Manic Energy
Apparently, voicst is South African slang for manic energy. It’s also the name of a (new?) three-piece band from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. They’re called an indie rock band, but yeah, so is everyone these days.
I’ve no idea how that C in voicst is pronounced though (as in voiced, voikst?) and I’m not so sure these guys are all that indie, or all that rock for that matter.
However, I do like the video to their track Feel like A Rocket:
The artwork in the video was done by Dutch illustrator/ animator/ designer/ director Fons Schiedon, who’s worked for MTV and Nickelodeon.
In space, no one can hear you bleep
Feeling quite de-oxygenated
Some more artwork by Fons:
Happy-heavy pandabear with a digestive problem?
I’m not sure I’ve seen any other stuff by the guy, but it looks pretty cool. I suppose when it comes to Nick, I’m more into the Angry Beavers kinda comics.
What’s your favorite comic/ artwork/ illustration?
Voicst on Wikipedia
Voicst on Last.fm Fons Schiedon on Pictoplasma
Voicst on Flickr
“They’re called an indie rock band, but yeah, so is everyone these days.”
I remember saying the same thing when “Alternative” became the mainstream.
As for illustration — that’s a great question. Since most of my experience comes from comics and animation, I’ll stick with those. First off, the colors: I tend to like very vivid colors, so that’s generally a priority. (I hate the trend towards “reality is brown” that a loot of comics and games took up.)
As for the artwork itself, it depends: in graphic novels I enjoy more of the realist style of art, sort of like what Marvel and DC have been doing in their “Secret Invasion” and “Infinite Crisis” runs. In animations I haven’t really seen anything that has caught my eye as of late. I tend to despise the grotesque quality that became popularly emphasized after Ren and Stimpy in the 90’s, yet there I tend to NOT like realist settings all that much. (Titan A.E. is an exception.) In those cases I almost prefer the highly-corporatized stuff that comes out of Warner Brothers (specifically “The Animaniacs” and the “Batman Animated Series/Batman Beyond”), and also the more realistic looking anime, like “Love Hina” and even “Spirited Away” which was both realistic (Chihiro) and cartoony (everyone else). And finally there’s the CGI stuff. There’s where I tend to enjoy a certain level of cartoony realism, a-la “The Incredibles”. While I appreciate things like “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” and “Final Fantasy: Advent Children”, the only true saving grace for this style is the fact that the settings often don’t translate to live-action well. Otherwise, why bother with CGI?
July 21st, 2008 at 10:01 pmSome great pointers there Norbert, thanks.
I’m on, what you could call, vacation. That is, teh innernet’s far away and in between
But I’m always dying to investigate comics more (and write more about them myself) so I’ll be sure to check these out.
Thanks for the reply and the conv.
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:22 pm