Valses Balsamiques

My favorite project in 2024 was this cassette package I designed for Klimperei and Denis Fedabeille:

This story began in 2022 when I posted a Facebook announcement for my book, Poem: A Mashup, illustrating a cento by MD Usher. 

My all-time favorite composer, Christophe Petchanatz of Klimperei toy music, whom I’d surreptitiously friended some years before, responded enthusiastically to the post. I responded equally enthusiastically to his response, letting him know how much I love his work. Christophe ordered the book and granted me permission to play his songs during the online Daredoodle sessions I was hosting. 

I sent him this illustration on the book’s theme, pictures made of words, and we vowed to work together someday. 

That day came when Christophe invited me to design a cassette package for a collection of waltzes he’d recorded in collaboration with electronic composer Denis Fedabeille, to be issued by another of my musical heroes, Denis Tagu of the label InPolySons 

The cassette came to be called Valses Balsamiques. 

It’s a hauntingly toe-tapping series of strange melodies in waltz time. You need to hear this.  


The cardboard package folds up to wraparound, with song info printed on the inside. 

Christophe asked for  “something full, colorful, different styles, many different characters dancing, some happy, some not”

To populate the dance floor, I generated several pages of doodles of dancers and musicians to combine into a scene in photoshop.

We see, for example: 

A pinhead and frankenstein collapsing into each other

An eyeball/egg figure swaying from side to side

Tango dancers merging into a shared face

A robot trying to twist

A dino succeeding

The right honorable Pere Ubu

Hidden under the flap: figures falling into a time tunnel/gidouille void

In a couple of cases, I revived stray characters from my old work:

In Steel Pulse, Pro-Wrestling Adventures #4, 1990, we published a theme song for our imaginary Megiddo Mosquito cartoon show. On the masthead to the music, I drew an insect band.

This time I swiped (clockwise from left):

Astor Ant, Casanova Cricket, Bertolt Beetle, Frankie the Wasp, and a baritone sax player who fuses Gerry Mulligan with Kafka.

  

In a Hector strip called Lodo Friday Nights (for “lower downtown,” the Denver arts district back then),1995, I included a romance sequence, in the spaces on the floor, of dancing cigarette butts. 

I incorporated them on the inside of the cassette around the song titles.

For the title, I drew inspiration from this image I’d seen of Lygeti’s musical notation.

Of course it’s all very tiny. It may be obvious that my primary purpose with these obscure details is to amuse (soothe?) myself. I had a good time with this project. I’ve been such a fan of the InPolySons label and Klimperei especially, for so many decades, I was only too happy to give something back. I made them pay me in music, and was well compensated. And happily for me, they loved the result. Again, enjoy the music here.


And check out my spring courses including one for high schoolers. Drawing cartoon figures and putting them in situations and stories is supremely gratifying. Why should I have all the fun?

I have a new book out!

 

From the back cover:

Poem: A Mashup

What makes poetry effective? How does a poem work? What are its goals and aims? 

Taking his cue from the musical form of mashup, in POEM M. D. Usher has composed what is known as a cento, stitching together snippets from famous poems in such a way that the words of the text illustrate the aspect of poetry being described. A lively introduction and short, irreverent biographies of the featured poets add to the fun. 

In T. Motley’s artwork, Word literally becomes Flesh, as letters emerge like epiphanies from the drawings. 

POEM is a unique achievement that stands in relation to canonical poetry as Disney’s film, Fantasia, stands to classical music—first of its kind, something for all ages, and well worth experiencing again and again. 

Order it here, PLEASE.

Amazing Art Models

One of the perks of living in NYC is the high quality of art models around town, and one of the perks of teaching is that the best of them model for SVA. Planning this post, I discovered that I have so many great examples to show, I think I'll make this the first of a series.

Cacia Zoo is, deservedly, a social media rockstar. I was honored to have her pose for my Figure Drawing for Cartoonists class last spring. The feeling was apparently mutual. She thanked me on her Instagram, "Your ink drawing is amaaazing! Hope to model for you again some time."

Below are my drawings of Cacia from Drink and Draw NYC a few years ago. More of my Cacia drawings can be found here.

Greer Samuels brings an intense theatricality to his poses. When he saw these drawings I made in my Figure Drawing class this summer, he felt vindicated for his hard work. Life drawing is a truly collaborative process.

When model Ume saw my drawings of her at Drink and Draw NYC not long ago, she invited me to take part in her upcoming exhibition, 30 Bodies, which will be a pop-up show opening Thursday Sept 19 at 7pm and on view through Friday Sept 20 at Con Artist Collective, 329 Broome St. Work by 30 artists will be auctioned and proceeds donated to a charity that brings artists to Puerto Rico.

Below are some of my Ume drawings from Drink and Draw. I actually played with color for a change. More can be found here.

 

These and many more amazing models appear in my classes Figure Drawing for Cartoonists and Inking Comics. I'll post more examples soon, I hope. Classes are enrolling right now and begin in mid-September. The information session is, well, tonight (Aug 20).

Come draw with us!

"Highlights from the Life of Raymond Roussel" part 2

Here's the second half of my comic on Raymond Roussel that ran in The Brooklyn Rail. The first half can be seen here. 

Leave a comment. Let me know what you think.