Today, I thought I would share a small bloody morsel of Al Columbia. Al Columbia is one of those artists whose output is relegated to out-patient status but whose influence carries weight behind his scalpel sharp pen. A mix of David Lynch meets the Fleischers describes his dark hybrid world. I found his work in Blab and that cool defunct anthology Zero Zero in which I scoured every cadavre to find every known strip of his work. His comics are like intentially sticking your hand in acid and then finger painting. His Biological Show comic were and still are a huge influence on me. They are still around so you should keep an eye out for them and his graphic novel Doghead. Doghead is a Bill Sienkiewicz inspired piece that shows the influence of Al's mentor but with stories like "I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool" for Zero Zero #4 (via Comics Reporter) you can see his style come into it's own and show the slow unfolding darkness that makes Al one of the best. I don't bemoan his skant output or gnash my teeth for another Biological Show. Just go out and find what you can of his work and hope that he gets over whatever it is that makes that ticking in the head come back and put out another story for us to bury our blood soaked faces in to.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Al Columbia
Today, I thought I would share a small bloody morsel of Al Columbia. Al Columbia is one of those artists whose output is relegated to out-patient status but whose influence carries weight behind his scalpel sharp pen. A mix of David Lynch meets the Fleischers describes his dark hybrid world. I found his work in Blab and that cool defunct anthology Zero Zero in which I scoured every cadavre to find every known strip of his work. His comics are like intentially sticking your hand in acid and then finger painting. His Biological Show comic were and still are a huge influence on me. They are still around so you should keep an eye out for them and his graphic novel Doghead. Doghead is a Bill Sienkiewicz inspired piece that shows the influence of Al's mentor but with stories like "I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool" for Zero Zero #4 (via Comics Reporter) you can see his style come into it's own and show the slow unfolding darkness that makes Al one of the best. I don't bemoan his skant output or gnash my teeth for another Biological Show. Just go out and find what you can of his work and hope that he gets over whatever it is that makes that ticking in the head come back and put out another story for us to bury our blood soaked faces in to.
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The Biological Show is a profoundly disturbing work, and Al Columbia is one of the few graphic artists who has the capacity to create art that actually unsettles me just by looking at it. From the little I have read about him he does seem to have a tenuous grasp on reality (see the article at http://citycyclops.com/8.10.09.php) but perhaps that's what makes his work all the more startling. He may be some kind of true genius.
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