Out of Picture Is Outside the Box
by Kai-Ming Cha, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 6/13/2006
The biggest surprise at this weekend's MoCCA Art Festival was Out of Picture: Art from the Outside Looking In (Paquet), an anthology of short comics stories exquisitely illustrated by 11 artists who work at the animation house Blue Sky Studios. Blue Sky Studios has produced the animated feature films Ice Age and Ice Age 2 as well as last summer's Robots. The book, from French publisher Paquet, was just released in France. In the U.S., the publication date has yet to be decided, but the artists, many of whom spent the entire festival selling and signing books for curious fans, don't seem too concerned. By Sunday, the artists had sold out their 117 copies of the beautifully produced book.
Out of Picture was first conceived by artist Daisuke Tsutsumi to give his colleagues a chance to show off their very personal art styles. "When we're working on a feature [film], we all work under one house style," explains contributor Robert Mackenzie. "Here, we're working in a [personal] style that we're most comfortable with." Originally, the artists were planning to self-publish Out of Picture. But the printer misquoted the cost of the book and artist Peter de Séve, who had previously published a sketchbook with Paquet, quickly showed it to the publisher, who accepted it on the spot.
Paquet printed 4,000 copies in French and 5,000 copies in English. So far Paquet is focused on the French market. The book will be distributed by Diamond Comics in the U.S. It will retail for $25 in the U.S. and 20 euros in Europe.
Though it was created primarily by American artists, the oversized, hardcover book has a European feel to it. Michael Knapp, who designed the volume, says that he and many of his colleagues are influenced by French comics. He also points out that Blue Sky has artists of many different backgrounds. Three of the artists featured in Out of Picture are from France, Italy and Spain. "Europe is definitely represented," says Knapp, "as are Japan and Texas."
Animators seem to be paying close attention to the comics scene. This July, Image Comics will be releasing Afterworks 2, the second volume of an anthology of comics created by Pixar artists. And Out of Picture brings to mind Flight, another anthology featuring animation artists. Many of the Out of Picture artists agreed it was a fair comparison.
"We love the Flight books," Knapp says, before pointing out the biggest difference between Flight and Out of Picture. "We have no idea what we're doing," jokes Knapp. "We're just making it up as we go along. Most of the Flight people have a background in comics. We're not bringing any expertise to [the book]. We're just bringing what we love."
