For those of you who do not live in Ohio, there is a store that exists in Columbus, Cleveland, and a few other cities called Half Price Books. It’s a second-hand book store, so all the books have been previously owned (duh). They also sell used DVDs and VHS’s, and some stores also sell posters.
What makes these store AWESOME is their size and sheer breadth of subjects carried. Everything from Art History to Biography to Science Fiction to Popular Fiction to Teen Fiction is carried there, and their comics section is actually the best that I have seen in any used book store.
Case in point, these lovely titles that I found while I went shopping there:
I was especially ticked at having found BOTH volumes of Persepolis, a Seth (HOLY FREAKING BAZINGA you can’t find that even in a retail book store!), and Confessions of a BlabberMouth and Clubbing (I heard those books were out of print!).
I feel like my comics collection is now just that little more complete. It’s certainly getting there, at any rate.
If you have any of these books, you are awesome, because these comics are awesome. Understanding Comics has definitely helped me begin to see the possibilities within comics as an art form, broadening its artistic and literary scope and bringing all kinds of new thoughts and understanding to how comics works. I know practically everyone else has read this, but this is my first time reading this book. Please be patient.
Also, as a bonus for waiting for this post, here are two links that hopefully you will enjoy: one is gorgeous art, and the other is practical advice.
Sean Phillip’s Art Blog is always wonderful. His life paintings are beautiful to look at.
Plus there’s the Savvy Musician’s blog post, Why Most Artists’s Websites Fail. I really like this man’s work, because he has one of the few blogs out there that artists can use that contains actual helpful information, and makes it interesting to read. As an extra bonus, if you can get his book, The Savvy Musician, you should, especially if you are a musician. It’s pretty much like a bible of artistic entrepreneurship.
That’s all for this week. Next week, I’ll be sharing some of my sketches, works-in-progress, and finished art (and prove that I actually am what I say I am: a comic artist), plus a little surprise.
As always, Don’t Forget to Be Awesome!