Cent pour Cent: “ziRitz” (NSFW)
February 3rd, 2010
Now that France’s huge annual comics festival in Angoulême is concluded, I can share with you my contribution to Cent pour Cent (or “100 for 100”), an exhibition at the city’s newly refurbished comics museum.
One hundred comics artists from around the globe were asked to choose a piece of classic comics art from the museum’s vast collection of originals and then remix or re-imagine the work any way we liked.
I chose an Ernie Bushmiller Fritzi Ritz page (original here) and, deconstructed it to death. Take a look if you dare. (NSFW)
I wasn’t able to attend Angoulême this year, but I guess I was there in spirit, both in the exhibition, and in what seems now to be an annual tradition that I’m told grew out its stateside counterpart.
Posted in Events, Experimental Comics
March 3, 2021
Stunningly drawn, Scott. The only issue I have is that I can’t magnify the image enough to truly appreciate it. It’s obvious you put a lot of thought into it. ‘Reimagined’ really isn’t the word for it.
Thanks! And yeah, it is kind of hard to see some of the smaller icons. I’ve updated the link to a slightly bigger version.
(note that some browsers may shrink to fit, just click to enlarge)
I like it a lot (except for the seemingly non-seq violent penetration fantasy image near the end), but isn’t the Fritzi and Phil body icons switched when they’re riding in the dinghy?
Good point about the unintentional switch.
Odd that it’s Fritzi-Phil everywhere but at the end!
Yeah, that’s a little strange. You did remember to switch the faces and the squigglies. Never mind. This is a well-executed idea.
That’s a wild piece. Meticulous. The rubber cement – nice touch. And I like the idea that the phone of the future will be a little antennae thing on top of a person’s head.
When you separate all those squiggles out of the seasick panels, it’s really striking just how many Bushmiller used here.
I too would love to see a larger version.
You suggest by omission on the far left that evolution has taken place but is finished. Is this on purpose?
Why is no clothing provided for the figure icons?
What made you decide to treat the car in the penultimate panel as a part of the environment, while it isn’t in the final panel?
I wonder if the gag works for someone seeing it without having seen the original first. Is it safe to assume the pieces for this exhibition were shown alongside the originals they were riffing on?
I have so many questions.
Evolution, definitely not finished. Hm! Though in Ernie’s universe maybe…
I think I included clothes on the figure icons in the rough draft but it didn’t look right and didn’t fit with the vague deconstruction-as-violation theme I was orbiting.
Not sure about the car. Hmm…
And yes, the originals were displayed alongside the “remixes.” Wish I could have been there!
The thing about this that surprises me the most, is that I HAVE NOT SEEN IT BEFORE. I remember when you were working on it. I don’t understand why I hadn’t seen it. Were you told NO ONE could see it, so even I, your loving wife, was not shown it, or you just too embarrassed to have me see it when you were in the same room?
Mayhap, I did not want to offend your delicate feminine sensibilities, my dearest!
Or I… um… forgot.
More to the point, I guess, is that it was a huge file that never came home with me!
Amazing, Scott. What were the final dimensions when it was printed out?
Funny thing is, I have no idea! I left it entirely up to them. 🙂
–Unrelated–
Nice to see Graphic Novels as a category on Jeopardy tonight.
Huh?
Also a valid response! ^^
By contrast to Sandra, my favorite part is the “non-seq violent penetration fantasy image near the end.” It neatly stands as bookend to the first image of Fritzi primping for a night on the town.
Those two images aren’t deconstruction, not to my way of thinking. They strike me as constructive, as interpretive interventions on your part, Scott.
The original cartoon depicts a night where sexual desire gets preempted by nausea, one bodily need set aside in favor of another, even more pressing one. And this deferral is never-ending, for sexuality can’t be enacted on the comics page. In this sense, Fritzi’s sensuality is the comic’s driving force, for it not only drives reader interest but it also makes necessary the deferrals and complications which serve the strip as gags. No matter how much she primps, the only bumping and grinding that Fritzi and Phil will do is on the ride home.
If I’m on the right track, then, the scissors at the close are Ernie B’s, which he uses in crafting his strip. He murders their desire daily.
Great analysis, Chuck!
Hey, wait a minute, Chuck, I did have a “seemingly” in there, too, to account for my lacking analysis of that particular frame.
In the first, unsubmitted draft of my comment, I wrote a lot more about how that image jarred me but I edited it that part out, since I liked the other parts of this piece so much. I didn’t react good to that panel and I think it’s scary.
I like sex but that image gave me nightmares. Definitely not the association I want to have with scissoring.
[…] zRitz by Scott McCloud (NSFW) […]