QUALITY JOE (5)

By: Joe Alterio
May 26, 2017

One in a series of ten posts showcasing the talents of HILOBROW friend and contributor Joe Alterio. To see more, visit Joe’s website.

Weldon Owen reached out to me last year to offer that rare gem to an illustrator, the book cover and insides, which was very flattering. Editor Lucie Parker gave me a long leash to try things, and we settled on the Rube Goldberg-esque (a hero of mine) notion of invention as a good metaphor. The one big question was what the object in question being invented was. After some bad ideas by me, the radically simple idea was obvious — it was a simple cube, a proxy for whatever the author or reader’s could imagine. The joke being that all of this energy was expended in the making of this most common of objects.

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MORE POSTS by JOE ALTERIO: QUALITY JOE: sketches vs. finished drawings | ROBOTS & MONSTERS series | Q&A with Gary Panter and Charles Burns | CABLEGATE COMIX | KIRB YOUR ENTHUSIASM: Black Panther | KIRK YOUR ENTHUSIASM: Kirk vs. Gorn | KERN YOUR ENTHUSIASM: Akzidenz-Grotesk | GROK MY ENTHUSIASM: Million Year Picnic | and HILO HERO items on Winsor McCay, Django Reinhardt, Wendy Pini, and many others.

CURATED SERIES at HILOBROW: UNBORED CANON by Josh Glenn | CARPE PHALLUM by Patrick Cates | MS. K by Heather Kasunick | HERE BE MONSTERS by Mister Reusch | DOWNTOWNE by Bradley Peterson | #FX by Michael Lewy | PINNED PANELS by Zack Smith | TANK UP by Tony Leone | OUTBOUND TO MONTEVIDEO by Mimi Lipson | TAKING LIBERTIES by Douglas Wolk | STERANKOISMS by Douglas Wolk | MARVEL vs. MUSEUM by Douglas Wolk | NEVER BEGIN TO SING by Damon Krukowski | WTC WTF by Douglas Wolk | COOLING OFF THE COMMOTION by Chenjerai Kumanyika | THAT’S GREAT MARVEL by Douglas Wolk | LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE by Chris Spurgeon | IMAGINARY FRIENDS by Alexandra Molotkow | UNFLOWN by Jacob Covey | ADEQUATED by Franklin Bruno | QUALITY JOE by Joe Alterio | CHICKEN LIT by Lisa Jane Persky | PINAKOTHEK by Luc Sante | ALL MY STARS by Joanne McNeil | BIGFOOT ISLAND by Michael Lewy | NOT OF THIS EARTH by Michael Lewy | ANIMAL MAGNETISM by Colin Dickey | KEEPERS by Steph Burt | AMERICA OBSCURA by Andrew Hultkrans | HEATHCLIFF, FOR WHY? by Brandi Brown | DAILY DRUMPF by Rick Pinchera | BEDROOM AIRPORT by “Parson Edwards” | INTO THE VOID by Charlie Jane Anders | WE REABSORB & ENLIVEN by Matthew Battles | BRAINIAC by Joshua Glenn | COMICALLY VINTAGE by Comically Vintage | BLDGBLOG by Geoff Manaugh | WINDS OF MAGIC by James Parker | MUSEUM OF FEMORIBILIA by Lynn Peril | ROBOTS + MONSTERS by Joe Alterio | MONSTOBER by Rick Pinchera | POP WITH A SHOTGUN by Devin McKinney | FEEDBACK by Joshua Glenn | 4CP FTW by John Hilgart | ANNOTATED GIF by Kerry Callen | FANCHILD by Adam McGovern | BOOKFUTURISM by James Bridle | NOMADBROW by Erik Davis | SCREEN TIME by Jacob Mikanowski | FALSE MACHINE by Patrick Stuart | 12 DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE | 12 MORE DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE | 12 DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE (AGAIN) | ANOTHER 12 DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE | UNBORED MANIFESTO by Joshua Glenn and Elizabeth Foy Larsen | H IS FOR HOBO by Joshua Glenn | 4CP FRIDAY by guest curators

Categories

Art, Spectacles