| home |
| |
there's not much to say about this website. well, there might be, but essays are not my forte so i'll keep it short and sweet. not sure about the sweet, but it'll be short for sure.
this is my tribute to frank zappa, the musician and the composer. i would also say the man, but i've never had the luck to meet him personally so i can't tell, even if i have this idea that -contrary to most entertainment stars- he would've been a pleasant surprise. all i've read about him led me to think so, and in this i'd like to put him together with jack kirby, another genius in his own field (comics, for those of you who grew up without reading an issue of fantastic four, hulk, silver surfer, thor, the x-men or any of the gazillion characters jack created): it gave (and still gives) me great pleasure to see that such great minds were also mutual admirers. unfortunately, as fate would have it, both of'em died in a few months span across 1993 and 1994, leaving a gaping creativity hole in this mudball. |
|
|
this picture, which was part of an article written by michael james zuccaro for the award-winning magazine "the jack kirby collector", is what actually made the idea of a zappa-themed sketchbook spring to mind. why not put the entertainment forms i like most together? well, i should've found a way to add clint eastwood to the mix, but that's beyond the point... anyway, this is what i did, and you can see the results in the art gallery.
all the portraits have been drawn/painted in different media (ranging from pencil to oils) by comic-books artists, some of whom saw fit to include comics references: dave sim "zappa-ed" his own creation cerebus; giorgio comolo and steven butler (both, like zappa himself, fans of "king" kirby) mixed kirby-created characters with frank's features; roberto ricci portraied him as a don quixote; ken allan included jack kirby and yours truly in his drawing.
i really like each and every one of these portraits and loved to talk with each artist about zappa, because all of these pieces has been drawn by fans. there are many artists who i love that have not been asked to contribute to the sketchbook because they're not zappa fans and i want every single addition to be a work of love, not "just another drawing" (no matter how beautiful).
enough yadda-yadda, now go enjoy the art! |
|
"if you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest, or some guy on tv telling you how to do your shit, then you deserve it" - FRANK ZAPPA |
|
thank yous 'n' credits
first of all, the mother of all "thank you!" to the man himself, frank zappa. what a smaller, sadder world would this be without his music and all-to-brief presence;
a second huge thank you to his wife gail for being the kind of wife that geniuses need to be free to flex their creative muscle;
another humongous thank you goes out to the great artists that i have the honor to host in this website, whose contributions made possible;
much kneeling is due to the scads of unbelievable musicians who turned zappa's dots on paper into audible sound-waves much to the enjoyment of his fans;
thanks to my buddy dom milano (then editorial director of guitar player) for providing me with quite a bit of zappa's reading material;
thanks to the webmasters whose websites i've raided picking up material to insert here. i've always included a link in trade tho...;
and a thank you is due to diego spagnoli, a guy i've had ample disagreements with in the past but to whom i'm indebted for introducing me to zappa's music. ah, the cases of life... |
|
|
| |
|
|
quique alcatena 
