Stainless Steel Droppings

Photographers have not been near as well represented on my Friday Favorites in comparison to other artists and I discovered so many interesting photography sites a few weeks ago that I thought I would share the work of another photographer with you today: Geoffroy Demarquet. In what little searching I completed I could find little about this photographic artist beside the intriguing examples of his work…or at least little I could read since French is not my first language. Or my second…or third…or, you get the point.

I certainly do not need to speak the language to have an emotional response to his photography, however, and so I would like to share just a few of his images that I found interesting.

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Hellboy Library Edition Volume 1: Wake the Devil and Seeds of Destruction ~Mike Mignola
–published 2008 (reprints older material)
–288 pages, Dark Horse
–5/5 stars,

In large part due to the successful 2004 adaptation of Mike Mignola’s work by the phenomenal director Guillermo del Toro and a few animated specials, Hellboy is much more of a household name than many other non-super hero comic book characters. However my suspicions are that few people outside of those who proclaim themselves fans of the genre have picked up the individual comic books or the graphic novel collections to discover just how incredible they really are.

I am here today to convince you to do so while reviewing this new collection of the first two graphic novels.

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For Your Consideration…

The incomparable Midori Snyder, award-winning novelist and co-editor of THE mythic arts website, Endicott Studio, published an incredibly interesting post the other day concerning The Literary Tattoo. I recommend a detour at this point to read that post before returning here.

I have certainly considered getting a tattoo in the past and if I ever did so the idea of some reference to a beloved book is a great one. In her post she highlighted a project that takes the literary tattoo to another level.

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As many of you know, last night Mary, Tori and I had the privilege of going to see Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (Of Once fame) performing as The Swell Season in concert. The show was fabulous. But let me set it up for you:

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Or a Magnesium Pearlcoat lining, to be more exact.

I mentioned to some of you in a weekly email (and possibly here on the blog) that this new Wordpress theme seemed ironically attractive to me considering the image of a rusted car on a site entitled ‘Stainless Steel’ Droppings. What I may not have mentioned was that our recently paid off automobile decided to leave our indentured servitude to go to that great junkyard in the sky…or at least somewhere in the Kansas City area.

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Film adaptations of comic books can be something of a conundrum for me because I am not the typical attendee to a big blockbuster comic book film–I am actually a fan. I adore the medium, find myself at the local comic shop every Wednesday (new comic book day) surrounded by examples of the genre, and have difficulty removing my fanboy goggles to view the film objectively.

That is one of several reasons I was excited to see Iron Man. Unlike many of the comic book films of the last decade, I knew next to nothing about the character or his place in the Marvel universe. I had this tiny, almost infinitesimal connection with Iron Man as I recall one of the first and few comics I read as a kid was an Iron Man comic, but beyond that there was no reason for me to be any more excited about this film than the others on this long slate of spring/summer films. And then they announced the casting.

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Or, Book Week: Day Four

For those of you who have been participating, Book Week has been a great deal of fun for me. It started out with creative ideas for book storage, then we examined creative uses for books (books as art), and after a short disappearance from the blogosphere we returned today with creative and dedicated small press publishers. Today we continue the Book Week theme with creativity of another kind: the creation of books themselves, or to be more specific–journals.

Journals are something I have collected over the past few years. It has not been since high school that I actively participated in the art of journals. I have always viewed journals as being magical–they are books that are full of so much potential. Whether one uses them diary-fashion, writes stories, composes poetry, sketches, whatever, journals are a portal into one’s inner thoughts and feelings and dreams. It is that which gives them their magical quality.

In between two covers lie the beginning of a journey, that is why my latest journal, which you will see soon, begins thus:

“Remember what Bilbo used to say: It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
~J.R.R. Tolkien

Today I have the pleasure of using the Friday Favorite section to introduce you to Blackthorn Workshops and its creator, Stormfilled. Stormfilled is a creator who is taking a risk and as such I find her very inspiring. Not to mention the fact that she makes high quality journals. I feel like this fits in so perfectly with the Book Week theme and with the Once Upon a Time II theme as you will see shortly. Stormfilled, like a few before her, braved the onslaught of the grilling Stainless Steel Droppings interview. In between my questions and her answers you will see examples of her beautiful craftsmanship.

Come with me, step out your door, and allow me to introduce you to Blackthorn Workshops.

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Here is a post for all the well-behaved book lovers out there. You know who you are. Those who need more books to fill up your shelves. Those who demonstrate remarkable self-control and never buy more books than they can read in one sitting.

If that description does not resemble you, dear reader, you may want to skip this post altogether. For what would a Book Week be like without the temptation to buy more books? It wouldn’t really be Book Week now, would it?

We all appreciate the works of the large publishing houses. They have brought us untold number of magical tales over the years in which we have found delight. But they are not the only ones producing enchanting fiction. Small press publishers, and some imprints of larger houses, are taking risks to produce real treasures for book lovers.

Whether they are publishing wholly original fiction or they are producing collectible editions of great stories, these publishing houses are ones you need to be familiar with.

“When you sell a man a book, you don’t sell him 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life.”
~Christopher Morley

Here are a few places to get a life:

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(image copyright Su Blackwell)

(For an explanation of the Book Week premise, see yesterday’s post)

WARNING: This post may not be for the faint of heart!

If you are anything like me, and I know that many of you are (May God have mercy on your souls), the merest willful damage to a book is tantamount to abuse. I have never quite gotten over my childhood habit of anthropomorphizing objects. While my talk of trees and books and the various Objet d’art that inhabit my world and the relationship I have with them is more poetic license than waking delusion, there is still a very small part of that young lad who assumes that books, like people, have feelings too. Thus today’s Book Week post features art that is something of an enigma for me: I admire the work and am inspired by the creativity and at the same time I feel pangs of guilt over my attachment to each piece.

Today rather than spending a tremendous amount of time discussing each image, I am going to briefly showcase the artist and then allow you to enjoy their work.

Though it may be incongruous with the images, to keep the mood light (after all, I don’t want my Book Week posts making anyone cry) I will include various inspiring/funny quotes about books or reading between photos.

Prepare yourselves.

And we’re off.

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This week at Stainless Steel Droppings is Book Week! How is this any different than most weeks you might ask? Well don’t!!!

All kidding aside, this week’s posts will focus on different art, artisans, etc. that have something to do with that form of entertainment that so many of us love: the book!

The week will conclude with a book-related prize pack drawn from the names of those participating in each of this week’s posts. More details as the week progresses.

And now on to day one’s book-related post:

Stairway to Heaven

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