Last night was the opening night for the latest exhibition of Comics related art at Orbital Comics - STRIPPED - an exhibition celebrating the iconography of comics.
This is another exhibition curated by the transgressive artist Jason Atomic. The exhibition features some amazing works by painters and photographers, as well as contributions from fan favourite Garry Leach, including one downright pornographic double pager for Penthouse comics. It's worth popping in to Orbital just for that one (but don't take the kids). There are also some beautiful prints of Steve Cook's comic-book inspired photography. Jason has created a blog to accompany the exhibition. Comixstripped Blogspot is well worth checking out for lots of interviews and visuals to complement the exhibition.
UPDATE: To complete the circle, Comixstripped has now linked back at us: Stripped blog-a-thon
Jason was accompanied to the opening night by his model and muse, Honey Manko, who posed for Steve's version of Black Widow. One of the items for sale, which drew my attention, is One Honey of an 'O', a fascinating collection of some of Jason Atomic's infamous collages.
For years Jason has been combining his twin obsessions - comics and pornography - in a series of scrapbooks that only visitors to his studio have been privileged to see. It was Honey who persuaded him to unleash a chosen few of these artworks on an unsuspecting public - in this case, me. I've scanned a few of the pages to share with you.
After the exhibition, we retired to a nearby watering hole where Jason and Honey kindly personalised my copy with these delightful sketches.
Steve recorded the moment here.
An inspiring and educational evening, during which I learned that Manko is the Japanese word for cunt and Jason Atomic is an anagram of Satanic Mojo.
Here's a video featuring typically sedate appearances from both Jason Atomic and Honey Manko.
