Customer Reviews

Out of Picture Volume 1: Art from the Outside Looking In

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Out of Picture was just released in December of last year, but it already has a long publishing history. An anthology put together by a group of artists from Blue Sky Studios, the animation studio behind Robots and Ice Age, this new edition from Villard is actually its second printing, from its second publisher. It was released originally in hardcover at MoCCA (the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art) in 2006 by French publisher Paquet, but I suspect the book has been around for even longer than that. The promotional material for the book describes the book's origins in a conversation between two of the artists in 2004, right after they put Robots to bed and were between projects, and the foreword was written by the director of the studio in September of 2005.

These details lead me to the suspicion that perhaps the book existed first as an in-house style guide, an artists' showcase that the studio would give to prospective clients to demonstrate what they're capable of. It really does feel more like an art book than an anthology; many of the selections in the book don't feel as much like short stories as they do set pieces. For example, Greg Couch's piece entitled "Four and Twenty Blackbirds" is essentially just a movie trailer for a film noir set in the world of nursery rhymes. It's a clever enough idea and the art is absolutely stunning with its black ink scribbles filling every corner with shadow, but it never really goes anywhere.

Also, of the 160 pages in this edition of the book, approximately 50 pages in the back show the works in progress, sketches and rough layouts that are all new to this second edition. There are only 11 selections, totaling up to about 80 pages of actual story, again giving the impression of a book designed to showcase the artists' abilities to draw rather than their talents as storytellers. It really makes the reader wonder what the point was of releasing the book. Established names like Chris Ware, Seth, or Adrian Tomine can get away with publishing a book of supplementary material, the artist's equivalent of an album of B-sides and rarities, because they have a built-in fanbase. An anthology like this one, however, comprised of complete unknowns, is simply going to languish on the shelves.

In the wake of the positive press Flight and Best American Comics received, more and more anthologies started to glut the shelves of local bookstores, many of them seemingly put together in the hopes of riding the coattails of those popular collections. I suspect then that Out of Picture was only released to bookstores in the first place in an attempt to cash in on that trend, because the most successful pieces in the book, Andrea Blasich's "Yes I Can" and Robert Mackenzie's "Around the Corner," seem highly imitative of the style that has proven a hit in Flight, that sense of childlike wonder. "Yes I Can" especially captures that feeling of whimsy, with its character design and artistic style that looks like it's right out of a Disney film.

But it ultimately will fail to replicate the success of Flight because in the end Out of Picture is such a mixed bag, even more so than other anthologies because of how slight most of the stories are. Peter de Sève's "The Mermaid" is basically an old sea shanty that has been illustrated in a colorful style reminiscent of vintage artwork of sailors. Three of the stories--Daisuke Tsutsumi's "Noche y Dia," Vincent Nguyen's "Domesticity," and Benoit le Pennec's "Floating Holidays"--are essentially elaborate dream sequences. They look marvelous (all three pieces seem to have a similarity to Jon J. Muth's painted art, but with a tinge of the fantastic as well), but like most dreams there's very little point to them when it comes to some kind of plot.

Several of the stories have a slightly political edge to them or verge on social commentary. Nash Dunnigan's "Night School" is a tale of a dystopian future, with inky shadows cast over very childlike figures to make them more sinister, while Michael Knapp's "Newsbreak" is more conventional, following one man who must cope with watching the world's horrors displayed to him each night on the news. Both are annoyingly too brief for the reader to really get drawn in or to come to any kind of conclusion from them. Others with the same political leanings are a bit more avant-garde in style, both artistically and narratively (David Gordon's art on "The Wedding Present" reminds me of Jim Woodring or Gary Panter at times), or simply suffer from confusing narrative shifts ("Silent Echoes" by Daniel López Nuñoz).

But even these pieces are beautiful to look at, again the one positive thing this book has going for it. Out of Picture could almost be considered a vanity project if the art wasn't so gorgeous, and it certainly appears as if the publishers are banking this project's chances in bookstores wholly on the ability of their artists to create visually arresting work. According to the back pages of Out of Picture Vol. 1, a second volume is already in the works, so they are clearly planning on this anthology being a success. Should this plan actually come to fruition, hopefully the editors of the next volume will go whole-hog with their aping of Flight and publish an anthology with a little more meat to it the next time around.

This is a great book for anyone to understand how much talent there is in the animation industry.
These guys are the concept artists behind the blockbuster flicks like Ice Age and upcoming Horton Hears A Who.
All 11 stories are very short but still rich in visuals and somewhat unpredictable in story.
And the price is quite pleasing considering it is a large format book with fine quality paper.
Can't wait for the second book!

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the rich variety offered between the two covers of this book. Some of the finest artists (11 of 'em!) currently working in animation and illustration exploring style and story without the bounds of their respective "day jobs"?
Sign me up!!

A very inspiring and gorgeous collection of illustration and stories packed into one book. Each story had its own unique delivery, illustration and story wise. I really enjoyed this compilation and can't wait for part two.

Buried in a little seen anthology of new graphic fiction is the most chilling contemporary horror story I've read in years, and it just happens to be in the form of a furry comic.

"Vladivostok, Russia, Weapons Transfer Station #17. Snuggles and Puppybear inspect two grapefruit-size spheres of plutonium that they've just purchased from the station's guards for a large trunk full of cash..."

Depicting cute, furry critters as al-Qaeda operatives, children's book author and Pixar concept artist David Gordon builds a mounting sense of terror over the ten, beautifully painted pages of his short story, "The Wedding Present." Using large panels and short, dispassionate sentences, Gordon constructs a documentary-like chronology, from the recent past to the very near future, of an apocalyptic terrorist attack on the United States.

Gordon is a politically literate cartoonist: his story's theme, spelled out through and above the narrative in one terrifying sentence, addresses both al-Qaeda's failure to give the World Trade Center attacks a real motive, and the West's failure to particularly care about one.

The story's moral balancing act is reflected in its visual style: painted in broad strokes, it offers up such lovely little details as a plutonium sun burning over the Saudi desert; an overflowing, Texas-shaped ashtray on a bombmaker's work table; and a deadpan note that the U.S.'s chief export, "after years of recession," is a new, highly addictive drug.

This small masterpiece -- the best cartoon work of apocalyptic fiction I've read since Al Columbia's "The Trumpets They Play" ( Blab!#10, 1998) -- is available in Out of Picture: Art from the Outside Looking In, vol. 1(Villard Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-345-49872-4, $19.95, no editor listed). This is an anthology of short comics by the eleven artist members of Blue Sky Studios, an animation design collective, and while none of the other work in this volume reaches the heights of "The Wedding Present," the book has an awful lot of well drawn pages to look at. I only hope that the folks casting ballots for this year's Harvey and Eisner awards don't let David Gordon's story slip by them.

(I wrote this piece a little over a year ago, and I'm posting it on Amazon unchanged. The other stories in this book run the gamut from decent to forgettable, but David Gordon's "The Wedding Present" is an amazing piece of cartoon storytelling -- a genuine classic. Three stars for the anthology, five stars for Gordon's story; I'll split the difference and give it four stars.)

It reminds me much of the Flight anthologies. Great fun. I really like the story by Pake Parker.

An artistically elaborate collection of relatively interesting stories that range from the political to the moral to the horrific. The artists from Blue Sky Studios, when they were almost done with Robots, decided on a group project. Out of Picture is the result. Out of Picture is a term used in film-making to describe a scene that is cut. These short stories are definitely that. I believe it and so do the artists. It says so on the book jacket. The author/illustrators seem to have little desire to get into any movie or book (other than this one) because of their subject matter and lack of marketability outside of a collection of stories made for this purpose. But therein lies the beauty. Don't be surprised if you're offended on one page and pleasantly surprised on the next. In either case, the art is breath-taking both in a shocking and beautiful way. The stories, some lacking words and using only pictures, are so individualistic that you can almost guess the artist's influences both as a person and an artist.

This book is filled with inspiring art and great stories by some of the best artists in the field.
A definite must buy!

The art is really really great! The stories range from really good to "huh?" Overall I'm very pleased with my impulsive purchase and am definitely excited about the next one.

The variety of artistic styles in this book is very inspiring. Strong illustrations full of texture and design make this book a must have. The book itself is of very good quality and is done with good taste. Highly recommended!