Student Meat Market

May 7, 2008 on 9:25 pm | In Events

So last weekend when the rest of the comics world was getting reprints of DC and Marvel books they already paid for for free, I headed down to the School of Visual Arts’ Fresh Meat mini comics fair to buy some rad minis from students on the super cheap. This was the second year I’ve been able to go to the show, and while this year there seemed to be a few less students showing off their wares, there were still a number of mighty fine comics on display.

Most interesting thing to note: I’d say about 90% if not more of the kids there draw in a manga-inspired style. I know, I know…shocker, right? But it was very interesting to see what the next generation of OEL kids did when faced with predetermined subject matter from the faculty rather than just spinning off into their own fantasy lands. Let’s take a look, shall we?

[Oh, and I should note that no one should consider these reviews. More so they’re just impressions, and even those should be taken with a grain of salt. If I had the guts to not only print up but actually sell my creative work as an undergrad to total strangers, there’s no way it would have been half as successful as what these guys put together.]

CHARLIE CHAPLIN: A NOT-QUITE-SILENT MINI COMIC by Hanni Brosh

I’m putting Ms. Brosh’s comic first as she was the most helpful and informative student with comics out and seemed to be doing the thankless task of selling comics for three or four of her friends who weren’t around either. Brosh explained to me that as a Junior, her thesis had to be a biography-style mini fitting the theme “Kings & Queens” which didn’t have to be taken literaly. Any famous person at the top of their field was fair game for the students, and Brosh’s Chaplin comic centered in on the creation of the silent film star’s anti-Hilter pic “The Great Dictator.” There’s a lot to like about the mini including the fact that Brosh framed the story with a few scenes of older Chaplin reflecting on the film and the histeria surrounding it. Also, her cartooning reminded me a lot of Jay Hosler’s work, which considering the subject matter works quite well.

BOUDICA by David Fernandez

Fernandez (who wasn’t there but was recommended to me by Brosh) was one of the few students whose style fit more of a traditional mainstream mold (there was one other guy there with Wolverine sketches out, but I don’t think he had a mini for sale). Still, in the 16 pages of story on the life and final stand of a British tribal queen against the Roman Empire, Fernandez displays a variety of storytelling skills from visually varied talking scenes to big epic battlescapes to bloody action sequences. His stuff kind of reminds me of Sean Chen, and despite the fact that a lot of this story felt rushed through to pack in all the info, I’d like to see what the artist would do given some time to develope a longer story. Fernandez has a Deviant Art page you can check out for more.

LOVE LUCY by Greg Fenton

A really impressive effort. Fenton tells the story of Lucille Ball’s career from her early stage days through the end of her first TV show and divorce from husband Desi Arnaz. However, rather than deliver a straight narrative comic rehashing all the salient points of their history, Fenton formatted the mini as though Lucy’s life had been a gag-aday newspaper strip providing a series of dailies and Sunday pages which work both to inform the reader of the subject at hand and to tell a funny joke every three panels. Plus, his cartooning is super cute and hella expressive. I highly recommend checking out his website.

BRUCE LEE by Oscar Mei

Not sure why, but this was my favorite cover of the bunch. The telling Lee’s acting career from his early Hollywood days to the sudden success of “The Big Boss” is pretty straightforward and told in a breezy manga style. I honestly could have used a little more ass-kicking for a Bruce Lee comic, but Mei had another mini on sale featuring a female version of Iron Man he cooked up himself, and from flipping through that I could tell he had it in him.

HENRY VIII’S SECOND WIFE ANNE BOLEYN by Jung Yeon Roh

You can tell just by looking at her comic that Roh is one of the students at SVA who makes all the others jealous. Her production and packaging was at a level that some professionals don’t reach including the nice card stock cover and color interiors. Roh also had a really cool mini that was an hardcover accordian-style comic about the dental work of her ex-boyfriends that I would have bought if it were for sale. And the interiors of her Boleyn comic had some really nice collage work. Bonus points for working the phrase “Lobster-eyed whore” onto her cover.

BEWARE OF FOXES by Kate Rhodes

A sophomore rather than a junior at SVA, Rhodes wasn’t working in the “Kings & Queens” department. Instead, we get a one-woman anthology of manga styled stories about foxes. Foxes who turn into people. People who turn into foxes. People dressed like foxes. Foxes eating people. She likes foxes is what I’m trying to convey to you. And all in all, I liked them when she drew them. None of the stories in the book are long enough to do much more than build a small scene or convey a simple idea, but each one had a totally unique style to it in terms of line work and storytelling, and that was mighty impressive.

DEFFECTIVE CUPCAKES by Natalie Andros

A master saleswoman, Andros gave out some pretty non-deffective cupcakes with her mini. Smart, no? As far as the book’s contents, what we get is an unfinished manga tale (a kind of creation myth which I’m guessing serves as the launching point for some as of yet unwritten epic), a fairy tale involving a giant mutant cupcake and a parody of Fox’s “House” that made me laugh out loud at least twice in three pages. Given the opportunity, I’m guessing that most of the students at the show would like to be working on the long-form epic stuff like Andros gets to. But she was the only senior I met at the show and so most likely the only one preping a pitch for Tokyopop or whoever. Best of luck to her.