Kid Beowulf and the Song of Roland: locked & loaded
February 27, 2010, filed under: News, Roland, by Lex…and off to print! That’s right, after five long years Kid Beowulf and the Song of Roland is done. Finito. All sewn up. Finished. Concluded. Stuck a fork in. This week I signed off on the final design and layout of the book and my publisher will be shipping it off to the printers today. It’ll be another few weeks before the actual book is in my hands, but it’s a huge relief to know that I’ve gotten this little French monkey off my back. And even better to know that it’s actually pretty darn good!
Here are just some of the nice things people are saying:
“With Kid Beowulf, cartoonist Alexis E. Fajardo combines a wonderful sense of whimsy and high adventure into a totally captivating and enjoyable series. Great fun for young and old readers!”
–Jeff Lemire, Essex County and Sweet Tooth
“Alexis Fajardo has a breezy cartoon style with idiosyncratic character designs, and crystal clear storytelling. This book actually made me interested in Beowulf, and even J.R.R. Tolkien couldn’t do that! A fine addition to any comic collection, or library.”
– Jimmy Gownley, Amelia Rules!
“Earnest and sometimes irreverent, Alexis Fajardo adapts the Charlemagne legend as others have for centuries: by affectionately combining history, myth, and imagination to create a worthy new tale. Curious readers may just find themselves inspired to give the world’s great epics another look.”
– Jeff Sypeck, Becoming Charlemagne
“Middle Ages adventure meets all ages-fun. Alexis Fajardo mixes history with folklore to create a wonderful tale.”
–Frank Cammuso, Knights of the Lunch Table
Thanks for reading the advance copies guys! The rest of you will have to wait until April 1st at WONDERCON to pick your copies (or you can preorder on amazon).
El Cid: Turnarounds
February 24, 2010, filed under: El Cid, Sketchbook, by Lex
After weeks of reading and research for Kid Beowulf vs. El Cid, I’m finally getting to the stage where I can start to draw! This past weekend saw a flurry of character designs that I’ll be sure to post down the line, for now I wanted to post the most important one: Rodrigo Diaz (who will one day be known as “El Cid). Click to enlarge…
Cuba Sketchbook: SEK & Snoopy Part II
February 17, 2010, filed under: SEK & Fika, Sketchbook, by Lex
SEK’s travels in Cuba continued with a visit to the home of the famous Cuban cubist, Jose Fuster! Fuster’s home is a wonder to behold, as every square inch of it is covered in art: paintings, mosaics, and sculpture is everywhere and took him over 15 years to complete! But Fuster didn’t stop there, as his mosaics bled into the surrounding neighborhood.
Decorating neighborhoods must be contagious in Cuba, as the next stop SEK and Snoopy made was to a small neighborhood just outside Havana, dubbed “Muraleando” for all the murals that adorn the buildings.
Once a squalid place filled with garbage, the people of Muraleando slowly transformed their home into a work of art through community activism; now artists from all over come to Muraleando to add some of their own color (real estate to paint on is becoming scarce).
As the days wore on SEK’s cigar supply was running low, so he took a tour of the Partagas cigar factory. A five story building just across from the capitol building in Havana, each floor of the factory is dedicated to one specific cigar making task: separating and categorizing tobacco leaves, rolling the cigars, adding the cigar rings, creating the boxes, etc.
Roughly 25,000 cigars are made in a day (some of the individual rollers can average upwards of 100 cigars in a day!). Some of the most famous Cuban cigars like “Romeo y Julieta,” “Montecristo,” “Sancho Panza,” are named after the books that the rollers are read while they work!
After his resupply trip, SEK wandered out to Finca Vigia to visit his old friend Ernest Hemingway. As much as SEK enjoys Hemingway’s writing, he’s less a fan of his decorating…
Finally, SEK made his way back to Havana where he met up with Snoopy for one last round of mojitos.
It was a terrific trip and SEK would do it all over again if he could. The people of Cuba are wonderful: full of warmth and hospitality and they carry a genuine affection for America (just not her policies). And despite one awful encounter with a Cuban buffet and a grouchy US customs official, SEK’s trip went without a hitch.
But you’ll have to read Tom’s blog for that story…
Cuba Sketchbook: SEK & Snoopy Part I
February 11, 2010, filed under: SEK & Fika, Sketchbook, by Lex
Snoopy & SEK run through the jungle.
Generally SEK travels with his Fika, but on a recent trip to Cuba he met up with his old war buddy Snoopy for a week in Havana. The boys reminisced about their days in the revolution and took in all the old haunts, as well as some new ones. First up was Revolution Plaza, where the two heroes are commemorated for all to see. (click sketches to enlarge)
Afterward the boys went drinking at one of their favorite dives in Old Havanva, an Austrian brew pub where they serve the beers in huge hookas! There was much rejoicing.
Of course, no night on the town would be complete without a little dancing, so SEK and Snoopy took in a terrific flamenco performance at the old opera house.
Afterward they made their way to another haunt; a local favorite where the music is loud, the crowd is friendly, and the cigars are Cuban (naturally)!
While there they met up with Hilary (Rhymes with Orange) Price and Tom (MAD) Richmond, who shared a cigar kiss!
As the night drew to a close SEK wandered back through the cobbled streets of Havana to his hotel, El Tejadillo, where he looked forward to a recuperative sleep, but was scared pantless when he opened his room door to discover the bedsheet in the shape of a swan?!
It was a Cuban chambermaid custom poor SEK never got used to.
But those mojito night-caps were surely something he could get behind!
Cuba Part II: Dedete & Animation
February 3, 2010, filed under: News, Studio, by Lex
The very same day we visted Palante we also went to another Cuban newspaper Juventud Rebelde, the back page of which features editorial cartoons in a feature called Dedete. Originally Dedete (named after the pesticide “DDT”), was a paper of it’s own, but a few years back it was consolidated into the larger paper, Juventud Rebelde. Dedete has been around since 1965 in some form or another and is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Where the humor and art style of Palante was more cartoony and less political, Dedete had a very editorial bent to their comics and humor (they’re caricactures in particular reminded me of David Levine’s). Below is a copy of Humor Rebelde, an anthology which features cartoons from some of Dedete’s top contributors.
Just like our new friends at Palante, the crew of Dedete was warm and inviting and very interested to hear about cartooning in the states and how it was similar (or different) from Cuba. We ended the meeting with some socializing (which for cartoonists means we drew each other), below is Humberto Lazaro’s (Laz) take on yours truly.
One thing I love about these offices is there’s always a mural to take a photo in front of! Here’s the whole Dedete and Snoopy Goes to Cuba crew. Later that week they ran an article about our meeting and used the photo below and I’m sure glad they did–that newspaper helped me get out of US Customs (customs officials are very suspicious of cartoonists).
Finally, before we left for our shores Laz did another piece of commemorative art for us, featuring the entire Snoopy Goes to Cuba crew (Sparky included!).
You’d think it would be difficult to top our first day, after all we toured two different newspapers and met a bevy of terrific and talented cartoonists but our second day was perhaps even better, as we were lucky enough to visit Estudios de Animacio!
Located in Havana, this is one of the few animation studios in Cuba. The studio has been producing films for the past 20 years, though many of its producers have been in Cuban animation and comics since the 1960’s–most notably, Juan Padron, creator of one of Cuba’s most famous films, Vampires in Havana (which you can watch instantly on Netflix!). Juan Padron is also the creator of Elpidio Valdes, another animated legacy, about a Cuban freedom fighter in the 1800’s. Below is another terrific mural featuring the studios most famous characters.
It was a thrill to walk the halls and hear the history of this animation studio. The animators include both men and women of all ages and they work in a variety of formats, from traditional 2D animation, Flash, stop-motion, and most recently trying their hand at CGI. We were lucky enough to watch a reel of their work and I was struck by the diversity of it, not just in the stories, characters and subject matter, but also the quality of the animation, which rivals anything here in the states. Here is the bullpen with some animators hard at work…
The lead animator of this young crew was thrilled to meet us, in particular Jeannie Schulz–apparently he was more than just a casual fan of PEANUTS.
Justin and I had to verify the quality of the tatoo, and his leg is now at the Studio for approval.
Like their newspaper counterparts, it was frustrating to hear how the U.S. embargo affected their work, and to a larger degree for animation, since much of their production relies heavily on computers and cameras (the embargo penalizes any countries that trades or sells with Cuba); any equipment they might need to make their films comes at a much higher cost for them. Similarly the distribution channels for their films are much smaller; outside of Cuba, their films are mostly seen in the occasional animation festival. Despite these impediments, the quality of their work and dedication to their craft could not be questioned–they clearly love what they’re doing.
Storyboards from their upcoming film “Celine.”
Finally, a glimpse at one of the funnier shorts that we saw in their reel. The cartoon below is a precursor to Vampires in Havana, and it’s hilarious!