Photo by Christa Connelly

Hibbleton Gallery in Downtown Fullerton hosted an opening reception March 12, for its latest art exhibit, “About Face.” The unique element of this particular exhibit was that one of the featured artists was Steve Westbrook, associate professor of English at Cal Sate Fullerton. The other artist, Joseph Chesmore, is a local who has displayed his art in Long Beach and in Los Angeles’ art walks.

Both contemporary artists focus on faces, highlighting different emotions.

As the Hibbleton invite stated, “Steve Westbrook is interested in the darkest of humor … Therefore, he paints portraits of sad men wearing funny hats, attempting to convey both the vulnerability and absurdity that accompany moments of breakdown.”

Joseph Chesmore’s art is described by Hibbleton as striving to “capture the image of someone lost in thought and oblivious to the outside world around them.” Both artists show a glimpse into a part of the soul that is often a private or personal moment in people’s lives.

Showing up in a “funny hat” and mingling among friends and colleagues, Westbrook explained his choice of focusing on faces as, “I just painted two faces, and it started from there.” His goal with his humorous, downdtrodden, oxymoron portraits was to “elevate a moment of vulnerability and fallible men … and the issue of partriarchy of saints and … how men cloak their sandness. … That’s why the silly hats, costuming of hats.”

Among the attendees of the opening reception was Rachel Trillo, 22, an English graduate student.

“I really like (Westbrook’s) self-portrait. He takes something as simple as frowns and stupid hats and makes them worthwhile to look at. There’s a silly element to it,” Trillo said.

Landon Lewis, 27, one of the owners of Hibbleton Gallery, explained that Westbrook came by the gallery one day with a bag of hats.

“I chose the daisy hat because it’s whimsical. I thought it was funny and the most feminine hat,” which goes in line with the theme of the Westbrook’s work: emasculation.

With such titles as, “Jester La Tour and the Toil of Too Much Juggling,” “Officer Constantine and Constancy of Longing” and “Sir Daniel Edward and the Gross Negligence of Reason,” Westbrook said he wants “the titles to be over the top, absurd. I want to celebrate the failure.” His Catholic iconography inspired portraits, done with acrylic on wood, allow viewers to “start to create a narrative. I like that I don’t have control of these narratives,” Westbrook said.

Chuck Oldfield, 27, another Hibbleton owner, said he was at an “ugly sweater party with (Westbrook), and we nailed down then (a time to pose for the portrait). We tried on a few different hats and decided on that (a Mad Hatter-type hat).”

“He doesn’t smooth over (his subjects’) faces. … He shows a part of these men that you normally wouldn’t see, a vulnerability,” Oldfield said, describing Westbrook’s vision.

As an English professor, Westbrook said he does art “as a way to get rid of and be a break from academic writing and poetry.”

When creating, “I always have my iPod on. I listen to a lot of free jazz, electronic style,” Westbrook said. The Bad Plus; Nels Cline, guitarist for Wilco; Ahmad Szabo, “atmospheric guitar music,” as Westbrook described it, are among some of the musicians on his “artist’s playlist.”

“Free jazz gives you a structure and gives you a moment of departure; I like that.” Westbrook said.

While Westbrook chose to focus on showing men’s vulnerability through emasculation, Joseph Chesmore described his work, done with oil on panel, as, “people loss in thought, obvlivious to the outside world around them for a minute.” Capturing this fleeting moment in time of individuals blocking out all white noise and losing themselves in their own thoughts is another take on human vulnerability.

Chesmore’s subjects include friends, most of whom he “met online on Facebook. I see their picture and ask their permission (to use it). However, one is of an old pen pal of mine from when I was 9-years-old.” Utilizing the latest technology around him is what earns Chesmore the title of “contemporary artist” by viewers.

Aside from taking inspiration from photographs of individuals he “friends” on Facebook, Chesmore also turns to artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas. Musical inspiration includes grunge. “I grew up in the ’90s,” Chesmore said.

When asked why his paintings are on the smaller side, the contemporary artist responded, “I work small. I have a small space to work in, and people tend to buy smaller paintings.”

When it comes to titles of his works, Chesmore took on a minimalist approach, simply titling each “Untitled” and accompanied by the number in his series. “I changed the titles so many times that I finally just did ‘Unititled,’ ” Chesmore said.

“There’s a sort of eeriness about them, like a muted type of presence, like these portraits tell their entire story,” Trillo said of Chesmore’s works.

This featured art exhibit runs until March 28.

The Art Walk is scheduled to take off the first Friday of every month. People from surrounding cities of Fullerton came out to enjoy a night of wine and local artist’s work.

Some of the stores that were part the Art Walk included, BTNC, Buffalo Exchange, Grave’s Gallery and Hibbleton Gallery, just to name a few.

Jesse La Tour, owner of the Hibbleton was one of the coordinator’s of the event.

“I had no idea what to expect, we made a Facebook page and website just to spread the word,” said Jesse La Tour.

Hibbleton has been around since May of 2008.

“The art gallery randomly and quickly happened,” La Tour said.

It took six people to come together and buy the property to open the art gallery that is known as Hibbleton.

“I don’t judge success on money, but the support from the community aesthetically made us successful,” La Tour added.

Graves Gallery, at 114 E. Amerige Ave, Fullerton, was one of the hot spots of the whole Art Walk. There was a huge array of different styles of art that included, action portraits done by Claudia Kilby. Claudia has been painting and drawing for over 20 years. She also teaches art classes at many local colleges in Southern California. Her “Belles of the Ball” collection included astounding images of oil paintings, digital paintings and drawings of the female figure in action.

“I enjoyed it a lot and I believe only with time it will continue to get better. Not only is beneficial to the city, it also helps the local artists gain brand new followers of their work,” said Andre Duval of La Mirada.

Andre heard about the Art Walk through some of his friends that he has that work at Buffalo Exchange on Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton.

The Fullerton Museum Center housed photos of local photographer, Nirant Vora. Vora captured images of Down Town Fullerton that were familiar to locals but something completely foreign but beautiful to someone who is new to Fullerton. The photographs were all taken at night and overexposed with a grayscale. Some of the photos looked as if they were drawn over with pen or sketched.

“The music really added to every aspect of the show,” said Chris Garcia of Whittier, Calif.

Chris is very familiar with Fullerton and always knew that there a was an exquisite art scene but to see it first hand was astonishing to him.

“I have been to the Art Show in Los Angeles, but Fullerton’s was more interesting and a little more tight than Los Angeles,” said Garcia.

Chris heard about the show from seeing fliers and word of mouth.

“I’ll definitely go again. I am going to tell people about it for next time,” said Garcia.

The Art Walk is going to be in Downtown Fullerton the first Friday of every Month. If you enjoy the sound of live music, the taste of fresh wine and champagne and enjoy supporting local artists then come check out the event.

Their website is www.FullertonArtWalk.com.

The annual festival was held at Hillcrest Congregational Church, with festivities happening inside and outside of the church.

For some, it has become a tradition to return each year to see the new artwork on display. Laura Lee, 51, and her mother, Martha, both West Covina residents, have attended the past three festivals.

“We originally came with a friend who was from around here, but we enjoyed it so much we keep driving back out here,” Lee said.

With parking in high demand, the festival offered a free shuttle service that picked attendees up down the street from the festival and dropped them off at the main entrance.

A booth for children to make their own creations was available on Saturday and Sunday.

It was busy outside the church, with people checking out booths selling handmade jewelry, colorful clothing, paintings and photographs; something for everyone to enjoy.

One booth had beautiful wind-chimes that filled the festival with soft sounds.

One of the artists used a lathe, which is a machine used in woodworking that holds a material and rotates it, to demonstrate his wood working skills. By spinning the wood on the lathe and pressing different tools against the wood, he shaved the block into a beautiful chair leg.

The inside of the church was crowded with people looking at the original creations of different artists. There were sculptures, oil paintings, ceramics and watercolors on display in different rooms.

Tim Cantrell, a 23-year-old football coach from Pasadena, was there checking out the 2010 festival’s featured artist, Ernest Lacy.

“I am so impressed with his works, it’s the way the colors hit you. My favorite is ‘Boy with Maroon Jacket,’ ” said Cantrell who was attending the festival for the first time.

Lacy was the featured artist for the 2010 festival. He was born in Los Angeles and studied at Chovinard Art Institute, Kann Art Institute, Otis Art Institute, UCLA and Universita’ per Stranieri in Italy.

Lacy is known for his watercolors and oil paintings and can be found in exhibitions throughout the United States, Mexico and Europe. He has some of his work on display at the Library of Congress, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Long Beach Museum of Art and the city of Los Angeles .

Celebrating the arts for 50 years, the Hillcrest Congregational Church still believes in the idea of a free festival to honor the arts. Originally this festival attracted only the local community, but now art lovers from all over California travel to attend one of the premier art shows in the west.

The well-lit stairwell that opened up into the red carpeted entryway of Aqualounge masked the hopes and horrors that lied within.

“Dreams and Nightmares” was the theme of the night; artistic expression the purpose.

“I’ve often sat up and discussed my dreams with friends,” said Erika Chan, an artist and founder/producer of Sound.Art.Media. “Dreams and nightmares often inspire artists.”

The event, put on by Sound.Art.Media., showcased over 30 artists, four bands and two authors, representing a wide range of artistic media.

Sound.Art.Media. is an organization that works to “bridge the gap between young budding artist and working professionals” through collaborative art exhibitions, according to their Web site.

Chan is an accomplished artist with a degree in illustration and entertainment arts from Cal State Fullerton. Knowing many talented artists in the Orange County and Los Angeles area, Chan started to circulate the idea of a big exhibition showcasing her and her friend’s talents.

This eventually came to form the “Dreams and Nightmares” event Feb. 25 in Beverly Hills.

“I expected it to be much smaller,” said Denise Flores, a student at Cerritos College and art enthusiast, “it’s great that everyone came to see these artists.”

Walking through the aisles of paintings, sculptors and sketches was not an easy task. A person had to weave through the crowd of artists and guests in order to reach their desired location, whether it was the stage, the bar or the bathroom.

However, every route that a person could have taken was surrounded by beautiful and interesting forms of art, making the trek that much longer.

One wall of art that caught the eyes of many observers contained little more than hand-sketched portraits of childrens’ faces.

Eloquently drawn with extreme attention to detail, the black and white pictures showed a series of children as happy and hopeful, but seemed to have more meaning than a normal family portrait would.

Lisa Ruiz, a portraitist/muralist and CSUF illustration graduate, explained to observers that the children in these portraits are historically famous people. The portraits were of Gandhi, Hilter, Mother Theresa and Pol Pot.

“My piece for this show depicts a few famous figures in their youth,” Ruiz said. “You see each as they were before bettering or devastating society with their lives.”

Ruiz explored the potential of children in her work and brought a somewhat enlightened point of view to the crowd on human nature and nurturing.

Ruiz, who got involved in Sound.Art.Media. through Chan, was also the art director for this event. The night was littered with CSUF graduates; artists, musicians and even a majority of the event planners can trace their roots back to CSUF, Chan said.

The atmosphere was very communal in the cramped Aqualounge as most of the participants and guests of the show were invited there by friends or friends of friends, Chan said.

This could have been observed throughout the event, but was especially obvious when people began to sit Indian style on the carpet in front of the stage as the industrial music project, Chamber of Echoes, was reading their performance.

Created by lead keyboardist and vocalist Klaryssa Korol, a former CSUF student, Chamber of Echoes mixes a multitude of musical instruments, industrial sounds, and even animations in their performances.

They truly represented the soul of this event as they mixed different artistic media to create a performance that was as colorful as Korol’s peacock-looking eyelashes.

“It is amazing that they are showcasing all these artistic expressions,” Korol said. “It’s what we are all about. “

With upbeat melodies and darker lyrics, Korol describes her musical project as a “twisted fairytale;” a tale that the crowd got wrapped up into as the lights dimmed and the instruments played.

Korol was excited by the event because it allowed her to play in front of a diverse group of people and expose them to the creative project that she and her band mates had started.

And, while this may have been the events major purpose, it was not its only one as the artists and event planners sought to educate those that attended the event, Chan said.

One artist stood out as an example of the educational aspect of art: Joy Lynch, a free form illustrator and CSUF animation graduate, poured her life lessons and experiences in her art.

After losing her job, Lynch went through a period of self-reflection and began to study meditation – a practice with a purpose of balancing out one’s life.

The artistic outcome was color and insightful pieces of art involving the human anatomy and its relation to the soul.

Lynch confessed that she has had some hardships making a life out of her artistic talents, but said that the little words of advice and encouragement that she got from a professor at CSUF have helped her to overcome them.

“I feel confindent about the event,” Chan said, “it ran smoother than anticipated.”

Courtesy of Disney

In 1940, animation legend Walt Disney presented a melding of art, sound and magic in the form of Fantasia. Nearly 70 years later, the enchanting novelty lives on through Fantasia 2000, a reconstruction of the original film, including new sequences as well as restored classics.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Fantasia phenomenon, it’s an epic collaboration of orchestra and artwork by various artists, presented sans-dialogue, organized into several song/illustration sequences. The goal of the production remains, as it has always been, to present “an abstract film with a non-linear story,” according to animation producer Don Hahn. Hahn was part of the panel of producers, directors and animators speaking at a screening of the film honoring its tenth anniversary at Hollywood’s El Capitan Theatre Feb. 17.

Listening to the panel discuss the challenges of restoring a classic while living up to its well-established name, it was immediately clear that there is an unimaginable amount of effort that goes into the recreation of a high-caliber film such as Fantasia. Production of the film was nine years in the making. The opening sequence alone averaged eight to ten hours of production per frame. If you ask me, that’s a whole lot of dancing animals.

So why bother? Aside from the fact that it was Walt Disney’s original intention to release a new version every year, producer Donald Ernst elaborated, “We just felt we could make a bigger impact with more new films, more new areas, and more new music.” Of course, with new ideas come new obstacles. For a sequence of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” Ernst wanted to base the animation off of Albert “Al” Hirschfeld’s jazz-clad artwork. When he received less-than-enthusiastic feedback from the artist, Ernst had to wine, dine, and practically beg Hirschfeld into finally granting permission.

Fantasia 2000 breathes a feeling of life and evolution into each new piece. In Disney’s first attempt at CG, the “Pines of Rome” sequence (by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi) shows off an innovative technological leap in the form of flying whales (who would’ve guessed that flying whales would take us into the future?)

Another sequence entitled “The Carnival of the Animals, Finale,” based on French composer Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns’ work, features a hysterical group of flamingos that stumble upon a yo-yo. The real hysteria lies in its amazing display of fully handmade watercolor paintings for every single frame in the sequence.

Probably the most inspiring work of the entire film is the final sequence based off of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite.” Illustrated by French artists (and twin brothers) Paul and Gaetan Brizzi, the sequence presents a symbolic narrative of life, death, and nature’s restoration after a devastating trauma. Sadly, the demise of the earth seems almost more relevant today than it was ten years ago when the sequence was made. While intending to send a message about the importance of harmony between man and nature, the Brizzi brothers had to make sure it was visually appealing enough to catch the eyes of the audience.

According to Paul, the biggest challenge was “to make sure the image and music would marry perfectly.” And marry it did. Ten years later, the sequence is still more breathtaking than most animated pieces. When asked if he would change anything about his “Firebird” if given the opportunity to modernize it today, the answer was a strong “No.” Paul explained, “with the CG animation everything seems to blend … everybody seems to forget that there is a soul … (it) tends to put everything in the same box.”

In celebration of the ten-year anniversary of Fantasia 2000, the restoration will be available on Blu-ray in May of this year.

Photo by Charles Purnell

Last Thursday, artists and patrons gathered at Cherch Lounge in downtown Fullerton to celebrate a night packed full of vision and creativity. The exhibition was hosted by RAW: Natural Born Artist, a group that holds monthly art showcases in downtown Fullerton as a way for the creative community to come together and express themselves through various forms of entertainment. Lindsey Biundo, event producer for RAW and a Cal State Fullerton alumna, brought the event to life by gathering a diverse group of RAW artists to show off their many talents for the community.

“This RAW event was a great way to get all different types of artists together so that they can express themselves creatively,” said Biundo. “These types of showcases are a great alternative to the downtown bar scene, where there is something for everyone.” Biundo’s event brought together painters, directors, comedians, musicians and hair and fashion designers to entertain the crowd, which only got larger throughout the night.

Cherch Lounge, the restaurant and bar that the RAW event was held at, was decked out for the artist exhibition. Plush red couches lined the walls, with space cleared for a mini-gallery for the artists’ work and a stage in the center of the room. This unassuming restaurant, though not designed to hold large works of art, turned out to provide an intimate atmosphere for event-goers.

“At first, we thought the space might be too small (to showcase the art), but everything came together in the end,” said Harith Quaye, the husband of artist Kaleeka Bond, a Southern Californian native who now lives in Stanton. Bond’s works were a highlight of the night, with her black and white portraits making a stunning contrast with the other colorful artwork in the gallery. Bond, who has been interested in art since high school, went on to study art in college, eventually making her way into a teaching career as well as selling some of her paintings.

“I usually work on a larger scale, so it was interesting finding the pieces to showcase tonight that would fit in this space,” said Bond. “You have to choose pieces that are portable and will work in a smaller setting and we managed to do just that.” One of the most intriguing pieces in Bond’s collection was a portrait she drew of her mother, who came out to the event to support her daughter’s work.

“It’s nice to have her (Bond’s mother) here because then people can see that art isn’t always just on the page,” Bond said. “People can see the actual inspiration for the piece in real life.” Other RAW artists had family and friends attend the event, which ran for more than two hours.

A short animated video, directed by RAW artist Luke Randall, got the night started in a playful way. His film, Reach, was projected onto the screen above the stage for everyone to see. Then came Justin Rivera, a magician/comedian who got the crowd laughing with his humor and sleight of hand. One of the biggest performances of the night came from musician Octavius Womack, a young man originally from Tennessee who wowed the crowd with his singing. Womack entertained event-goers with his huge voice and crowd-friendly tracks, covering songs from artists like Sublime and Marvin Gaye as well as several original pieces.

Each artist had a short portion of the night to show off his or her skills, with the still art on display in a separate enclosed area so that people could view the pieces at their own leisure. A rousing hair and fashion show capped off the night with a bang and the event proceeded smoothly for both the artists and the public. As event producer Lindsay Biundo looked on, her dream of providing a space for RAW artists to interact and share their creativity with the community of Fullerton came to life.

Photo by Christina Moreno

Local photographer Laura Lejuwaan’s photographs of children exude the radiance of life and her pictures of vintage downtown Fullerton flaunt the city’s creativity and aesthetics.

Her exhibit “Fullerton: In Focus,” is currently on display in downtown Fullerton’s Graves Gallery and will run through Feb. 25.

Lejuwaan is a world-renowned photographer due to a portrait she took of Johnny Michael Spann just one month before he was killed. Spann was the first American killed in combat during the United States invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. The portrait appeared in Time Magazine, People, US News and World Report, Decision, the Oprah Winfrey Show and on the cover of Parade Magazine.

The portrait of Mike Spann is not on display in Graves, but sixteen portraits of architecture, nature, neighborhoods and community members in Fullerton are. The photographs are for sale and range from $75 to $450.

The theme of the the exhibition is Fullerton, a city Lejuwaan is passionate about.

“It just comes alive in people when they see all these pictures put together,” Lejuwaan said. “They say ‘wow’ and ‘I really like Fullerton.’ And ‘I remember when…’ And all the memories.”

Lejuwaan admits she wasn’t out to spark wow moments in viewers when she commenced to documenting Fullerton back in 2003. She said she felt led to do it and then she just let the project evolve. What resulted, she said, are gifts from God.

A 30-inch by 40-inch portrait titled “Families of Brookdale Place” is one such gift. Lejuwaan invited and inspired the families that live on Fullerton’s historical Brookdale Place to amass for a group portrait. The photograph that emerged qualified as fine art photography. Although Lejuwaan used a digital camera, the photograph looks like it was produced with a high-end 4-by-5 large format camera because the picture is so big, the subjects are sharp in focus, and the composition has high contrast. There is no gray in this photograph, only black areas and white areas, a quality held in high regard by photograph connoisseurs.

“When I look at it I see the people and they are people that I love,” said Julie Byers, who lives on Brookdale Place and is in the photo. “It’s a very sentimental thing in a society that changes way too fast.”

At the opening reception on Feb. 5, Lejuwann said her favorite print is “Angelo’s and Vinci’s” a 20-by-30-inch black and white photograph of Angelo’s and Vinci’s Ristorante on Harbor Boulevard. The print is tan because of photographic print toning. Lejuwaan said she risked her life taking this picture. She snapped the photo while standing in the middle of Harbor Boulevard. She had just a moment to take the picture before cars headed in her direction. A man riding a bike entered the frame when she took the picture. She thought the photo would be unusable but decided the biker’s position in the composition made the photo amazing.

Lejuwaan’s friend from Lakewood, Patti Sechler, said one of two of her favorite photos is “Angelo’s and Vinci’s.”

“I like that someone made this beautiful building and all the details that go into the arches and little sconces and everything,” she said. “And he just adds character – homeless guy just riding by – like what are the chances of that?”

Lejuwaan’s neighbor, Bob Ashlock, said his favorite photograph hangs on the other side of the gallery from “Angelo’s and Vinci’s.” Titled “Villa Del Sol.” It’s a picture of the side of the Villa Del Sol in downtown Fullerton that has “The California” painted on it. The print is a little grainy but the subject is in focus, there are no shadows and it’s an interesting picture.

Ashlock grew up hearing rumors that this was the Hotel California that the Eagles sang about because Jackson Browne, who wrote lyrics for the Eagles, grew up in Fullerton.

“It always make me think of that story. But what impressed me the most about this was – to me – it kind of captures the essence of the town,” he said. “And especially the roots of the town back in the old days when there wasn’t much here, just this huge hotel in the beginning.”

Lejuwaan’s first camera was a gift from her grandfather who died in 1987 who was also into photography.

Lejuwaan earned her Bachelor of Arts degree is communications, emphasis in advertising and minor in art, from CSUF in 1988.

During the day she works as a communications manager at an occupational health firm.

“I’d like to get back full time into photography,” Lejuawaan said. “That’s how I’d like to end my life. As a full-time photographer.”

The three exhibits include “The American Dream in Terra Cotta,” “BC Space: Mything in Action” and “Dividing Line,” each exuding a different theme around the GCAC, tying the exhibit together.

As visitors walk into the main entrance of the gallery, they are immediately overcome by the energy radiating from the positions of the art, as well as the people observing.

“The American Dream in Terra Cotta,” located in the GCAC Project Room, features artist Jonathan T. Ginnaty. Ginnaty – best known for transforming spaces into living rooms, offices and bedrooms – has changed the project room into a wood and terra cotta office space, complete with a kitchen.

Many of the terra cotta pieces are typical pieces of equipment that can be found in any office. Among them are coffee pots, a multi-function fax machine, printers, monitors, telephones and chairs.

One of the more complex pieces of art in the “office” is the life-size water cooler with an extra water jug placed strategically at its side.

As spectators make their way to the next room – located towards the back of the building – they are welcomed by a giant black and gray “BC Space: Mything in Action” logo.

In this room, which is sectioned off to make multiple rooms, there are many art pieces by various featured artists that deal with controversial ideas incorporated into their work in a variety of ways.

Some of the most eye-catching pieces include a collage of small individual photos of the sky, all laid out to make one giant photo with an array of colors.

Even though this piece of art is already larger than life, it was supposed to be even larger, according to one of the curators, Andrea Harris-McGee, who was explaining this to one of the observers.

Also in this room are two American flags hanging from the ceiling just above and to the left of the sky collage. The flags are constructed out of different materials and fabrics.

One of the flags was constructed from, what looked like, old army uniforms. The stars and stripes were made out of the camouflage colors green and tan, with little aircrafts accenting on the tattered edges of the flag.

Opposite of the camo flag is a flag made of metallic silver and gray fabrics with red accented stars.

One of the most popular art pieces was another collage, one that is a little more complex than the sky.

This collage was divided into four different sections and drew many viewers.

The first section features photos of “evil things,” all complied to look like hell.

The next level of the collage was a mixture of individual images of spiritual beings and humans.

The third level was of solely mankind and materialistic things, as well as celebrities and chiseled naked bodies.

And, of course, the last level was heaven, made of photos of angels and deities.

Lelda Suez, wife of retired CSUF ceramics professor Vincent Suez, originally went to the gallery to look at Ginnaty’s terra cotta work, but found herself captivated by the collage of heaven and hell, and gazed at the collage trying to piece together exactly what it was and, more importantly, what it meant.

“It’s really fascinating to look at — very interesting,” Suez said.

As she took a step closer to observe, she noticed a photo of Oprah.

“That was one of her in her thinner times,” chuckled Suez pointing to the individual photo.

Visitors then make their way to the final room of the exhibit — the sales gallery. This room holds unique artwork by artists Patrick Haemmerlein and Walt Hall. Many of the paintings focused around a child, maybe even a teen, dressed in a bird outfit. This is the smallest of all the exhibits, but seems to house the most pieces. The paintings in this gallery are smaller than the others. The colors in the paintings, making up for their lack of size, are vibrant and accented by the wood on which they are painted.

Back in the artists’ workrooms, away from the exhibit, graduate student artists could be found talking about their artwork with the public.

One CSUF graduate art student, Preston Daniels, showed off his sculpting work and answered questions from fans at his workstation. Daniels’ work resembled something found in Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. Daniels had before created a piece for Burton that is displayed in the New York Museum of Modern Art.

Around the art gallery, graduate students can be found walking around helping out with fixing artwork knocked over or disturbed by viewers.

Second-year exhibition design graduate student Heather Rose explained that not only do the artists work in the GCAC building, they also live above the building in housing provided by the university that comes with renting a workspace in the gallery.

“It’s not merely going to work. It’s going down and submerging yourself in art,” Rose said.

Kelly Castillo and Nick Rothweiler, owners of Rothick art haus in Anaheim, might just have a gallery to settle your nerves.

Jophen Stein’s art show, “Laundry Service,” began exhibiting last Friday at 7 p.m., along with works by guest artist Chris Umana and a live painting by the Nice Penguins, all accompanied by live music from blues singer/guitarist Brother Cecil.

Rothick opened in July 2009. Castillo and Rothweiler own the building space, they don’t rent or lease. Artists who display their work in the gallery don’t buy space for their shows, they must be invited.

Castillo, an alumna of Cal State Fullerton, said she won’t let the economy dictate how she runs her gallery.

This is not a quiet art gallery event. Opening night drew upwards of 60 visitors from near and far, undeterred by the rain. A lively performance by Brother Cecil boomed as art enthusiasts, friends and family members mingled with spirits and bottles of Corona and Dutch, courtesy of the gallery.

The featured exhibit “Laundry Service,” is a series of works by Jophen Stein that explore social and global issues from the 1970s and ’80s and relates them to current events. After making a good impression during a group exhibit at Rothick, Stein was invited back for his own show. The centerpiece of his exhibit, a physical rendition combining Queen Elizabeth II and Speed Queen laundry equipment, drew much of the initial attention.

Umana, whose art involves anthropomorphic characters, has a room reserved for his work. The centerpiece is a large bird figure holding an umbrella, surrounded by rain drops, each containing their own bird character in a French corset. Umana’s exhibited work, which involves themes of soul, superstition and the afterlife, was inspired by the passing of close friends and family.

Rothick showcases various forms of art, ranging from urban to fine, as well as crafts from jewelry artists and musicians. Also, a recurring event at Rothick is Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School, where models pose to be drawn and admired by attendees.

The Nice Penguins, whose members showed up one at a time, is a three-man group of live painters that create spontaneous works of art. Members Nick Wildermuth, Khris Maiquez and Hiroshi Yamashita remained in the room they were working in throughout the night, greeting and joking with whoever stepped in. Their painting began with a simple cartoon rendition of Yamashita’s face in the middle of the canvas, and soon developed into a graffiti-like collage of seemingly random ideas in endless amounts of colors.

“It’s all about drawing and painting as if you’re a little kid, and meaning it,” Maiquez said.

Maiquez says experiencing the process of a piece’s creation adds a dimension that can’t be fully appreciated when only looking at a final product.

Strangers became friends and friends became closer, as the night was never short of fuel for conversation or a humorous innuendo or two. Stein’s wife, Fikriye Gibson, proudly showcased her husband’s artwork as their well-behaved Boston terrier, Franklin, entertained guests all night.

Stein and Umana were pleasantly surprised to see such a positive turnout, but all the ingredients were undoubtedly there for a quality art show: friendly artists, passionate gallery owners and enthusiastic art lovers.

Photo courtesy of Displax.com

Remember the fantastic sequence in 2002’s “Minority Report,” when Tom Cruise waves, motions and conducts a huge computer window in order to download the files from his computer? Who would have thought that in as little as eight years the precursor for this technology could become reality?

One company is working on making the technology to create that same experience on a much larger scale. DISPLAX, a company working from Braga, the “Portuguese Silicon-Valley,” is creating a “transparent thinner-than-paper polymer film” that can be applied to almost any surface and create a touch screen. This can be applied to glass, plastic or wood, “almost everyone who sees it thinks of new applications, from converting LCDs into a multitouch screens, tables into multitouch tables, to creating interactive information screens in stores, shopping malls or public areas, to developing new exciting gaming environments,” said Miguel Fonseca, chief business officer of DISPLAX, in the company’s press kit.

According to the product’s Web site, the DISPLAX uses a grid of nanowires to detect any interaction with the device, such as a touch or the user blowing on the surface. The controller can be anywhere in size from seven inches to nine feet, measured diagonally. In comparison, a 50-inch version of the screen comes in at a feather-like 10 ounces. The screen can detect up to 16 interactions at the same time.

The company has been successful in tailoring to the needs of their clients so far by merging with the desires and attitudes of the company. DISPLAX has been working in the Inter IKEA Group Center in Porto, Portugal to create information displays with a large directory for the shopping area, as well as play with an interactive LCD monitor, set at 32”, about the height of children. The display allows artists to express their creativity by picking colors from the palette to draw and paint. This exclusive DISPLAX display was specially designed for the project. After the budding artist is finished, he can transfer the drawings form the Art Gallery to the DISPLAX Window Layer, at the front of the children’s space, said the website.

Another example of the DISPLAX system at work is in the Optimus display store in Casa Da Musica Oporto, Portugal. Optimus wanted to make a cutting-edge showroom floor, so it went to the experts at DISPLAX for the innovative design. “This store merges two areas for which Optimus has a particular affinity: innovation and music. Few companies other than Optimus would dare make such a bold move. Optimus has a long tradition of innovation,” said Angelo Paupério, chairman of Sonae.com, the largest private employer in Portugal.

The telecommunication company’s concept store features a variety of products and features for their handsets such as music, wallpapers, and other applications, utilizing the DISPLAX displays to make the Optimus brand the focal point of the store. The store’s capstone is the experience block, a large rectangular box featuring over 70 high-definition, LCD and plasma monitors, with touch elements throughout the display for customers to have a hands on experience with products. DISPLAX is also reaching for American clients, ranging from telecommunications leader, Nokia, to soft drink manufacturer, Pepsi, as well as computer designer, IBM, and retailer, Sax Fifth Avenue, showing the variety of applications in store for the future. As the desire for further innovations accelerate, it will be these businesses pushing forward, driving the market with it.

The future looks exciting when the world is merely a touch away.

So, after Watchmen’s jumped to the top of bestseller lists again after 25 years, you’ve decided to buy into this comic book thing. You’ve watched some of the cartoons; maybe seen a few of the movies. You’re pretty sure you’ve got it down. Batman’s parents were murdered when he was a boy. Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider. Wolverine has adamantium claws. Superman can be killed with Kryptonite. Some of it has become ingrained in our pop culture knowledge.

But how familiar are you with comics outside of the mainstream Marvel and DC worlds? There’s a vast universe of comics past the X-Men or Justice League. Here’s a short list of books serving as an introduction for any beginner to sink her teeth into.
 
Oni Press’ “Scott Pilgrim” series, written and drawn by Bryan Lee O’Malley, takes the reader into the lives of Canadian band, Sex Bob-omb, most specifically its bass player, Scott Pilgrim. Pilgrim, like many 20-somethings after college, has girl trouble. He’s up to his ears in ex-girlfriends and Pilgrim has to battle the evil exes of his lady love, Ramona, in order to date her. Pilgrim comes off like an overly-lucky idiot, but it’s his friends and the surprises he encounters that make you keep reading. Several have described the series as Dawson’s Creek meets a Final Fantasy game.

It’s one of those books where the less you know beforehand, the better it is.

With five books out so far, and the final issue due out some time this year, it’s a quick read and it would be good to know the story before seeing the upcoming film. Michael Cera will be playing our hero in the upcoming Edgar Wright-directed film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World due out in the summer.

Another series with the art and writing done by one man is Usagi Yojimbo, put out currently by Dark Horse. After Miyamoto Usagi’s master has been killed by the forces of the evil Lord Hikiji, he roams the Feudal Japanese countryside a ronin looking for work as a bodyguard. Sounds like an Akira Kurasawa film. Except for the fact that all of the characters are anthropomorphs, in that they pretty much have human bodies and animal heads (think Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny). But Usagi is not a typical furry comic, as some might label it. It takes on Japanese mythology, exposing the reader to the country’s culture and integrating Japanese words into the dialogue. The series can get pretty dark (see the story “Noodles”), but it’s also heart-warming. Usagi has also been known to make crossover appearances in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons, going back to the ’80s. Usagi Yojimbo is an 25-year-old ongoing story, with 23 books out so far and issues coming out monthly.  

Bill Willingham’s Fables, put out by the DC’s Vertigo label which is meant for older audiences, uses characters just about any child would recognize to tells its stories. The fairy tale characters of the world are in exile, chased out of their world by an evil overlord, forcing them to flee to America to build their own community, Fabletown. Under the leadership of Snow White, Prince Charming and Old King Cole, with the help of Sheriff Bigby (Big Bad) Wolf, the public domain heroes go to war to take back their homelands. Despite the friendly-sounding line-up of recognizable characters, Fables is definitely not a bedtime story for the kids.     

This list would be downright unacceptable without at least one recommendation for Alan Moore. His From Hell takes the word “novel” portion of graphic novel and runs with it. His creative dramatization of the unsolved Jack the Ripper case interweaves history with mysticism and the occult. When a royal scandal is uncovered among a group of London prostitutes, Queen Victoria does what she must to keep the truth hidden. One by one each of the women are murdered. From Hell isn’t a murder mystery, but rather an exploration of one theory regarding the motive behind the unsolved Ripper case.

The 2001 film adaptation starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham pretty much took the name and characters and went its own direction. Like most movies based on books, there was only so much that could be included and it lacks the depth and intricate detail Moore imparted.

The last pick for this list comes out of Dynamite, after being dropped from DC’s WildStorm label due to its anti-superhero story. As Simon Pegg wrote in the introduction for its first volume, “Sick, funny and disturbing, this rather marvelous collaboration answers an old question, ‘who watches the Watchmen?’ The Boys, of course …” Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s The Boys takes off the rose-colored glasses of the superhero world, looking into their reckless disregard for the people around them as they take on villains, snort cocaine and solicit hookers at the same time. Enter the Boys, a group whose job it is to keep the supers in line either by blackmail or force. This book really went above and beyond to earn its M rating, even outdoing past works by Ennis which were lauded/downcast for their massive use of sex and ultra-violence.

If you’re interested in digging deeper into the comic book world, check out your local comic shop or library. Long Beach Comic Con is also having a one-day Comic Expo on Feb. 20 in the Long Beach Convention Center. Admission is $10. Comic creators, writers and artists like Sakai will be on hand to sign, sketch and talk.

Photo by Shruti Patel/For the Daily Titan

By Charles Purnell
Daily Titan Staff Writer

Artwork from creative minds within the local skateboarding community are being displayed in an exhibit titled “Art Party 2” at downtown Fullerton’s Hibbleton Gallery through Feb. 7.

The gallery, located on Wilshire Avenue, contains paintings by Scott Lee, a skater and recent college graduate who majored in illustration; paintings on foam by Michael Myers, who skates and works as a graphic designer and Web site developer; paintings by Rob White who works as a Web site developer for Liberty Skateboard Shop in Brea; black and white photography by Austyn Gillette, who is a professional skater; and line drawings by Michael Hsiung who isn’t a skater – the gallery owners just like his work enough to bring in four of his drawings.

The gallery is open Thursday and Friday 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The photography by Gillette hangs on a wall five feet away from, and facing, the entrance, but a DJ rig to the left tends to attract the eyes of visitors first when they walk in. The rig acts as a leading line to a bookshelf of used books that cost $2. To the right of the bookshelf begins the oil on canvas paintings by Lee.

“Pansies for the Pickens” is a 35-by-22 fantastic painting of an attractive and nude brunette holding a flower that has five petals. In front of her lies a colossal alien insect that is dead, or extremely sick, from eating one of the flower’s petals. The alien insect has jumbo teeth that are cracked and it has no lips.

The jumbo teeth but no lips trait shows up again, this time on a 5-foot-6-inch-by-7-foot-6-inch watercolor painting of a green monkey with a pink face. The monkey is climbing a tree and clenching an attractive woman – similar to the famous scene in the movie King Kong. A baby monkey is holding on to the parent monkey’s lower back.

There are five other 5-foot-6-inch-by-7-foot-6-inch watercolor paintings by Lee on display. Three of them have been purchased. The buyers will take them when the exhibit ends.

Lee’s mother, Carol Lee, created a mosaic skateboard deck that is featured beneath Lee’s 5-foot-6-inch-by-7-foot-6-inch watercolor painting.

“Skull Stream and Moon Flowers” is a skateboard deck decorated with glass tiles, stones, geode slices, stained glass and ceramic tile. The deck has been bought for $150.

Past Lee’s paintings and his mom’s mosaic skateboard deck are Myers’ hand-painted silk-screens and gouaches on foam.

One of the gallery’s four owners, Landon Lewis, 27, described Myers’ paintings as lowbrow street art, which is art that usually has a humorous message and is combined with street art.

“It looks like you would see it graffiti-ed on a wall somewhere,” Lewis said. “And that’s kind of becoming a huge movement in the art scene, which is taking street art, like graffiti art, and kind off fine tuning it to make it high art.”

Myers’ paintings are priced from $300 to $600.

On the opposite side of the gallery are Rob White’s huge-canvas oil paintings. His four paintings range in price from $600 to $2,000 and are different sizes. One painting is a massive 8-foot-6-inch-by-5-feet.

The paintings have a 16th-century Western theme that White comprises with images of bison, Indian tepees, canoes and black men.

The show along the gallery’s walls ends how it began, with a painting by Lee. This one is valued at $2,250. The 24-by-36 painting is titled “I Think it Would be Frowned Upon.” It presents a blue monster wearing a brown mask that makes him a creature with big chiseled teeth and no lips, obviously a reoccurring attribute in Lee’s characters.

The monster has a sexy girl with black hair, and wearing only underwear, straddling his arm. The girl is cradling a baby monster and gazing into the baby’s eyes. A connection between the painting and its title suggests that the girl doesn’t think having a baby by the monster is a good idea.

On to the moveable wall that showcases Gillette’s black and white photographs that he took while on tour.

The pictures are valued at $140.

There are two eye-catchers. One is “Jordan Heidi Daniel,” a portrait of a saintly blond girl wearing a gown and sitting on a metal rail and behind a metal fence. The girl’s hair appears silver on the print.

The second is titled “Black Coffee Girl,” a portrait of a girl with black hair, sitting with her legs crisscrossed in an armchair decorated with newspaper. The girl is reading a book while barefoot and wearing only a white blouse.

Gillette’s other pictures are: “Jerusalem”, a picture of a cross with the landscape of Jerusalem blurred in the background; “China Living Condition”, a striking picture of a housing project in China where it looks like the people live in bird cages; and a picture of a ferries wheel in China.

On the other side of the wall are four comical drawings by Michael Hsiung.

“I love it. I like the quality too,” Fullerton resident Tristan Cruz, 24, said. “Especially the frame. It just, like, brings everything together.”

Hsiung has made a name for himself as a brilliant illustrator.

“It’s very clean,” Fullerton resident Karina Cunningham, 27, said. “Like a very clean style with real intricate details. It’s brilliant.”

Photo By Ron Fu/Daily Titan Staff Photographer

By Charles Purnell
For the Daily Titan

A new mosaic fine art exhibition, “The Big Breakup,” will run through Dec. 30 at Graves Gallery located at 114 E. Amerige Ave, in Fullerton.

The show is a celebration of the beauty of mosaic art by local artist/art instructor Katherine England and her students, The ArtBreakers.

About 25 of England’s didactic mosaic creations are on display along with 25 glass works from England’s top students, who have been meeting with England every Monday night for the past four years.

“They didn’t know each other before they started,” England said. “Some have no kids, some have six kids, some are super born again, and some are lesbians with their own children. Everybody’s lifestyle is completely different and they’ve become this amazingly creative group. That’s mostly whose artwork you see here.”

Sue Ferrante and Shelley Mills are in England’s Monday night class. The two of them sold their first mosaics last year at the “Green Scene” in the Arboretum. They both said they made “pretty good money.”

Ferrante won the Orange County Fair’s “Grand Champion” award last year for her “Buddha Head” mosaic skull that is on display in Graves Gallery.

“Please don’t say we’re like a special class for the elite or something, Ok?” Mills said. “Because Tuesday night’s (class) thinks we are.”

Most of England’s mosaics in the exhibit are for sale. She admits however, that she generally does not make mosaics with the intention of selling them.

“Rarely does it pay off to make a mosaic to sell,” she said.

Photo By Ron Fu/Daily Titan Staff Photographer

She usually makes them when people take her classes, and then she gives them away.

Her highest priced mosaic in the exhibit is “My Kingdom,” one of five mosaics she made as part of a Shakespeare series. It is priced at $2,800.

Mosaics such as her “Hand and Cheek,” another one in her Shakespeare series, costs $1,400.

On the lower end of her Shakespeare series mosaics are: “Heavy is the Head,” for $700 and “Oh That I Love You,” for $500.

On an ever lower end, there are smaller glass patchworks in her collection which look like gaudy make-up mirrors. They have a value of $180 on them.

In addition, there is an array of mosaic light switch plates that are $80.

A couple out of the dozen or so people at Saturday’s reception happily purchased a mosaic switch plate.

England also has on display mosaics that are not for sale because they belong to someone other than her.

“Hugo,” the first mosaic portrait she made as a teacher at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center is not for sale. It belongs to Hugo, who is a worker at Muckenthaler. A tightly cropped picture of Hugo’s face is pinned underneath the mosaic portrait on the museum’s wall. In the mosaic portrait, Hugo’s face is off-center, to the left and in a long rectangular frame. Fragments of dark stained glass make up an ocean scenery. White crystals form the sun and its reflection on the water. England used tan and brown pieces of glass to form rocks on the shore.

She said the challenge in this mosaic was taking the face and putting it in a different ambiance. The scenery is of Crystal Cove and comprised of three separate landscape photos she taped together. Making the white reflection of the sun in the water was also a challenge for her. The composition proves England is a master of the mosaic.

She explained that the mosaic styles that she applies are very new and modern forms of the discipline. According to her, she has learned the rules so now she can break them.

Until recently, she said, mosaic was very rigid with strict rules about materials and proportions. Now it’s much more fluid.

England said she was profoundly influenced by the largeness and brightness of the stylized pop artists of the ’60s: Peter Max, Andy Warhol, Richard Blake, and David Hockney.

England makes quite a bit from selling her mosaics, but she is actually a muralist. She has actualized about 17 murals in Fullerton, and one is the Fender Guitar wall in an alley around the corner from the Graves Gallery. It’s where Fender invented the Stratocaster, she said. The city asked her to do a mural, 20 feet by 6 feet tall, to celebrate Fender’s creation. The mural is an all glass giant guitar and a historical site.

England said she defines mosaic as a conversation between things that are broken. She tells her students that they can create mosaics the same why they deal with life: by taking chaotic materials and forming them into something that represents order.

“Making mosaics is sometimes mindless fun. It’s just relaxing,” Ferrante said. “It’s very addicting. You can give gifts, you can give your stuff away, you can sell your stuff. It’s fun. And it will be there a long time. It’s a mosaic in concrete.”

Illustration by Jerome Villagracia

An image of two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sits slightly off-center to the left of Yosia Ibrahim’s computer monitor. At 3 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, Ibrahim, an animation major, sits in Visual Arts Room 287 working on his final exam for Visual Arts 363B, Digital Illustration; he’s been on campus since noon and class ends at 6:45 p.m.

As he navigates over the image and through various menus within Adobe Photoshop, Ibrahim stops for a second to respond to my question.

What are you looking for on here?

“I need to know everything,” he said. “What’s in Photoshop, and what’s in (Illustrator). I have to know from the basic and up. I have to know where each key is placed … because if I don’t, I can’t execute my artwork.”

Few students at Cal State Fullerton would respond that way to such a question, and even fewer would consider an exam their own artwork, but illustration students at CSUF are of a different breed than most academics. Their class work is not just school work, it’s artwork they’ve produced.

Yet many of the students working on their exams around me are slightly out of their comfort zone. Most illustration students are either illustration majors or graphic design majors who work with pens and pencils, not computer mice.

Jennifer King, a drawing and painting major, decided to take the course to learn how to use Photoshop and Illustrator. “I’ve never touched either program (prior to the class),” she said.

Vannarong Run, a graphic design major, has been challenged throughout his semester’s work due to his unfamiliarity with the programs used in the course. “It challenged me to really explore the program (Photoshop) and get familiar with it,” he said.

“In the Digital Illustration class (VA 363B), we teach the same concepts and principles of illustration as in Traditional Illustration (VA 363A); however, we use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop instead of pencils, pens and paint,” said Christian Hill, associate professor of Illustration and Sequential Art.

Compared to pens and pencils, digital illustration grants artists “the ability to really get in there and explore and experiment,” said Chris Nielsen, a CSUF grad and illustration instructor. “Any mistakes are easily cleaned up, and you have so many more creative possibilities with the use of filters, layer styles and graphic effects.”

“The programs have gotten more sophisticated,” Nielsen said. “I’ve had to evolve my assignments to keep up with the technology.”

Now students arrive to class with their own equipment: high performance laptops (some better than the campus-provided computers) and Wacom drawing pads are some common pieces of technology Nielsen has seen students utilizing in class more over the years.

“So the way my students are coming in … they can pull off a lot more,” Nielsen said.

Illustration by Joe Devera

Despite the convergence in technologies students bring to class, the two programs taught in VA 363B, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, are fundamentally different programs.

Illustrator is a vector-based graphics program that uses “anchor points” to connect a series of dots that form individual shapes.

The program uses sophisticated mathematics to bring about the images it produces. “It is technically like drawing with math,” Nielsen said.

This gives Illustrator-generated images certain benefits over Photoshop-generated images; speed is one.

“You can do a lot more, a lot faster,” said Jeff Fisher, a graphic design major.

“I can draw things out really quick with the mouse, so that comes in handy,” said Laura Bok, a graphic design major.

“When used correctly, it significantly cuts down on the production time to finish complicated illustrations,” Nielsen said.

Students have also been able to bring in their hand-sketched work, scan it into the computer and begin editing the image within either program.

“We all start off with sketches,” Run said. “Then you can scan them in and use them in your design.”

Since the images are produced using mathematics through anchor points, image quality never changes when the image is re-sized.

Whether your image is cut down to the size of a business card or gracing the side of a building, “the final illustration can be re-sized to any scale without losing any image integrity at all,” Nielsen said.

For Photoshop, the images are based on pixels. “The general rule with Photoshop is, the bigger you blow up the image, the worse it gets,” Nielsen said.

After five major projects, 10 e-mailed pop-quiz image files, two copyright law tests, the midterm and final, the students of Nielsen’s Wednesday VA 363B section are relieved to have finished their semester’s worth of work but will take their class-produced work with them, along with the knowledge they’ve gained about utilizing digital illustration for their own artistic endeavors.

Musicians have been known to branch out into other art forms with various amounts of success. Anthrax guitarist and co-founder Scott Ian decided it was time to put down the guitar and get his hands on a computer keyboard to scribe DC Comics’ newest mini-series, Lobo: Highway to Hell. Ian recently sat down with fans at one of Los Angeles’ Meltdown Comics for an intimate Q&A and autograph session.

Lobo: Highway to Hell is a two-issue prestige format series chronicling DC Comics’ favorite alien bounty hunter as he goes fist-to-face with the Prince of Darkness himself, Satan, to seek vengeance for the innocent dolphins that Lucifer killed to send Lobo a message. The series is penciled by legendary comic book artist Sam Keith, creator of The Maxx, and clocks in at a whopping 64 pages per issue with a price tag of $6.99. Both issues are currently out at comic book stores everywhere. At this time, there are no plans to collect the two issues into one volume.

Fans seemed to be pretty excited for the new series. “I’m a huge Anthrax fan. I play guitar and look up to him. I really like comic books. He wrote a book and combined a lot of my interests, so I thought I’d check it out,” said Dean Karasinksi.

“It was kind of funny when I heard that Scott Ian was writing a comic. As a fan of Anthrax, I’ve been listening to his music for a long time, and he’s always had a kind of nerdy, geeky side to things. So when I heard that he was going to write a comic, I said, ‘Hey, that’s going to be fun,’ and the thing about Lobo, he’s pretty much the most metal character in all of DC (Comics). It’s a match made in Hell,” said Brett Parmenter, an avid comic book reader. “It’s really hilarious. And then Sam Keith, the artist, mixes it up right there. It’s a great book, and I’m glad he’s doing it.”

During the Q&A session, Ian touched on a number of topics. “Writing comics is something I could see myself doing longer than being in a band. I did learn one thing though: comic signings have way less people than band signings. But I don’t care, I wrote a comic, and I’m happy to be here,” Ian said.

Ian switched gears a bit to talk about music and the song writing process. “I feel like every song started about zombies. At one point, I thought this could be the soundtrack for World War Z or something. Our music sounds the way it sounds and inspires a certain way, and it usually inspires me to think of really violent stuff. I would say nine times out of 10, the songs come from fiction or fantasy thing(s).”

When looking for inspiration on writing, Ian said he looks up to “(Frank) Miller and (Alan) Moore. Being a kid in the ’70s, I grew up on Stan Lee writing comic books. For me, he’s probably one of the biggest influences on me as a person. More recently, I think (Robert) Kirkman is doing some of the best work. The Walking Dead is my favorite book.”

Not one to be considered a one-hit wonder, Ian is already planning his next project with DC Comics. “They already gave me the go ahead on my second project. I just can’t say who it is yet because they don’t want to announce it until after New Years. But it’s pretty much right up my alley. Although, it’s going to be way more difficult. There’s way more plot than the Lobo book. There’s going to be a lot more characters in it, at least 10 characters in the DC Universe.” When asked who he would like to collaborate with on a future comic book project, Ian said that he would love to work with painter Alex Ross. However, he is unsure if he’ll ever get the chance due to the artist’s incredibly busy schedule.