A few weeks ago, I finished the pen work for my first zine. I’ve been very busy recently, but hope that sometime soon I’ll be able to get this zine scanned, printed, and watercolored. Then, once The Flea plush toy is ready, I’m planning on opening my online store!
Here are a few closeups of some pen work for the zine:
As I mentioned before, my first zine is an illustrated Pre-Raphaelite poem. The poem will remain a secret until closer to the zine’s release. But I’ll give one free copy to the first person who can correctly guess which poem it is.
I’ve realized that I made this contest a little bit too hard. Thusly, I added a few more hints (#4 and #5). Also, be sure to check the comments of my post First Zine Progress and Contest!! for even more hints. I will be shocked if no one produces the correct answer this time!
For a chance to win, either leave a comment below or (if you’d like to keep your guess secret from other contestants) shoot me an e-mail at gegallas@hotmail.com — subject “First Zine Contest.”
Best of luck!!
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For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.
Here are a few closeups of some pencil work for the zine:
As I mentioned before, my first zine is an illustrated Pre-Raphaelite poem. The poem will remain a secret until closer to the zine’s release. But I’ll give one free copy to the first person who can correctly guess which poem it is.
For a chance to win, either leave a comment below or (if you’d like to keep your guess secret from other contestants) shoot me an e-mail at gegallas@hotmail.com — subject “First Zine Contest.”
Best of luck!!
***
For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.
Raine Szramski is the awesome (and, not to mention, super nice) artist/illustrator of Pre-Raphernalia as well as another amazing series called Heaven & the Dead City, which can be either read online here or purchased here.
Pre-Raphernalia centers around the Victorian avant-garde artists known as The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including the likes of John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. These artists were quite eccentric, even by today’s standards, and lived oftentimes rowdy and scandalous lives.
What’s so wonderful about Pre-Raphernalia is that Raine takes the true historical events/relationships/facts and depicts them to the full extent of their eccentricity. When reading, I often find myself laughing out loud! Furthermore, she takes the time to write a full historically-accurate explanation of each comic, thoroughly detailing the backgrounds of each individual involved.
I highly recommend Pre-Raphernalia for anyone who wants to learn a little bit of history while having a fun time doing so.
Below are a number of my favorite images/pages from Pre-Raphernalia.
The following images belong to Raine Szramski.
For more Pre-Raphernalia and Raine Szramski, please check out the following websites…
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the following images or video!!
One of my favorite operas is Jacques Offenbach‘s The Tales of Hoffmann(Les contes d’Hoffmann). This opera is a fantastical retelling of the life of the German Romantic author E. T. A. Hoffmann, casting Hoffmann as the protagonist of his own stories.
Placido Domingo performing the “Chanson de Kleinzach” aria.
Désirée Rancatore performing ”Les oiseaux dans la charmille.”
Through The Tales of Hoffmann, I developed an interest in Hoffmann and his stories, quickly leading me to Sigmund Freud’s The Uncanny. In Freud’s essay, he uses many of the same Hoffmann stories as Offenbach, but in this case to prove a psychological point (not that Offenbach’s opera isn’t deeply psychological). If I remember correctly, Freud even mentions Offenbach’s opera.
Portrait of E. T. A. Hoffmann
I’m sure you are all wondering, “What does all this have to do with The Nutcracker?” Well, little do most people know, E. T. A. Hoffmann wrote in 1816 one of the earliest versions of The Nutcracker story, entitled The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (Nussknacker und Mausekönig).
Alexandre Dumas was also a fan of Hoffmann, employing allusions to Hoffmann’s stories in The Count of Monte Cristo. Dumas even went as far as creating a revision to Hoffmann’s Nutcracker in 1844 called History of The Nutcracker (Histoire d’un casse-noisette), or The Tale of the Nutcracker.
Towards the end of the 19th Century, Hoffmann’s Nutcracker was adapted to ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, perhaps the most famous incarnation of the tale. I write this post because my dad purchased tickets to the San Francisco Ballet to see The Nutcracker at the end of the month. Perhaps later I’ll add my thoughts on the production to this post.
Tchaikovsky’s music is always wonderful, if not a little too overplayed for the holidays. A lot of people tend to associate The March from The Nutcracker or The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy not with Tchaikovsky, but with the thousands of Christmas commercials that use these pieces. This also happens with The Chinese Tea Dance from The Nutcracker with Disney’s Fantasia and The Sleeping Beauty Waltz with Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.
I believe the most creative and exciting production of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker is Mark Morris’s The Hard Nut. The Hard Nut is set in 1950s America with a very retro feel inspired by the comic artist Charles Burns — a strange but brilliant compliment to the classical music. I hope to one day be able to attend a live performance.
Advertisement for The Hard Nut.
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For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.
Here is a brief update on my current creative projects and endeavors…!
The Poet and the Flea, graphic novel: 16 pages of written script (1 page of script = 4-6 illustrated pages), and about 18 pages of illustrated work in progress. I am almost half way towards my goal of 40 pages. When I reach 40 pages, I will begin to post the graphic novel online. My first post will include 5 pages and I will update at least once a week following that. Also, working on constructing a tumblr page and a kickstarter.com profile.
New Screenplay!!: I began working on a new screenplay intended for a short film. The screenplay is entitled Death Is No Bad Friend and is about Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) in San Francisco.
To Do:
Register current screenplays through Writers Guild of America.
Apply to The Austin Film Festival Screenplay & Teleplay Awards before May 15th.
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For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.
Portrait of E. T. A. Hoffmann
First Zine Progress and Contest: Round Two!!
Related Posts: First Zine and Future Shop and First Zine Progress and Contest!!
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A few weeks ago, I finished the pen work for my first zine. I’ve been very busy recently, but hope that sometime soon I’ll be able to get this zine scanned, printed, and watercolored. Then, once The Flea plush toy is ready, I’m planning on opening my online store!
Here are a few closeups of some pen work for the zine:
As I mentioned before, my first zine is an illustrated Pre-Raphaelite poem. The poem will remain a secret until closer to the zine’s release. But I’ll give one free copy to the first person who can correctly guess which poem it is.
I’ve realized that I made this contest a little bit too hard. Thusly, I added a few more hints (#4 and #5). Also, be sure to check the comments of my post First Zine Progress and Contest!! for even more hints. I will be shocked if no one produces the correct answer this time!
Hint #1: The Seven Deadly Sins.
Hint #2: The poem is not “Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti.
Hint #3: More specifically than Hint #1 — The Seven Princes of Hell.
Hint #4: More specifically than Hint #3 — Mammon.
Hint #5: The poem was written by ONE of the three original Pre-Raphaelites — either William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, or Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
For a chance to win, either leave a comment below or (if you’d like to keep your guess secret from other contestants) shoot me an e-mail at gegallas@hotmail.com — subject “First Zine Contest.”
Best of luck!!
***
For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.
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Copyright 2013 by G. E. Gallas
20 comments | tags: 19th Century, Abstract, Abstraction, Alternative, Alternative Press, Appearance, Art, Artwork, Author, Bizarre, Black and White, Blog, Book, Booklet, Cats, Christina Rossetti, Classical, Collaborate, Collaboration, Comic book, Comics, Comment, Concept, Contest, Creative, Creativity, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Demons, Depiction, Design, Devils, Doodle, Doodles, Drawing, Drawings, E-mail, Edward Burne-Jones, Endeavor, English, Etsy, Fiction, First, Frederic George Stephens, Free, Freelance, Fun, Goblin Market, Graphic, Graphic Design, Graphic Novel, Handmade, Historical, History, Idea, Illustrate, Illustration, Illustrator, Image, Imagination, Ink, John Everett Millais, Killed, Literary, Literature, London, Luck, Lyrics, Mixed Media, Mythology, Notebook, Notion, Paint, Painters, Pamphlet, Paper, Paper Art, Pen, Pen and Ink, Pencil, Period, Photo, Photograph, Photography, Picture, Picture Book, Pictures, Poem, Poet, Poetry, Poets, Project, Ring, Romantic, Rome, Secret, Self-published, Shop, Sketch, Sketchbook, Sketches, Small Press, Snake, Store, Storenvy, Strange, Surprise, Surreal, Symbol, Symbols, The First Reich, The Poet and the Flea, The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, The Pre-Raphaelites, The Seven Deadly Sins, The Seven Princes of Hell, Thmoas Woolner, Time, Verses, Victorian, Victorian Period, Vision, Visual, Watercolor, Watercolour, Wilhelm Reich, William Blake, William Holman Hunt, William Michael Roessetti, William Morris, Win, Wing, Wings, Words, Writer, Zine, Zines | posted in Announcement, Contest, Illustration/Design, Shop, Zines