wanted the titles to be as 'extreme' as possible... Jeff had asked that the credits be a simple sequence of drawings, and this is what we came up with: