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Kendal,
20th March 2015: The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is
delighted to announce the first of several exhibitions to coincide with
this year’s comics gathering in Kendal, which will feature record album
artworks by numerous comic artists.
Phono+Graphic: 60 Vinyl Record Covers by 60 Comic Book Artists, to be exhibited at Kendal Museum in October, has been curated by the locally-based, internationally-renowned comics artist Sean Phillips, who is also one of the Festival patrons.
The
exhibition includes record covers by the likes of acclaimed Batman
artist Neal Adams, Judge Dredd artist Brian Bolland, cartoonist Robert
Crumb, Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett and some of this year’s
Festival guests – Charlie Adlard, Hunt Emerson, Dave McKean and Phil Winslade.
While researching the exhibition, Sean was surprised to discover just how many well-known comic artists had drawn album covers.
“I'd
planned to have two covers by each artist if they'd done that many, but
I soon had to change that plan. There's far too many to fit in one
exhibition.
“I
had to be quite ruthless in my curation, although it was more suprising
to discover covers that I had no idea had been drawn by comic artists.
Albums like David Bowie's 'Diamond Dogs', with a painted cover by Guy
Peellaert.
Equally hard was whittling down the art to just 60 pieces, says Sean.
“Some
classic sleeves and albums just had to be included, but apart from
that, I just went with what I liked,” he reveals. “I had to either like
the work of the cover artist or the music, and sometimes both happened!
There's a lot of old classics, but also plenty of recent covers by
contemporary artists.
“On
a purely artistic level, I really like Christian Ward's cover for 'The
Pictish Trail' and Dan Clowes cover for 'Las Vegas Grind Volume Four'.
Nostagically, Richard Corben's painting for the cover of Meatloaf's 'Bat
Out Of Hell' can't be beaten for music lovers of a certain age.
“All
the records also had to be on 12" vinyl,” he expands, “and apart from
one which is too good to miss out, I've managed that. The art looks at
its best at that size – and nobody wants to be squinting at a CD sized
picture on the wall!”
The oldest picture in the exhibition is a French, spoken-word album of a Tintin book.
“The
original picture was drawn by Herge in the 1930s but I think the record
is from the 1950s,” Sean notes. “He's one the greatest European
cartoonists ever, and everybody knows who Tintin is, so I'd be daft not
to include it. The next oldest is 'Cheap Thrills' by Big Brother and the
Holding Company. Robert Crumb drew that cover in 1968, and the
exhibition also includes another of his covers from 2008.
“The most recent is the self-titled debut album by Cosmic Rays. Fellow festival guests and band members Charlie Adlard and Phil Winslade both contributed art to the gatefold sleeve.
“Charlie will be taking a break from drawing zombies for The Walking Dead for the band to play at the festival so I had to include them!”
After all his hard work putting the exhibition together, what does he think makes a good record cover?
“A good cover is one that makes you want to buy the record and listen to the music!”
And which artist or group would the artist on critically-acclaimed comics such as Fatale and his current work, The Fade Out, personally like to do an album cover for?
“As I'm not remotely cool, I'd love to paint a cover for an Elvis Presley album!” he enthuses.
“Our
exhibitions program is intended to appeal to a broad range of tastes
and interests and to demonstrate that there is more to comic artists and
art than meets the eye,” enthuses Festival Director Julie Tait.
“Sean
has created a fantastic exhibition which reflects the diversity and
brilliance of comic art, which we’re confident will draw all kinds of
visitor to the Museum.”
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Phono+Graphic: 60 Vinyl Record Covers by 60 Comic Book Artists –
Curated by Sean Phillips | 5th – 20th October 2015 Kendal Museum,
Kendal, Cumbria
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A
huge line up of both British and globe-spanning international comics
talent is being lined up for this year's Lakes International Comic Art
Festival, taking place 16th – 18th October 2015.
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