heroes and villains

I missed the last Oakland Art Murmur because I was off partying with Jeremy Jay for my birthday or some such activity, but Brent and I stopped by Rock Paper Scissors today to check out their excellent Heroes and Villains group show before it closes next weekend.  The show features a number of works by artists that I love, including Alika Cooper's poignant gouaches of superheroines (one of which is pictured here) and Deth P. Sun's heroic cat-warrior in pieces familiar from his recent show at Rowan Morrison.  I giggled out loud at Derek Wood's photographs of himself as He-Man, posing as if for Calvin Klein magazine ads in a flaxen wig, and enjoyed his dual portraits of before-and-after He-Man and of Megatron and Optimus Prime painted on small blocks of wood.  Clearly that man grew up with the same cartoons I did.  I was also very happy to be introduced to Ben Catmull's work, especially the pages on display from his Fantagraphics comic Monster Parade.  Two words: bear flood.