DRAWINGS INSPIRED BY AMERICAN PSYCHO | Reviewed At Spandexless

Alec Berry breaks down the DRAWINGS INSPIRED BY THE FILM AMERICAN PSYCHO Broadsheet Edition Floating World Comics published over at Spandexless. Check it out here. Here are some kind words from the review:

Ben Marra, with the possible exception of Michael Deforge, is the best artist in alt-comics at the moment.

DeForge and I hung out in Toronto this past weekend at TCAF. We're bros. Here is some more insight into the publication from the review:

The thinness of newsprint allows images to be superimposed. Visuals on the back of a page become visible on the front of a page, and vice versa. This layering effect adds background detail to the image being viewed, pocking wholes in the illustrations’ perceived perfection as lines mesh, figures distort and characters begin to move. This technique is best used on the cover page where Bateman stands smirking at the reader, wearing a fitted suite with perfectly kept hair, while holding a bloody knife in front of an apartment complex. The cleanness that Bateman exudes is shattered as the image on the back of the page begins to bleed onto the cover, adding splashes of blood across Bateman’s face and the apartment complex he’s exiting, creating the image of a messy and disoriented killer. Adding these details directly to the primary image would disrupt the “cleanness” of the page  and remove Bateman’s perceived control over the book, but by using the paper’s thinness to creates ghost images, Marra’s able to create a layered effect that gives the reader a glimpse into Bateman’s psyche and his loss of control.

NIGHT BUSINESS | ISSUE 4 | Reviewed At The Comics Journal

Sean T. Collins reviews NIGHT BUSINESS, ISSUE 4,  over at The Comics Journal. Check it out here. Here's a sample of what to expect:

It’s all deeply ugly and silly and reprehensible and preposterous. It’s also undeniably beautiful, featuring Marra’s best use of blacks to date — I’m having a hard time tearing myself away from looking at the shadows on Johnny’s cheeks and chest or Chase’s back and collarbones long enough to write this post — and paced with precisely the same manipulative expertise as the genre trash it’s pastiching.

LINCOLN WASHINGTON: FREE MAN! | Reviewed At The Comics Journal

Matt Seneca reviews the first issue of LINCOLN WASHINGTON: FREE MAN! over at The Comics Journal. Check out out here. And here's a sample:

It seems unlikely that anyone would have guessed the missing element Benjamin Marra needed to deliver his first bona fide masterpiece was a dose of realism, but then again he does have a way of confounding expectations. After all, it was always a long shot that the most consistently excellent alternative cartoonist of the post-Kramers Ergot generation would be a purveyor of straight-ahead action serials whose style springs from Paul Gulacy and Todd McFarlane.

ELF BOOKLETS | AMERICAN PSYCHO BROADSHEET EDITION | Now Available!

Floating World has teamed with Traditional Comics to reprint Benjamin Marra’s sold out Elf Booklet series, Drawings Inspired by the Motion Picture “American Psycho”. The original artwork was rescanned and published as a 32 page broadsheet (15” x 22.75”) newspaper. Three new illustrations and brand new covers were created for this limited edition of 1500 copies.

"Employing Raymond Pettibon’s aesthetics and inspired by the movie “American Psycho”, these 28 illustrations “seem almost mathematically calculated to haunt the eyes they meet: whether it’s the sublimely balanced blacks and whites or the point-of-impact axe to neck shots… the real story here is Marra’s art, which is far and away the best work of his career.” – Matt Seneca, Comics Alliance

Now available to order

Shia LeBeouf Comic Book Sensibilities Draw Comparison To My Own

Sean T. Collins reviews Shia LeBeouf's comic book work over at The Comics Journal and draws the comparison between LeBeouf's sensibilities and my own:

So too is his footing upon the fine line between irony and sincerity. Cyclical winks at the melodramatic excess of its story yet does so with a straight face, if that makes any sense. Like, say, Benjamin Marra, LaBeouf understands that the ridiculousness of a period-’60s motel sign (“Pink” in Vegas-style quasi-cursive, “MOTEL” in big block letters, palm fronds swaying in the background) or a demonstrative sex scene between a man with an eightball back tattoo and a dreamlike blonde I can’t help but mentally refer to as “his girl” (“Oh fuck…Davey…Your [sic] the best there ever was baby…the best there ever was…Stay with me”) doesn’t cancel out its weirdly primal power.

This is awesome to me. I haven't read LeBeouf's comics yet, but I've seen is acting work and it's tremendous. I've been telling people he's the best actor of his generation for years. The Transformers trilogy he was in are some of my favorite films from recent years.

Collins also interviewed LeBeouf for Rolling Stone. Check that out here.

LINCOLN WASHINGTON: FREE MAN! | Flavorpill

LINCOLN WASHINGTON: FREE MAN!, ISSUE 1, is one of Flavorpill's Most Anticipated Comic Releases for April. Check it out here. Here's a portion of what Tucker Stone wrote about the book:

As with his Maureen Dowd comic, Marra provides the pleasures of pure entertainment so directly that it almost fools you into thinking that anyone can do it. They can’t, but that’s the way that genius is supposed to work: you walk away thinking “perfect” is just that easy.

Dread Paths Tread: The Art of Benjamin Marra | Art Show Opening and Comic Book Release Party

I have an art show opening and comic book release party, for LINCOLN WASHINGTON: FREE MAN!, ISSUE 1, at the incredible Floating World Comics, in Portland, OR, on Thursday, April 26th, two days before the Stumptown Comics Fest. Portland folks, come on by.

Facebook Event link