Shaving and Pop!

[avram]

I was thinking about shaving this morning. Well, afternoon. Because, of course, I shaved my face. Not my head; I’m letting that go for a bit. Another few days and I’ll be at the point where rubbing my head feels like stroking a cat.

Anyway, I generally shave my face every two or three days. There was a time, when I was young, when I shaved every damn day. That got to hurt like hell after a while, left me raw and bleeding. No wonder I eventually just stopped and grew a full beard, just trimming it every so often. Looking back on it, though, I can’t believe I left it like that for so long. I look at old photos of me and think my face looks like a giant bumblebee’s butt. Here, that’s me on the left:

I think I’m getting vain in my old age, caring more about how I look, something I made a point of seeming not to care about when I was young.

Which is one of the major themes of Vertigo Pop! London, a new comic in the Vertigo Pop! imprint (which I hadn’t realized was an imprint till now, since all I’d seen before was the Tokyo title). It’s about an aging rock star who has a way of swapping bodies, and finds a young, untalented wannabe musician to use it on. Good writing by Peter Milligan, good artwork by Philip Bond. I thought Bond’s work seemed stiff in The Invisibles, but he’s doing much better here. He’s really got a handle on his character’s faces, drawing the protagonist at age 30 and 60, making the difference in ages very clear while keeping it noticeably the same character even though the facial (and head) hair has changed. This is an artist who can draw faces as faces, not as abstracted masks. Anyway, just two issues out so far, both available at Cosmic Comics (and probably at Jim Hanley’s too), a good time to jump on.

Now I may check out Vertigo Pop! Tokyo. The art looked interesting, but somehow I’d never picked up enough of the story or characters while skimming it to get a feel for whether I’d like it.

Comments

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I think your self portraits are very unflattering to yourself. But then I think you looked lovely the first time I saw you, which was late winter of 2000. Even that picture, unflattering as it is, looks quite cuddly to me. But then I like men with beards and glasses. What can I say -- I imprinted on fandom.

There was an exhibition of drawings at the Musee de Beaux Arts recently, and they had a self portrait drawing Rembrandt had done when he was young and good looking. I'd have recognised him from the old self portraits I was familiar with, but really looking at yourself and drawing yourself as you age must be so strange. Especially if you're Rembrandt, I suppose. It made me want to know more about his life.

Unflattery

[avram]

Partly it's just that I'm aware that lots of cartoonists draw idealized self-portraits (as I used to in high school), and I'm just cynical enough to be sick of that.

There's also the matter that I don't really feel all that good about myself, especially physically, and haven't for some time.

Though I actually think the egghead and peach-head illos are kinda cute.

Re: Unflattery

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Well they're certainly recognisably you, which is quite impressive considering that one's a peach and the other is a boiled egg. It's weird how subjective that sort of thing is. I mean drawing isn't writing, it's just putting down what's there, only it isn't at all, it's just as nuanced, it's selecting a way to look at things.