Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Inspiring Artists: Fabrice Parme

A few years ago, my friend Ahmed introduced me to a french artist by the name of Fabrice Parme. Like many European artists, Fabrice is an expert cartoonist and storyteller. One of the biggest things that struck me about his work though, is his amazing sense of design. It's in his characters, backgrounds, props, and in his compositions.

He's got a very keen eye for shape, proportion, and pattern. Check out that awesome bed and toys.

I LOVE the plane in this shot. Very caricatured.

His cars are very fun as well. Especially the Number 08 car. Hilarious!

The first series of his I hunted down was "Le Roi Catastorphe" , which roughly translates into "The King catastrophe". There are nine books in the series, and just loaded with lots of fantastic artwork. Luckily enough I found a place back in Montreal, Canada where the price was very decent with the exchange (~$15 Canadian), and very fast shipping. Great store...check it out here.

Some covers and interiors:









So not to be a one trick pony, after Le Roi Catastrophe Fabrice decided to change gears a little and do a book called Venezia. The style's a little more comic bookish but still full of lush designs.


In my quest for even more Fabrice, I came across a very early graphic novel book he did called "Sang de Vampire". You can tell he's still struggling with finding his style, but the foundation is there. Still great character design sensibilities.


A great lineup of characters! Each one has a unique shape and is easily identifiable as that character if the lineup was all in silhouette.

My favorite page in the whole book ;)

So flash forward to the present! What's he been up to recently? Well at comicon, I came across his newest book, "Ovni".

In this book, he changes pace again with a sort "Where's Waldo" type layout. Each spread follows a little alien that crash lands on earths...over the course of human evolution. Caveman, Aztec, Roman..all the civilizations are in there.



So that about sums up my fascination with Fabrice Parme. Hope you guys liked it. If I get enough people interested, I'll see if I can put together another posts outlining another one of my favorite artists. Maybe some Jolly Roger Bradsfield, or Mel Crawford.

28 comments:

Jupey said...

gold star for Venezia! lotsa detail arranged beautifully!

Drake Brodahl (pumml) said...

This is amazing stuff! Never knew about this guy. Would love to see posts on Crawford and Bradsfield too.

Chris Battle said...

Thanks for sharing! Now I have a (perhaps) more affordable source for my French Komix fix.... I label you as an "enabler", sir.

Sean Szeles said...

Very insightful Professor Lambe.

Dan said...

very inspiring indeed...looks like i got some books to buy.

meralda said...

I, I love this artist to and they prepare an animated serie about : le roi catastrophe but i don'tknow what will be the name for the serie in english... and you can chek for another serie in animation call: la famille pirate. Fabrice made de design for it and it's a great show

RAWLS said...

Yea...Parme is a sick arteest!

Dagan Moriarty said...

WOW!
This is my first time seeing Fabrice Parme's work... I am TOTALLY blown away by it! :)

AMAZING!

You've made an instant fan of me, sir... Thank you for turning me onto this amazing artist!

I'm brimming with inspiration, this work is truly jaw-dropping.
Must-go-get------BETTER! ;)

Mick said...

oh man this is quite weird. i was thinking about this artist this very week. A fella in ireland had a wee pamphlet story by the guy and it went missing from the studio i was as pissed off as he was... anyway I haven't visited your blog for a while and then here is a post with the stuff right here.... some coincidence ey? Thanks for sharing. The fellow is a great inspiration certainly

Anonymous said...

Wow. This stuff is incredible--a very imaginative and lively style. I see that there is an English-language version of volume 1 of "Le Roi Catastorphe" on Amazon, called "Tiny Tyrant." I especially love the "Ovni" book and am going to HAVE to get a copy. Anyone know of a source to get one on the U.S. side of the ocean?

Samanta Erdini said...

Heyyy Nice Book! I would love to have one of this!! You drew so Cool!!
I love it Really!!
I will back to check your works
Samy

Mukpuddy said...

Man this guys stuff is awesome bro!! I've never heard of him so thanks for the heads up!! I love the stuff from the book up picked up at comoc con!!

K.B. said...

Exzeelent Steven. Great new find. Thanks for sharing. You are like a modern day Johnny Appleseed.

Unknown said...

Wow! You do manage to find a lot of nice shit Steve.
Post all your main guys! I need to learn more to so I'm lovin it!

Jav said...

HAH! My friend George checked his e-mail and I didnt realize that I was still logged in under his name...
I wonder how many comments have been like this? Nice....

monkeyfeather said...

Awesome Post sir! I recently discovered this Parme fellow and I must say, HE ROCKS. I believe First Second has the first volume of Tiny Tyrant (in english) which, is how I discovered him. I'll have to hunt down his other work now. Thanks... jerk.

Martin Hsu said...

yup, truly inspirational stuff. Thanks for sharing my friend! Now I must own these books!

Drazen said...

I love his work too
the vampire book is my favourite still, I sumbled on it
years ago.

Mitchel Kennedy said...

Hey Steve! Great artwork!!

It's inspiring to see a fellow Maritimer down in LA making such pretty pictures.

Marlo said...

very cool, thanks for sharing Mr. Lambey!

Anonymous said...

Where's your email??

Anonymous said...

Thanks !

f* Parme

Cuentos de Antiguamente said...

Hello Steve.
I have the "Vampire book" of Fabrice.
I buy a lot of years ago, in a little bookstore.
I love the "King Ctastrophe" books also.
Very stylized guy!!!
Best

benjamin trobat -cartoonist- said...

great characters man! :)

Fabio Lai said...

I love Parme's work too. Have you seen this? http://www.virginie.fr/fabrice-parme.html

Mathieu Maillefer said...

Fabrice Parme is a great cartoonist.
I love his work too.
But he's not enough famous in our country.
His work on Ovni is amazing (in collaboration with the great Lewis Trondheim)
This project is about to be an animated show.
Here's the link to watch the pilot :
http://www.spirit-prod.com/site/ovni.html

Enjoy !

PS : Forgive me for my awful english

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