Nihei Tsutomu (or in European order Tsutomu Nihei) is a Japanese comic book artist. This image is the cover for the second volume of best known work - a (now finished) series called "Blame!" - little known and really hard to get in America, but wildly popular in his native Japan and in Europe.As the internet puts it, "Blame! is what happens when an architect and M.C. Escher fanboy decides to draw manga", and yes, Nihei-san often seems to pay more attention to the details of the environment than the characters, but that works really, REALLY well for the comic and that one image in particular. It communicates perfectly the loneliness and marginalization of the human figure and gives the audience the sense that this world exists in permanent stasis, devoid of motion, change, and therefore - life.
Additional note: while this cover is colored (conservatively) the pages of the comic itself are all done in black and white. Frequently un-shaded black and white. And there is a lot more black than there is white.
Yes, the world of Blame! is not a happy place. And yes, I do find it visually stunning.
The use of scale definitely communicates loneliness and marginalization. From what I've heard, Mike Mignola is another graphic novelist who pays special attention to architecture. Man, I love all the dilapidation in this scene. His use of contrast is amazing.
ReplyDeleteI love this piece. It is quite creepy and very eerie. I would love to get this comic book cause I love this illustration. It is so interesting mainly due to the scale which has been said already. It is very intriguing that you can't really see the figure, it makes it mysterious .
ReplyDeleteI really like this one. It reminds me of the Japanese horror movie "Re-cycle". I love the disolate look. The sense space around the lone figure and lack of color what really gives a feeling of loneliness.
ReplyDeleteVery well done, I notice too the attention to detail in the background. It's like it points to the character in the image, and effectively gives a tone of remoteness. It the background and the perspective makes the city seem overwhelming and makes the character looks so small.
ReplyDeleteI tend to not like Manga artists but this work seems really incredible. The perspective is great and the small figure stands firm in the face of the landscape. Really beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really interesting that this piece conveys so much, when you really look at it there's not actually all that much detail, the artist is simply very deliberate in his line work, so he's able to show depth and scale, and convey mood effectively.
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