the publishing eye

FIB Chronicle, the comic book

the eye — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:26:18 +0000

[OFFICIAL WEBSITE AT FIB.THEPUBLISHINGEYE.COM]

Once upon a time, a subterranean organization called FIB, Fabulous Investigation Bureau, was created to investigate very suspicious characters and other experts for public unrest. That was when normality transformed into insanity…

NeMo Balkanski’s FIB Chronicle explores the eternal flaws of human beings through uncompromising satirical and impertinent tales based on his own experiences. A doomed world filled with voracious greed, consumerism, ultra violence (both mental and physical), ecology, Institutions, dehumanization, lack of personality… These snapshots of reality are themselves part of a broader reflection about freedom of choice and free will in an environment where social pressure has never been so strong. In the end, it’s all about people, delusional people that act irrationally because they lost their bearings.

An astonishing variety of versed drawing styles combined with a revolutionary way of storytelling, NeMo Balkanski’s FIB Chronicle boldly creates a new chapter in the history of comic art. With its tempting visuals, this comic easily engages its readers and absorbs them into a net of diverse and irrational sensations but also unique and powerful impressions…

It uncompromisingly forges a completely new dimension by disregarding the structure of comic book series, through short and striking forms, using disposable super-anti-heroes made out of ordinary beings. This comic impression, or rather the impression built from the comic as a tool, exposes the view into a distant and barely traversed fragment of the human soul, in a way which would be very difficult to achieve by other, more socially accepted, older artistic media.

«[...] Strident, cruel, sardonically whimsical, overwhelmingly clever and bleakly hilarious in a Kafka meets Steven Wright channelling Bill Hicks kind of way, this absurdist, hauntingly affecting and astonishingly illustrated book is a uniquely entertaining read the brave and bold and reasonably old won’t dare to miss…»

«[...] it is hard not to be impressed by the breathtaking artwork which is mostly done in ink and water colour. Balkanski’s stylistic creativity is showcased throughout the book and his compositions complement his stories fantastically. [...]»

«[...] Not only is Belgrade-born/Vancouver-based artist NeMo Balkanski’s ass-crack dark satire not for children, but if you’re sickened by the idea of a nippled-ballsack wearing an army helmet, then this book probably isn’t for you either. [...]»

[OFFICIAL WEBSITE AT FIB.THEPUBLISHINGEYE.COM]

FIB Chronicle (This is not for children)
NeMo Balkanski
ISBN 978-0-9868440-0-3

SPECS: Hardcover • 9×12′ • Full Color • 56 pages • FSC Certified Paper

Published by The Publishing Eye Editions Inc.
Printed and bound in CANADA by FRIESENS.

[FIB Chronicle is also available on the iPad: Learn About It Here.]

FIB Chronicle, the iPad app

the eye — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:25:24 +0000

[SEE IT ON ITUNES.APPLE.COM]

FIB Chronicle is now a comic book app for the iPad! Experience a Digitally Enhanced Content including: Xclusive Xtras, Hi-Res Zoom-able Images, a Help Section and an In-app Internet Access (FIB website + Social Media) to interact with us!

«Visually delightful, structurally complex, narratively satisfying. Intellectual art at its visceral best. This stuff kicks you in the gonads, and then slaps your brain around. It’s raw, and difficult to apprehend straight-on. Best to FEEL this piece. And let the thinking happen in the cracks. I loved it. Bravo.»

«[...] As I swiped from page to page, I felt anger and unrest. Some pages almost seem like diary entries of an abused child, while others seem like the doodles of a psychopath. While the content is brash and unnerving, there is a sort of beauty hidden in the pages of the FIB Chronicle. It is not unlike an artwork by Marcel Duchamp, or a film by David Lynch. [...]»

[SEE IT ON ITUNES.APPLE.COM]

FIB Chronicle (This is not for children)
NeMo Balkanski

SPECS: Standalone iPad App • Full Color • 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi) • Swipe and Zoom • Chapters • Xtras • In-App Internet Access

Published by The Publishing Eye Editions Inc.

[Don't know yet what FIB Chronicle is all about? Learn About It Here.]

Straitjackets, the web comic

the eye — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:22:22 +0000

[OFFICIAL WEBSITE AT THEPUBLISHINGEYE.COM/STRAITJACKETS]

Straitjackets is our uncensored and decadent web comic weekly. A visual deviance where your mental health will be compromised. It blurs the line between fiction and reality, manipulating and distorting real news only to create unexpected emotions! So be ready, each week, for a new dose of craziness… Let’s the strait jackets fly high!

Art by NeMo, The Deliverer (Episode 12, Entering Gastown).

[OFFICIAL WEBSITE AT THEPUBLISHINGEYE.COM/STRAITJACKETS]

You think you have what it takes to join the new comic revolution? Then contact us!

straitjackets

the eye — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 01:01:08 +0000

The new weekly web comic has now a name: STRAITJACKETS!

Some time tomorrow, the new website will be revealed along with the third episode. You’d better be ready, insanity is coming! (Click on the StraitJackets image on the right!)

the comic weekly #2

the eye — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:34:47 +0000

WARNING! Week #2 of our infamous comic strip! The next one will come with a surprise but shh… Don’t tell anyone! ;)

“Vancouver police busted circulating porn at work” was the starting point for our new story (more about it here). And what can be best than Law and Order fuck ups… Anyway, humans are pigs and pigs, well, will always be pigs… But enough talk, enjoy!

Art by NeMo Balkanski, Uniform Porn, 2012.

*** Feel free to submit your own Art – Be part of the new comic revolution! ***

the comic weekly

the eye — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:34:48 +0000

WARNING! Today is our first comic weekly release. It’s the grand beginning of a new visual deviance where your mental health will be compromised. So be ready, each week, for a new dose of craziness… Let’s the strait jackets fly high!

And what better day than this so-called lover’s day to launch our weekly comic strip! Love is not something you can buy and it certainly should not only be one day a year… But enough talk, enjoy!

Art by NeMo Balkanski, Love bites, 2012.

*** Feel free to submit your own Art – Be part of the new comic revolution! ***

Holmes vs. Holmes

the eye — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:10:51 +0000

It’s a story about plagiarism, or to be more specific, auto-plagiarism.

I was reading the complete adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when I had a feeling of deja-vu. I’d just started The Adventure of the Cardboard Box when it occurred. Something was odd. I was sure I already read that passage when Sherlock Holmes mind-read Dr Watson with his well-known inductive method.

Then I researched this bible-like book to confirm that feeling… After a ‘painful’ while I found it! The mystery laid four hundred pages before in The Resident Patient.

Apparently, there is a simple explication to such an un-noble misdemeanor. The Adventure of the Cardboard Box was to be published in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes but was excluded because it felt it was not suitable for its family audience. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle then appended the scene in some other short story from The Memoirs; The Resident Patient (see original source).

Elementary, my dear Watson!

rhythm now

the eye — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 20:22:14 +0000

Rhythm Now is the 20-year-long awaited short film from Bobby Cuffe, a Vancouver based multifaceted graphic artist whose art reveals a large spectrum of skills, often blurring the line between classical and digital disciplines.

Rhythm Now is an 18-minute-long re-edited version of cult movie Apocalypse Now. The out-of-this-world music of The Rhythm Devils from The Grateful Dead is taken from The Apocalypse Now Sessions LP and remixed as to reflect the sequence chronology of that horrific journey on the fictional Nung River.

It comes after another similar project, a personal favorite of mine, called Waking the Fantasia, a very dark re-edited Fantasia synced to the Suicidal Tendencies classic tune Waking the Dead. Here, the end result is a straightforward but exhilarating short film only created to satisfy Bobby Cuffe‘s madness. Nonetheless, the outcome is so stunning that I thank him for his insanity!

In Rhythm Now, the concept goes a step further as every frame is individually painted, giving to this disturbed child of Apocalypse Now and The Rhythm Devils a hallucinogenic trip. Its unique visual treatment, think of an impressionist under psychedelic drugs (absinthe+LSD), is pushed as far as abstraction. Then, added to the stripped down percussion composition, it drives the pace and intensity, leading the spectator to an all-new set of emotions.

The new version deliberately puts aside anything tangible – all is blur, colors, shapes – only to focus on emotions. You’re not only following Willard’s journey upriver to witness his dramatic psychological transformation but you get to go far into his subconscious to experience, from this vantage point, the amplified psychosis; confusion, intoxication, alienation, fear, vulnerability, despair, delusion, hope… Well, madness!

To conclude, Rhythm Now is an incredible experience, a psychedelic experience without the drug, a “safe” bad trip into the dark self. And like selling drugs, Rhythm Now will be a tough one to commercialize as it would certainly face the wrath of copyrights infringement!

George Lucas vs. George Lucas

the eye — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:49:55 +0000

Here is a very interesting case of art vs. ownership, a paradoxical mutation of an art defender into a ludicrous owner! The content below is an excerpt from savestarwars.com.

Before George Lucas was digitizing Yoda, making Darth Vader scream “No!” and otherwise fiddling with the original version of his Star Wars trilogy, George Lucas made a passionate case to Congress that films should be preserved in their original state.

It was 1988, and Lucas was speaking against colorizing old black and white films. The funny part is that the accusations he made about reckless copyright holders messing with art for their own profit are the same charges Star Wars fans now level at Lucas himself.

It’s too bad 1988 Lucas and 2011 Lucas can’t sit down for a little heart-to-heart.

My name is George Lucas. I am a writer, director, and producer of motion pictures and Chairman of the Board of Lucasfilm Ltd., a multi-faceted entertainment corporation.

I am not here today as a writer-director, or as a producer, or as the chairman of a corporation. I’ve come as a citizen of what I believe to be a great society that is in need of a moral anchor to help define and protect its intellectual and cultural heritage. It is not being protected.

The destruction of our film heritage, which is the focus of concern today, is only the tip of the iceberg. American law does not protect our painters, sculptors, recording artists, authors, or filmmakers from having their lifework distorted, and their reputation ruined. If something is not done now to clearly state the moral rights of artists, current and future technologies will alter, mutilate, and destroy for future generations the subtle human truths and highest human feeling that talented individuals within our society have created.

A copyright is held in trust by its owner until it ultimately reverts to public domain. American works of art belong to the American public; they are part of our cultural history.

People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians, and if the laws of the United States continue to condone this behavior, history will surely classify us as a barbaric society. The preservation of our cultural heritage may not seem to be as politically sensitive an issue as “when life begins” or “when it should be appropriately terminated,” but it is important because it goes to the heart of what sets mankind apart. Creative expression is at the core of our humanness. Art is a distinctly human endeavor. We must have respect for it if we are to have any respect for the human race.

These current defacements are just the beginning. Today, engineers with their computers can add color to black-and-white movies, change the soundtrack, speed up the pace, and add or subtract material to the philosophical tastes of the copyright holder. Tomorrow, more advanced technology will be able to replace actors with “fresher faces,” or alter dialogue and change the movement of the actor’s lips to match. It will soon be possible to create a new “original” negative with whatever changes or alterations the copyright holder of the moment desires. The copyright holders, so far, have not been completely diligent in preserving the original negatives of films they control. In order to reconstruct old negatives, many archivists have had to go to Eastern bloc countries where American films have been better preserved.

In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be “replaced” by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.

There is nothing to stop American films, records, books, and paintings from being sold to a foreign entity or egotistical gangsters and having them change our cultural heritage to suit their personal taste.

I accuse the companies and groups, who say that American law is sufficient, of misleading the Congress and the People for their own economic self-interest.

I accuse the corporations, who oppose the moral rights of the artist, of being dishonest and insensitive to American cultural heritage and of being interested only in their quarterly bottom line, and not in the long-term interest of the Nation.

The public’s interest is ultimately dominant over all other interests. And the proof of that is that even a copyright law only permits the creators and their estate a limited amount of time to enjoy the economic fruits of that work.

There are those who say American law is sufficient. That’s an outrage! It’s not sufficient! If it were sufficient, why would I be here? Why would John Houston have been so studiously ignored when he protested the colorization of “The Maltese Falcon?” Why are films cut up and butchered?

Attention should be paid to this question of our soul, and not simply to accounting procedures. Attention should be paid to the interest of those who are yet unborn, who should be able to see this generation as it saw itself, and the past generation as it saw itself.

I hope you have the courage to lead America in acknowledging the importance of American art to the human race, and accord the proper protection for the creators of that art–as it is accorded them in much of the rest of the world communities.

art, revolution & ownership

the eye — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:47:27 +0000

This coming week takes place ART, REVOLUTION AND OWNERSHIP: Who owns the Public Domain? Artists in Conversation with Copyright. A brain challenging event which goal is to confront artists, activists and owners.

Questions of ownership permeate our culture – sample a sound, claim the East Van sign, remix a logo… Whether you’re an artist playing with images or sound, a coder or an activist, at some point you’ve probably asked yourself whether what you are doing is legal.

September 8, 5:30 & 6:30pm: plastic orchid factory dance performance
W2 /Atrium, SFU Woodwards (reception with artists and others to follow)

September 9-11: Art Installation
Waldorf Hotel (part of New Forms Festival)

September 10, 1-5pm: Whose Voice is it Anyway? copyright conversations
Waldorf Hotel (part of New Forms Festival)

Don’t miss this one of a kind opportunity to enjoy art (through performances and exhibition) and engage in conversation with actors in this industry (sic).
For my part, I can’t wait to experience Sonny Assu and Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas pieces!

Find out more @
http://aro.artistslegaloutreach.ca/
http://www.creativetechnology.org/
http://2011.newformsfestival.com/