Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Imagination Factory

Let's talk about this gem, shall we?

As mentioned previously, Tanya Lam was an artist I wanted to work with when I first laid eyes on her portfolio. This moment actually stretches back before her piece in Vehicle #2, to the ACAD (Alberta College of Art and Design) graduation portfolio show. All the graduating artists put together a book of their work to display to various companies and former graduates who were invited to attend. With my connection to Blacksheep Studios, and under guise of Editor of Vehicle Magazine (and feeling extremely out of place, I might add) I was able to attend.

Let me tell you a story. This is the story of Tanya's portfolio. At first, it was the extremely colourful and eye catching characters, the fun and happy layouts and her natural knack for crafting expression and emotion. I visited for the colour, but I stayed for the cock.

That's right, at the center of this very kid friendly, family oriented portfolio was a splash page with the most brightly coloured, cutesy phallic images ever collected on paper. Children running amok with penis balloons, penis hats, and parents smiling wide eyes at the glorious events around them. Truly, it was a celebration of the cock.

So, with determination, I located my oft collaborative partner, Tyler Jenkins and demanded he look at the cock collage.

This is how Tanya Lam ended up in the pages of Vehicle.

However, her short "First Kiss" was a favourite amongst many readers and I began to see amazing sequential narrative potential in her illustration. Below is the first five pages of the project called The Imagination Factory, written, specifically, for Tanya Lam.



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