I just came across Jeremy Bastian this morning in Cory Doctrow’s post on BoingBoing about a commissioned drawing he did: an extravagantly detailed homage to Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo (see my posts on Winsor McCay, and here).
The owner of the drawing, Ben Friedman, has been kind enough to share it with us by posting images of it on ComicArtFans (images above, top, and detail, second down). You can see the full piece here and here, and details 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Bastien is a contemporary comics artist with a wonderfully anachronistic style, picking up the fine line illustration styles of the late 19th Century and applying them to his own idiosynchratic vision.
In checking out Bastian’s website, I found it sadly lacking in information about his most prominent project, a comics series called Cursed Pirate Girl.
He gives a brief, colorful description of the story, a couple of prominent raves by Mike Mignola and Mouse Guard’s David Peterson, and a link to an under-construction “Booty” page, but no indication of what the comic is, who publishes it, where it might be found or even whether it exists in digital or printed form. (When amateurs make websites they frequently overlook the critical factor that other people don’t know what they know and need introductory information.)
With a bit of digging, I was able to discover that Cursed Pirate Girl is a printed comics series, published by Olympian Publishing, which apparently has issues 1 and 3 of a three part series still available.
Comixcology, which sells digital versions of comics for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, lists issues 1-3 as “of 6”. I don’t know if they are split up differently for digital distribution, or if three more issues are planned.
Delightfully, Comixcology has provided a 7 page online preview of Cursed Pirate Girl #1 (bottom three images, above), making up for the inexplicable lack of images on Bastian’s site.
You will find a few images on Bastian’s website, mixed in with personal travel photos in the “updates” section (I can’t give you a direct link because the site is in frames); but they are mostly sketches.
I found another image on Guy Davis’s site of a drawing Bastian did of Davis’s character The Marquis, and a portrait of Leto II from Dune on Hey Oscar Wilde! It’s Clobberin Time!! (see my post on Hey Oscar Wilde! It’s Clobberin Time!!).
There are also reviews and articles about Cursed Pirate Girl on Read About Comics, CBR’s Robot 6 and Broken Frontier; as well as an interview on Newsarama.
Bastian also contributed a short Story to David Peterson’s Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard #1.
Olympian Publishing is producing an audio drama adaptation of Cursed Pirate Girl, with Stephanie Leonidas (Mirrormask, Dracula) as the lead.
Here’s hoping that some of the attention Basitan has been getting results in a graphic album collection of the issues to date, and broader awareness of his unique talent.
