Dash Shaw
Encyclopedia
Dash Shaw is a U.S.
comic book writer/artist and animator. He is the author of the graphic novel
s Love Eats Brains published by Odd God Press, GardenHead published by Meathaus
, The Mother's Mouth published by Alternative Comics
, Bottomless Belly Button published by Fantagraphics, and BodyWorld published by Pantheon Books
.
Shaw's comic short stories have appeared in many different anthologies, newspapers and magazines. His square-sized short stories were collected in the 2005 book GoddessHead published by Hidden Agenda Press. His comics are known for their emphasis on emotional, lyrical logic and innovative design. He was named one of the top ten artists to check out at the 2002 "Small Press Expo" when he was 19 years old. He also writes lyrics and plays with James Blanca in the weirdo pop band Love Eats Brains! and has co-written and acted in various short film projects.
in 1985. He started creating comics at age four (drawing the art over captions penciled by his father) and has maintained a fascination and focus on the form ever since. He began self-publishing
while in high school, while also doing illustrations for "InSync", the now defunct youth supplement of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Some six months of his high school years were spent in a small town outside Nagoya, Japan.
Shaw studied at the School of Visual Arts
in Manhattan
.
short stories in a variety of publications in the United States and abroad, plus numerous magazine illustrations. Amy Taubin of Film Comment magazine writes:
Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button was published by Fantagraphics in June 2008. His BodyWorld webcomic was bought by Pantheon Books
and published in a single printed volume in April 2010.
Bottomless, an exhibition of Shaw's original drawings, storyboards, color background overlays and a new video animation, was on display at Duke University
's John Hope Franklin Center from September 25 through October 31, 2008.
Late 2009 saw the release of The Unclothed Man In the 35th Century A.D., a collection of short stories previously published in MOME, along with several pages of storyboards and other ephemera from his animated shorts for IFC.
. Pointing to pre-Photoshop comics that were colored via clear celluloid
containing the black line art, under which would be placed a board with the painted colors, Shaw explains that he took this process and combined it with animation
-style use of celluloid, where the backs of the acetate are painted with gouache
and laid over a painted background, in addition to color separations where black line art is used to mark the different colors. In addition to using hand-drawing media such as crow quill pens, colored pencils, and markers, Shaw incorporates collage
, Photoshop, and painting directly over photocopies, though he does not work with a separate line art layer, preferring to treat black as simply another color, and not a separate or more important element. On BodyWorld, for example, Shaw did the color separations by hand, used the paint bucket tool in Photoshop to color the shapes, and then printed it out and painted over the photocopy, before scanning it again and making final adjustments in Photoshop to achieve the final art.
Shaw explains that his key motive is combining what he likes about hand drawing with the processes available in Photoshop. He has stated that he does not own a drawing tablet, and that his actual knowledge of Photoshop is limited, compared to most mainstream colorists who rely on it exclusively, explaining, "that coloring leaves me cold."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic book writer/artist and animator. He is the author of the graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
s Love Eats Brains published by Odd God Press, GardenHead published by Meathaus
Meathaus
Meathaus is a comics anthology created by the Meathaus Collective. The Meathaus Collective is a group of artists who attended New York City's School of Visual Arts in or around 2000...
, The Mother's Mouth published by Alternative Comics
Alternative Comics (publisher)
Alternative Comics is a U.S. independent graphic novel and comic book publisher which operated from 1993–2007. Located in Gainesville, Florida, it is owned and operated by its founder, attorney Jeff Mason...
, Bottomless Belly Button published by Fantagraphics, and BodyWorld published by Pantheon Books
Pantheon Books
Pantheon Books is an American imprint with editorial independence that is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.The current editor-in-chief at Pantheon Books is Dan Frank.-Overview:...
.
Shaw's comic short stories have appeared in many different anthologies, newspapers and magazines. His square-sized short stories were collected in the 2005 book GoddessHead published by Hidden Agenda Press. His comics are known for their emphasis on emotional, lyrical logic and innovative design. He was named one of the top ten artists to check out at the 2002 "Small Press Expo" when he was 19 years old. He also writes lyrics and plays with James Blanca in the weirdo pop band Love Eats Brains! and has co-written and acted in various short film projects.
Early life
Dash Shaw was born April 6, 1983, in Hollywood, California, and moved with his family from Hollywood to Richmond, VirginiaRichmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
in 1985. He started creating comics at age four (drawing the art over captions penciled by his father) and has maintained a fascination and focus on the form ever since. He began self-publishing
Self-publishing
Self-publishing is the publication of any book or other media by the author of the work, without the involvement of an established third-party publisher. The author is responsible and in control of entire process including design , formats, price, distribution, marketing & PR...
while in high school, while also doing illustrations for "InSync", the now defunct youth supplement of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Some six months of his high school years were spent in a small town outside Nagoya, Japan.
Shaw studied at the School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.
Career
Throughout college and since, Shaw has published sequential artSequential art
Sequential art refers to the art form of using a train of images deployed in sequence to graphic storytelling or convey information. The best-known example of sequential art is comics, which are a printed arrangement of art and balloons, especially comic books and comic strips.The term is rarely...
short stories in a variety of publications in the United States and abroad, plus numerous magazine illustrations. Amy Taubin of Film Comment magazine writes:
Dash Shaw's comics are fearless, tender and smart. Shaw's drawings and texts turn the blank page into an imaginary friend — an alter-ego onto which he and the reader can project and try to make sense of dangerous, contradictory, consuming fantasies and ideas about life (especially that crazy thing called love) and its representation. Comics and movies have lots in common, but few movies are as inspired and intimate as 'Goddess Head'.
Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button was published by Fantagraphics in June 2008. His BodyWorld webcomic was bought by Pantheon Books
Pantheon Books
Pantheon Books is an American imprint with editorial independence that is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.The current editor-in-chief at Pantheon Books is Dan Frank.-Overview:...
and published in a single printed volume in April 2010.
Bottomless, an exhibition of Shaw's original drawings, storyboards, color background overlays and a new video animation, was on display at Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
's John Hope Franklin Center from September 25 through October 31, 2008.
Late 2009 saw the release of The Unclothed Man In the 35th Century A.D., a collection of short stories previously published in MOME, along with several pages of storyboards and other ephemera from his animated shorts for IFC.
Technique and materials
Shaw employs a combination of hand drawing, animation techniques and Photoshop to produce his artwork. Shaw started working on acetate sheets while studying at the School of Visual ArtsSchool of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
. Pointing to pre-Photoshop comics that were colored via clear celluloid
Celluloid
Celluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents. Generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1862 and as Xylonite in 1869, before being registered as Celluloid in 1870. Celluloid is...
containing the black line art, under which would be placed a board with the painted colors, Shaw explains that he took this process and combined it with animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
-style use of celluloid, where the backs of the acetate are painted with gouache
Gouache
Gouache[p], also spelled guache, the name of which derives from the Italian guazzo, water paint, splash or bodycolor is a type of paint consisting of pigment suspended in water. A binding agent, usually gum arabic, is also present, just as in watercolor...
and laid over a painted background, in addition to color separations where black line art is used to mark the different colors. In addition to using hand-drawing media such as crow quill pens, colored pencils, and markers, Shaw incorporates collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
, Photoshop, and painting directly over photocopies, though he does not work with a separate line art layer, preferring to treat black as simply another color, and not a separate or more important element. On BodyWorld, for example, Shaw did the color separations by hand, used the paint bucket tool in Photoshop to color the shapes, and then printed it out and painted over the photocopy, before scanning it again and making final adjustments in Photoshop to achieve the final art.
Shaw explains that his key motive is combining what he likes about hand drawing with the processes available in Photoshop. He has stated that he does not own a drawing tablet, and that his actual knowledge of Photoshop is limited, compared to most mainstream colorists who rely on it exclusively, explaining, "that coloring leaves me cold."
External links
- Robert Young's Podcast Interview w/ Dash Shaw
- Dash Shaw's Indie Mind
- Comic-Book Hero (New York magazine profile)
- Dash Shaw's Unlikely Imagery, Publishers WeeklyPublishers WeeklyPublishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
, December 5, 2006 - Comics Class of '08, Publishers Weekly, May 5, 2006
- The Comics Journal #300, interview/discussion with artist David MazzucchelliDavid MazzucchelliDavid Mazzucchelli is an American comic book artist and writer. His latest work is the award-winning graphic novel, Asterios Polyp.-Career:...
(Fantagraphics Books, 2009)