Thursday, July 02, 2009

Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?



I discovered the artwork/writing of Brian Fies* by accident years ago.
His latest graphic novel Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow.
It's delightful. It's about a boy and his dad. And science. And public optimism/cynicism towards the latter over the decades. Back in 1939 it was going to bring us wondrous things...!
The pictures are cute (and well staged!), the facts are interesting, and the attention to detail is astonishing. (There's even pulp comic book sections, each carefully crafted to look and read like comics from specific decades.)

Each time I look at it I find something new. Bravo, Brian!

*He's indirectly responsible for me illustrating this blog with cartoons. (My earliest posts are mostly photographs and/or snarky comments about stuff. Then, by chance, I caught some images from his blog where he'd drawn cartoons. I thought, I can sort of draw. Maybe I should try that...). So if you like Tail o' the Rat as it is today, thank Brian.

4 comments:

Linda Davick said...

Thank you, Brian.

Namo, does his work remind you at all of the Tintin cartoons? For example:

http://bibliojunkie.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/destination-moon.jpg

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Hi Linda,
I can see how you made the comparison. I believe the cool-futuresque stuff on the cover alludes to the cool futuresque stuff comics and art from that era- the "future" as seen from the 1950s.
Hergé (the Tintin artist) drew human characters a bit differently. The people in Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow are more flexible and 'toony. Check them out.

Linda Davick said...

Oh, yes--the faces/ human characters are very different... just at first glance I thought of Tintin.

Brian Fies said...

Thanks, Namowal; and you're welcome, Linda. You give me too much credit for influencing your own work, but thank you for your nice comments about mine.