It's not often that artwork reminds me of music. Looking at a Rothko I start to hear deep, droning ambient sounds layering on top of one another. Stephen Fabian's artwork reminds me of the perfect prog rock album that was never made. I want to hear those narrative songs telling the stories these images are about. Soaring, methodical, noodling guitar work and passionate vocals. Fabian's forms are lyrical in their own sense. The curves are like the language of music. The shifts in color and value are like the shifts in the moods of a song's story. Visual art and music don't occupy the same kind of interplay with Time. Visual art is consumed at the viewers' leisure. Music is consumed during its allotted time. A painting doesn't occupy the same amount of time as a song. Yet, Fabian's work does in a sense. Eyes traveling across any of his presented image-scapes is a journey through time.
All artwork by Stephen Fabian
Benjamin Marra is the creator, writer, and artist of the comics NIGHT BUSINESS, AMERICAN BLOOD, and TERROR ASSAULTER: O.M.W.O.T. (One Man War On Terror), all published by Fantagraphics. Acclaimed writer Grant Morrison chose Marra as a collaborator on the first issue of the relaunched HEAVY METAL Magazine. Marra had two serialized webcomic series appear on adultswim.com. His most recent book is JESUSFREAK, written by Joe Casey and published by Image Comics. In 2016, he was named one of the Art Directors Club's Young Guns. He illustrated the cover of American Illustration 35. In 2017, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for his album art of Wayfaring Strangers: Acid Nightmare, a collection of obscure 1970s post-Age-of-Aquarius Heavy Metal.
On this winter day in Montreal, cartooning isn’t the first thing on Benjamin Marra’s mind. Instead, with his wife and infant son, he’s attempting his ...
