Professor Mencher's Imaginarium A Monochromatic Graphic Novel
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This is a REPRINT of a graphic novel that I produced in 2016. I printed this graphic novel and had a show and artist’s residency June 15-18, 2016 just after I left my position as a tenured professor to pursue a career as a full time artist. The graphic novel and the show were a celebration of my transition and my journey an artist.
I worked on the graphic novel for almost three years. I began it while I was a professor of art and art history. I worked on the novel during my summers, weekends and evenings between 2013 and 2016.
My monochromatic and surreal graphic novel doesn’t have any dialog or text. It’s meant to be a surreal visual journey that is a bit autobiographical. In many ways it’s an exploration of my feelings about my childhood and the role my older brother played in helping me to navigate the world.
All of the art was painted in black and white crayon and watercolor. It’s meant to feel like an old style black and white movie and combine elements from film noir, war films, and Halloween types of imagery. The story is about a prisoner and a little boy (based on images of myself and my older brother.)
The plot of the novel begins with the prisoner and the boy falling asleep and meeting in a dream together. Sort of a “Wizard of Oz” meets the cabinet of “Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” meets Neil Gaiman. The boy and the convict meet and travel through a nocturnal cornfields, mazes, submarines, classrooms and even the Colosseum all while encountering scarecrows, crows, and owls. At times they costume themselves in space suits, sailor’s clothes and business suits.
Some of the imagery is meant to evoke German Expressionist art as well as the drawings of Robert Longo and even Romantic artists such Beardsley, Arnold Bocklin, Odilon Redon and others.
The original printing of the 48 page graphic novel was produced in conjunction with a show of the original artwork while I was artist in residence at the Grand Theatre Center for the Arts in Livermore California.
You can preview the entire graphic novel here:
https://www.blurb.com/books/10128952-professor-mencher-s-imaginarium
You can also watch a short animated video on Youtube here:
I am also selling the original art from the graphic novel.
