{"id":1010,"date":"2013-11-19T18:24:26","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T18:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/research\/?p=1010"},"modified":"2016-06-08T07:37:27","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T07:37:27","slug":"abstract-comix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/research\/?p=1010","title":{"rendered":"Abstract Comix – The Anatomy of Drawing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was in conversation with Andrei Molotiu the author of the book Abstract Comics (http:\/\/abstractcomics.blogspot.co.uk <\/a>) and he basically challenged me to go beyond the film derived sequential drawings of earlier in the year and attempt a full abstract comic approach which I duly did yesterday. The result below.<\/p>\n

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This is based on two symbols that were constant companions in my first period of intensive abstract drawing from 1981-1989. The two objects are based on a barn door and a sheave of barley both distant childhood memory derivations. At this time I was working off an abstract expressionist base where Arshile Gorky and Miro were very important in terms of memory symbols. Here I have used the two objects to tell an abstract sequential story which has abstract speech bubbles. I jokingly called it my autobiography hence the grave symbol at end. The story is subconscious there no direct narrative. I drew the structure of the comic based on memories of similar page structures in comics.<\/p>\n

The interesting thing is that it seems to relate directly back to a ‘graphic novel’ I attempted in 1992 (below the front cover). I will try and get rest of sequence scanned which although cartoon based is more conventional cartoon figuration rather than abstract and contains quite a lot of text. For this I thank Simon Lewty ( http:\/\/www.artfirst.co.uk\/simon_lewt<\/a>y ) who has been a constant source of inspiration in his blend of the narrative, abstract and annotated.<\/p>\n

Andrew has asked me for a better quality photo of the work for his blog (see above) so I will update the picture above with a high quality image tomorrow.<\/p>\n

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I also just realised that it structurally hints at the kind of emblematic work Alasdair Gray parodied in his ‘Leviathan’ drawing for the front cover of his book Lanark. My memory was obviously remembering the front cover of Richard Burton’s ‘Anatomy of Melancholy’.<\/p>\n\n\t\t