Comics

Ogle Some Hardbodies at Domy Books

Saturday night, Art Attack swung by Domy Books for the opening of their newest exhibition, Hardbodies, where we got an eyefull of a new age of comic art. Hardbodies features the work of four comic/cartoon artists, Benjamin Marra, Zack Soto, Keenan Marshall Keller and Nathan Fox. Domy's creative director and co-founder, Russell Etchen, curated the show.

"Each artist is representative of the greater comic world," he says. As a result, all four artists have a distinct style and the drawings showcased demonstrate this well.

Benjamin Marra's technique conjures memories of old-school comics, but only on a surface level. Take a closer look; reading the dialogue, you realize you are dealing with a super hero comic book about New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

Etchen, who is a big fan of Ben Marra, tells us that Marra helped make this show happen. When some other artists didn't pan out, Etchen reached out to Marra for ideas. "Marra is the master," says Etchen. "He has a flair that recalls a different age of comics."

So it's no wonder that when Marra suggested the other three artists, Etchen was completely on board.

Nathan Fox is probably the most notable of the group as well as the most accessible. His drawings have donned the walls of The MTV Store in Times Square and Brooklyn Industries, and he has been published in The New York Times Magazine, ESPN Magazine, Wired and more. His drawings instantly pull you in, whether it is the contrast of pink against the saturated yellow detail of a girl's bedroom in the print "Bubble Gum Girl" or the vivid color splayed against the deck of a skateboard. He brings to mind Roy Lichtenstein on LSD.

While many of the prints are for sale, you can always go and get lost in the other world images posted on Domy's walls for free.

The Hardbodies exhibition runs through August 4 at Domy Books, 1709 Westheimer.

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Abby Koenig
Contact: Abby Koenig