Been a long week. A long, tiresome, irksome and so much more kinda week, that when I found this book in my hold file I didn’t really register it as a big deal- took it as point-of-fact but never really clicked that HEY A BOOK I LOVE JUST LANDED IN MY HANDS!

The new Casanova (Pt.1-Avaritia) arrived this week, by Matt ( let-me-tell-you-a-thousand-times-I’m-an-addict-and-alcoholic) Fraction and Gabriel (my-art-is-great-because-i-try-not-to-be) Ba. A series that I’ve been consuming since it was re-released under Marvel’s ICON imprint several years ago. The art of Ba (with swap-outs by his equally talented twin brother Fabio Moon) is what sucked

me in after my initial exposure to it in Umbrella Academy. But Fraction’s writing keeps me hooked!

Lots of lo-fi retrograde funk and happenstance with equal doses of 70′s style machismo cum existential nihilism wrapped in a slick dose of narrative wonka-vision where the main character is a bad guy who is kidnapped to an alternate universe to pose as his good-guy parallel self in order to undermine his father’s top cop position in the world at the behest of another bad guy who dresses as a mummy.

Muted, cell shaded, colors overlay dense, simplified and expressive line work (shouldn’t be possible but is) with a candy-tastic color palette that makes me crave more of it. Like nothing I’ve seen and makes me thankful there aren’t any able ( or willing) to try and copycat the astounding work taking place here!

But don’t take my word for it, Seriously go and check it out for yourself and buy a copy!

Like a lot of kids who grew up in the 80′s, I was a fan of the “Smurfs”- the little, blue, mythical creations of Pierre Culliford, aka. Peyo. Flash forward to my senior year at FSU when I was working alongside many other students on Florida State University’s art-student directed publication, the “MAGA”- I, like several others, was submitting designs for the cover and I ended up with this image as my proposal.

I even wrote to Lafig Belgium and IMPS (the organizations responsible for Peyo’s creations and their use) stating, “We are
looking to capture a sense of wonder and provoke curiosity
from audiences with this issue. What resulted is the attached image. My
fellow artists and myself recognize that this image is in direct
violation of your rights, but would like to ask humbly for permission
to use this image for our publication. When I started work on this
image, using a “Smurf” was the farthest thing from my mind, but as I
chose my colors, the yellow reminded me of “The Astrosmurf” book I have
owned since I was a child. I was reminded how the smurfs all painted
their bodies yellow to disguise themselves, and how it was disorienting
to see a smurf any color but blue. A smurf that is not blue is a
different creature, and I was surprised at how it worked in my image to
revive wonder and affection for an old love.”

I even got a response,
“From: “IMPS”
To:”Shaun J. Roberts”
Subject: request for use of the Smurf image
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 09:33:00 +0100

LAFIG BELGIUM S.A.
Rue du Cerf 85
1332 GENVAL
BELGIUM

Tel. + 32 2 655 11 67
Fax + 32 2 652 01 60

Date: 16/03/2006

Attn: Shaun J. Roberts / sjr03d@garnet.acns.fsu.edu
From: Brigitte Ickmans / IMPS

Re: request for use of the Smurf image

Dear Shaun,

We thank you for your request to use the Smurf image.
As this is not a standard question we cannot give you an immediate answer. As you anticipated normally we don’t accept such isolated special uses.
We will come back to you with an answer asap.
Best regards,
Brigitte Ickmans
Head of Business & Legal Affairs ”

I never received a response to any of my follow-up inquiries, but it was awesome to have gotten so close. Seeing the movie with my daughter yesterday reminded me of this encounter and many other warm memories as she is now in love with these little blue guys, as well!