Comic Artists' Night at the Opera - Arabella

The Minnesota Opera generously invites artists and members of the press to dress rehearsals for each show that they premiere.  The Black Hat Collective and I arrive with pens, pencils and paintbrushes and make it out mission to interpret each show through cartoons and sketches.

In this 1932 opera by Ricard Strauss, a family is living far beyond their means in a fancy hotel (pictured).  Their credit has run out and they are in danger of getting kicked out, unless they can get their eldest daughter Arabella to marry somebody with money.

Unfortunately Arabella doesn't want to get married for money, she wants to fall in love.  Though she has a number of suitors, she does not have feelings for any of them.

However, Arabella's younger sister Zdenka (pictured) - who dresses as a boy and goes by the name "Zdenko" - has secretly fallen in love with Mateo (not pictured) - one of the men who pines after Arabella. Zdenka loves Mateo so much that she doesn't want him to be unhappy, so she tricks Mateo by writing him love letters and signing Arabella's name.  As a result, Mateo thinks Arabella is in love with him, when she is not.

New Year's Party 1200 Years in the Making Catches World by Surprise

  Chichen Itza, Yucután, Mexico - December 21, 2012. 
  Onlookers were shocked and terrified this morning when the Kukulcán pyramid at Chichen Itza began to rotate, spin, and open up like a gigantic puzzle box. For moments, the six tourists then visiting Chichen Itza feared that this event was a portent of the much-advertised 2012 apocalypse. Then the massive pyramid began to emit fireworks and confetti, as well as play catchy music using an intricate system of bells and whistles that had apparently been built inside.

Anna Bolena at the MN Opera

You know that I usually like to give you loads and loads of history and backstory whenever I go to an opera, but this time, all you need to know about Anne Boleyn, 2nd wife of Henry VIII, can be heard in this song:

"Young Anne Boleyn she was two, had a daughter, the best she could do.  I said she flirted with some other man, and off for the chop went dear Anne"

Sexy Henry!  Take me now!

 The 1830 opera Anna Bolena by Donizetti is ostensibly a portrayal of Anne Boleyn's life leading up to the day when Henry had her head chopped off, as he was wont to do.  Donizetti did four operas about Tudor England so I was excited for some history.

Then during the reception the speaker told us, "If you're a fan of Showtime's The Tudors, rest assured that we have a very sexy Henry for you!" And I sighed the collective sigh of a million historians crying out in terror, only to be suddenly silenced. [Link:  Sexy Henry's diet]

To read my write-up of the opera and see my lovely cartoons, keep read on under the cut.

Nabucco at the Minnesota Opera

It's that time of year again for visiting The Minnesota Opera with my cartoonist friends at the Black Hat Collective.

Armed with our pens, paper, pencils, and paintbrushes, we got to enjoy some fine performance while making ourselves useful by bringing you all cartoons from the theatre!

This month's show is NABUCCO by Giuseppe Verdi
(click here for tickets)

The opera tells the story of King Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar) from the bible, and the staging uses a stage-within-a-stage setup to draw parallels between the Assyrian oppression of the Jews and the Austrian oppression of Italy in Verdi's time.

To learn more about the plot, the set, the history, and my watercolor cartoons, click "read more"

The Tale of Turnip Head - In Color

You've heard of Christmas in July, but what about Halloween in May?

You might remember The Tale of Turnip Head from when I posted inks for it in November.  Part of, "one of my ongoing, long-term projects... a graphic novel about the history of Halloween," The Tale of Turnip Head is "a wordless fantasy illustrating the evolution of the Jack-o-Lantern" that begins with a Celtic warrior on the battlefield.

This Spring I bring you the colored version of the story, and the news that I'm selling booklets of Turnip Head.

Enjoy!

MN Opera: Madame Butterfly

For each new show it opens, the Minnesota Opera invites local bloggers to a full dress rehearsal.  The Black Hat Collective of cartoonists and I make it our mission to interpret each show in cartoons and drawings, then post them online.

Last Thursday's show was the immortal:

Madame Butterfly

Part of the reason I didn't do a blog for the MN Opera's last production, Lucia Di Lammermoore, is because I was often too interested in what was happening onstage to draw!  That's a good problem to have.  The same problem came up a lot on Madame Butterfly.  It has a very rich story, complex and expressive characters, and lots of background info to deal with.  I'll be walking you through Madame Butterfly in the most enlightening way I can  —with words, videos, jokes, drawings, and photos.

Minneapolis Cartoonist Conspiracy - April 2012 - Moebius Tribute

In March 2012, French bandes dessinées artist Jean Giraud, better known as Moebius, passed away.  Moebius' science-fiction work, often in collaboration with writer-filmmaker-guru-psychomagician-artist Alejandro Jodorowsky, influenced feature films such as the Fifth Element, and Moebius created pre-production storyboard art for films such as Tron, Alien and most heavily, Blade Runner.

This April, the Minneapolis chapter of the International Cartoonist Conspiracy convened to bring to you a Moebius tribute jam comic:

Moebius is Dead

Werther —or— A Dark Knight at the Opera

Last Thursday I went along with the Black Hat Collective to another preview at the Minnesota Opera.  Our mission:  To draw comics, enjoy the show, and have a fun time —then blog about it!

Tonight's show: 
Werther

Read on to learn about history, tragedy, romance and Batman in this fully-illustrated article featuring cartoons and comedy. 

Alchemy: Its history and theory

My friend Michael McConnell is designing a gallery exhibit about the periodic table of the elements.   I am a rabid Alchemy enthusiast, so Michael gave me a special assignment:  By Spring 2013 I shall create a 10 minute (or 10'x10'x10') presentation on the elements as understood by the Alchemists.  To prepare for the project I wrote this "thesis" to base my work around.  Here I shall take a "just the facts, Ma'am" approach to the history of Alchemy and focus mainly on what was pertinent to the periodic table.  Still, talking about Alchemy is not an exact science because Alchemy itself was not an exact science, but rather, a "philosophical art" for which each Alchemist had his own unique approach and theories about what he was doing.

The origin of Alchemy:

Hellenistic Egypt, ca 300 BC.  Greek colonists look at the religion of the Egyptians and see similarities between their god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth (The-Thrice-Great).  Both were gods of language, gods of magic and psychopomps (in charge of transmitting souls from one world to the next, like the grim reaper) In the minds of some, the two figures merge into one character called Hermes Trismegistus. 

"Silent Night" at the Opera

The Black Hat Collective was invited out to another show at the Minnesota Opera on Thursday.  Our mission is to view the opera, interpret it with cartoons, then blog about it.

This time the show was Silent Night — An adaptation into opera of the 2005 film Joyeux Noel, which is a beautiful story about the 1914 "Christmas Truce" of World War 1.

Read on to explore the history, music, art and drama behind Silent Night in this fully-illustrated article —with cartoons, videos and more!

The Tale of Turnip Head

     One of my ongoing, long-term projects is a graphic novel about the history of Halloween. So far I only have an outline for it written out, and a folder with a few page layouts.
     I figure the full-sized project will take a few years to finish, but I wanted to whip something up in time for Halloween this year. So I created a little four-pager sequence called "The Tale of Turnip Head."
     It's a wordless fantasy illustrating the evolution of the Jack-o-Lantern. It starts off with a Celtic Warrior in the midst of battle. Enjoy.

     and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 

I plan to take the "Turnip Head" inks and either color them or put some gradients in there to distinguish the figures a bit more. I also have another short Halloween story (an eight pager) blocked out, so you'll probably see it soon.

Always Bringing, Always Taking Away - Onboard the Mississippi Megalops

So I spent the last few months working with Kate Saturday and Olli Johnson (as well as the musicians Erik Ostrom and Brian Rowe) on an experimental puppet show called "Always Bringing, Always Taking Away"

"Always Bringing, Always Taking Away" is a 15-20 minute long puppet show about the river ecosystem. The puppets are abstractions of animals, people, and machines made entirely out of ribbon. The show was designed to be performed on a paddleboat called the Jonathan Padelford as part of the "Mississippi Megalops - a Floating Chatauqua" project created by the arts organization "Works Progress" for the "Northern Spark" art festival in Saint Paul, MN, which was organized by Northern Lights.

The boat trip was very fun.  I invited my family and my friend Spencer Riedel to come along for the ride.

Watch the video of our performance onboard the megalops here:



After the stress of prepping for the show on the boat we're taking a break. But I bet there's more to come from this show in the near future. Stay Tuned