Arkham Asylum

I've included these images on my blog because they're very "arty" (for want of better words) for a comic book. The combination of photography illustration and painting really emphasises the intended darkness of the imagery. the layouts are also very interesting, especially because they can create a great sense of movement.

i think the most successful aspect is the way that each character's speech bubbles contain different typography and colours that match each personality. the joker is a particularly interesting case as his original campness is completely lost, and the psychotic and evil mentality that is played upon in The Dark Knight is almost overpowering, both in what he says, the type that is used, and even the way that he is presented.

Yoshitomo Nara

Yoshitomo Nara is an artist and illustrator from Hirosaki, Japan. He recently had an exhibition on in the Baltic Flour Mill (in Newcastle/Gateshead) which is where these leaflets came from. His illustrations have a very distinctive style that, to be honest, i find a little dull even though they are dead cute.

The reason i've included him on the blog is mainly because most of the info you get at the baltic comes in "baltic branded" leaflet form, which as Yoshitomo Nara must have insisted on designing everything himself. Each A5 card came in a brown envelope with an acetate window (see top image) and i was genuinely excited about opening it to see what goodies were inside!the exhibition was set up in a little home-made town (as shown in the pencil drawn map, which i thought was the best piece of work i have seen by him). there was all sorts of stuff hidden away in each room and i was wandering around his designated space for a good couple of hours trying to take absolutely everything in. good, clean, family fun.