Monday 10 August 2015

Some Raven fun

Richard Corben is quite a special comic artist, he's one of very few, who moved the medium into a transcendent form, a form that wouldn't be out of place dangling on the walls of Mayfair. As far as I know that actually hasn't happened, the people running those establishments being the possessors of rather numbed aesthetic sensibilities. Corben is able to achieve this elevated state of accomplishment through a rare collection of wide ranging skills. He's an artist who can convincingly model rounded figures, with a vivid colour range and convey drama in scenes through lighting, without obscuring detail. Let me tell you, that's a neat trick, no matter what insight into his techniques you may have accrued.

For me, his best work was accomplished while he was being published in the Warren, magazine format, horror genre comics. He's still worth a gander at as a contributor to Heavy Metal magazine but that publication was a bit esoteric for me and it's self consciously arty purpose eroded some of the sharpness of it's contributors. Anyway that's enough waffle, lets have a look at another one of those excellent Youtube meldings of art and music, as we appreciate the man's talent set to the warblings of the Alan Parsons Project, through a tune inspired by Poe's, The Raven.



6 comments:

  1. You should hear Basil Rathbone read The Raven, DSE - a classic!

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  2. Yeah, I'm very familiar with that particular recitation of The Raven, it being my favourite by some margin. Some where on this blog, there is a vid of Rathbone reciting The Bells but the video has since been taken down. It is still available on the web as mp3 as far as I know, I'd recommend checking that recording out because it blows every other version of The Bells all kinds of sideways.

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  3. I've got Rathbone reading The Bells on a tape somewhere, the same tape that I first heard The Raven. Here's something you might try - stretching out that Corben artwork to match Rathbone's Raven soundtrack. That'd be something.

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    1. It's an idea, I'm not really that practised at video editing though, why don't you give it a go. Cinelerra is the software I've used on the odd occasion have done it.

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    2. I'm not really up on software stuff, so I'd have to learn it all from the beginning. Being a lazy buggah, I'd much prefer someone else to do all the hard work.

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    3. The learning curve on video editing software is dependent upon the choice of software. I wouldn't recommend Cinelerra as an easy option, it's a bit quirky but I quite liked it, it being free was a good inducement. I can't say if time using learning software would be well spent, I do know a user who used to send his stuff out for editing, who now does it himself and he is the least savvy person I know. I think he uses the Sony software, so that might be a good tip for an easy in with video editing.

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