Dans la collection de comixfan
Commentaire
Here is page 3 of Chapter 21 in Paul Pope's opus, 100%. If you have not read it, you are missing one of the 10 most important comics in the past 30 or more years.
Paul's work is a bold smack in the kisser and an unapologetic kick in the nuts when experienced in person.
The pages are huge and the ink work is so confident, decadent and even a bit arrogant- perhaps a reflection on the artist's personality itself. Pope is a rock star in every way from his appearance to his persona although there is probably another side to those that know him well.
I LOVE his work and have for a long time. I have owned a dozen pages over the years and continue to own an amazing 6 page sequence from 100% that has to be viewed as a single work as the elements are so much more than the sum of their parts. You can see that sequence in this gallery if you wish to explore more.
I also think 100% is his best work to date and catches him at the peak of his artistry while still in that hungry phase of his artistic development. The story is a modern era romance that speaks to our times as well as sometime in the not too distant future. Even though the book was first published just over 20 years ago, it is as poignant, relevant and ground and heart breaking as it was when it was still shiny and new.
Pages from 100% have been very uncommon on the market. Being his most personal work, the artist has hung on to the pages unless things were sold as a complete chapter. The 6 page sequence I have came from a 12 page chapter that divided neatly in half between me and a French collector many years ago. That is the only reason I have the pages. The other pages you see out there are the scattered remains of the other half chapter. I believe FelixComicArt has sold a very small number of pages as they represent Paul in recent years. A current Chelsea NYC art gallery show of Paul's work (in conjunction with FelixComicArt) had some pretty cool pages for sale too but most of the 100% pages sold quickly and for good reason, they were fantastic (and I think underpriced).
These 2 pages I just got come from a UK collector and I've known about their existence for almost 2 decades now. He bought them early and I have always wanted to add them to my collection but they were not available. So I waited...and waited...and waited. A few months ago I got an email from the UK collector that he was ready to part with the pages. We came to a quick agreement and today the pages arrived. It took time to ship as they are so big, a box had to be created to ship the art. It arrived safely and although I know Paul's art well, it still stuns me looking at these banshees that are screaming at me.
From a content point of view, these are the pages to own from the book. The night club with its neon go-go dancer, lights, girls and pumping music is a character on its own. Daisy is dancing for the last time. The contrast of the performance and the inner conflict are part of the angst that is palpable throughout the book and reaches a high frequency as we near the end of the story.
In addition to each page standing on its own as a work of art, there is a bigger picture design to the narrative that needs to be seen from a few steps back. Pope conjures a cadence and rhythm that binds the narrative together through his panel layouts, page sequences and storytelling. For me, it is as much about the storytelling with Paul's work as it is about the opulence and brashness of his pages.
The two pages have a similar layout with larger tiers at the top and bottom and smaller 4 panel sequence in the middle. This is part of that page layout appreciation I was pining about earlier. There is a pattern to this like a heart beat or music or a background score in a movie. The big and the small, the fast and the slow...it does more than look cool, it adds a subconscious layer to what the reader experiences and only in its dissection do you see what he did there. It is like the visual lexicon of Chris Ware and his panels or that of Crepax and the language of his panels and layouts. It is no mistake and the fact that it is almost unnoticeable speaks to the mastery of Pope.
The two pages taken as a single work show the fall from the heavens into the pit of hell and descent into madness only to land and escape from the chaos at the last minute. This plays very well into the overall story arch as well. Fucking Paul Pope, he nails everything in his work and in particular these pages and 100%.
Big thanks to Nick for taking such good care of the pages and for passing them on to me.
Paul's work is a bold smack in the kisser and an unapologetic kick in the nuts when experienced in person.
The pages are huge and the ink work is so confident, decadent and even a bit arrogant- perhaps a reflection on the artist's personality itself. Pope is a rock star in every way from his appearance to his persona although there is probably another side to those that know him well.
I LOVE his work and have for a long time. I have owned a dozen pages over the years and continue to own an amazing 6 page sequence from 100% that has to be viewed as a single work as the elements are so much more than the sum of their parts. You can see that sequence in this gallery if you wish to explore more.
I also think 100% is his best work to date and catches him at the peak of his artistry while still in that hungry phase of his artistic development. The story is a modern era romance that speaks to our times as well as sometime in the not too distant future. Even though the book was first published just over 20 years ago, it is as poignant, relevant and ground and heart breaking as it was when it was still shiny and new.
Pages from 100% have been very uncommon on the market. Being his most personal work, the artist has hung on to the pages unless things were sold as a complete chapter. The 6 page sequence I have came from a 12 page chapter that divided neatly in half between me and a French collector many years ago. That is the only reason I have the pages. The other pages you see out there are the scattered remains of the other half chapter. I believe FelixComicArt has sold a very small number of pages as they represent Paul in recent years. A current Chelsea NYC art gallery show of Paul's work (in conjunction with FelixComicArt) had some pretty cool pages for sale too but most of the 100% pages sold quickly and for good reason, they were fantastic (and I think underpriced).
These 2 pages I just got come from a UK collector and I've known about their existence for almost 2 decades now. He bought them early and I have always wanted to add them to my collection but they were not available. So I waited...and waited...and waited. A few months ago I got an email from the UK collector that he was ready to part with the pages. We came to a quick agreement and today the pages arrived. It took time to ship as they are so big, a box had to be created to ship the art. It arrived safely and although I know Paul's art well, it still stuns me looking at these banshees that are screaming at me.
From a content point of view, these are the pages to own from the book. The night club with its neon go-go dancer, lights, girls and pumping music is a character on its own. Daisy is dancing for the last time. The contrast of the performance and the inner conflict are part of the angst that is palpable throughout the book and reaches a high frequency as we near the end of the story.
In addition to each page standing on its own as a work of art, there is a bigger picture design to the narrative that needs to be seen from a few steps back. Pope conjures a cadence and rhythm that binds the narrative together through his panel layouts, page sequences and storytelling. For me, it is as much about the storytelling with Paul's work as it is about the opulence and brashness of his pages.
The two pages have a similar layout with larger tiers at the top and bottom and smaller 4 panel sequence in the middle. This is part of that page layout appreciation I was pining about earlier. There is a pattern to this like a heart beat or music or a background score in a movie. The big and the small, the fast and the slow...it does more than look cool, it adds a subconscious layer to what the reader experiences and only in its dissection do you see what he did there. It is like the visual lexicon of Chris Ware and his panels or that of Crepax and the language of his panels and layouts. It is no mistake and the fact that it is almost unnoticeable speaks to the mastery of Pope.
The two pages taken as a single work show the fall from the heavens into the pit of hell and descent into madness only to land and escape from the chaos at the last minute. This plays very well into the overall story arch as well. Fucking Paul Pope, he nails everything in his work and in particular these pages and 100%.
Big thanks to Nick for taking such good care of the pages and for passing them on to me.
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A propos de Paul Pope
Paul Pope à Philadelphie est un auteur de bande dessinée d'origine américaine. Ses influences assumées, dans son livre P-City Parade, sont Daniel Torres, Bruno Premiani, Jack Kirby, Alex Toth, Tony Salmons, Hugo Pratt, Silvio Cadelo, Vittorio Giardino et Hergé.
