Optimum Wound

A boutique black and white comix publisher who celebrates razor sharp writing and badass pen and ink artistry.

Danijel Zezelj Creates HEROES OF SPEED Animated Short for Nike Stadiums [VIDEO]

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Nike has been opening Nike Stadiums all over the planet. They’re described as ‘multi-purpose destinations in Berlin, London, Milan, New York, Paris and Tokyo. Stages for inspired performers, labs for innovative expressions, spaces where stories are told and others are written.”

They’ve been hiring a lot of respected creators to make unique and branded films, photos, books etc…

Artist and Graphic Novelist Danijel Zezelj has been heavily involved in this ongoing project lending an immense hand in the creation of the Heroes of Speed trailer. It’s a short that celebrates legendary moments in soccer (football if you prefer) history.

Danijel Zezelj’s Heroes of Speed animated short

Interview With Danijel Zezelj

And in this video Danijel talks about creating these memorable moments in sports history as well as his paintings that he created for Nike Stadium Milan.

A Whole Lot of New Danijel Zezelj Videos Have Shown up Online

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As I was doing my weekly rounds on YouTube I stumbled across a whole bunch of Danijel Zezelj videos that I hadn’t seen before. He’s always doing multimedia projects with film makers from around the world who are attracted to his paintings and ink renderings. It’s a dark chunky and gritty style that lends itself well to film projects. He also tours both coasts of the US and Eastern Europe annually with Jessica Lurie and company doing painting installations during live music sets.

Below we’ve got a movie trailer, a slideshow, a 2-part short film based on a Zezelj story and another 3-part film that incorporates his art into a narration about the Iraq occupation.

Sun City

This is apparently a trailer bringing Danijel Zezelj’s art to life. I believe it was created for a since abandoned film project based on his Sun City comic. It’s too bad that it didn’t work out. I would have loved to have seen the results. Perhaps now that WALTZ WITH BASHIR has found success hopefully we’ll see more of these projects funded.

Fallout (Ljubljana June 2008)

This is a slide show of photos taken from a performance in Ljubljana Slovenia from June, 2008. Danijel did the live painting in the background while Jessica Lurie, Giorgio Pacorig and Jason Smart performed live.

WAR TALE PART 1 (Racconto di guerra) by Mario Amura

Sarajevo 1993, a paramilitary group uses children without home or family, to plunder buildings that they have just bombed. In exchange they allow them to live in an old factory. In exchange they don’t kill them. Italian Academy award David Di Donatello 2003 winner “RACCONTO DI GUERRA” a short movie directed by Mario Amura. Based on a Danijel Zezelj graphic novel.

WAR TALE PART 2 (Racconto di guerra) by Mario Amura

Baghdad Burning #1

Danijel sent me a link to this last year when they were first airing this. It’s one of those most fascinating uses of his artwork. Riverbend starts her blog “Baghdad Burning”, chronicling her life in Iraq under US occupation

It was a Screenkids.tv series

Illustrations: Danijel Zezelj
Animation & Postproduction: Manuel Steinboeck
German voice: Sherin Zayed
Editor: Richard Brem
The original blog can be found at http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Baghdad Burning #2

In part 2 Riverbend recalls the events of April 9, 2003 – the day the American troops took Riverbend’s hometown Baghdad

Baghdad Burning #3

In part 3 Riverbend tells of the devastating effect the horrific images of tortured Iraqis in the US-run prison of Abu Ghraib had on the Iraqi psyche and how they provoked a response even more horrific – images of Westerners being beheaded…

Danijel Zezelj’s Rex hit shops this week

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Well I guess we’re officially a publisher now. Rex hit stores on Wednesday and I received my pallet of books around the same time. Next week I’ll list all of the various ways that you can get a copy. For now you can still read the whole damn thing over at webcomicsnation.


No I don’t smile for the camera…ever.

DZ now on MySpace

Danijel Zezelj now has a myspace page. It’s quite a comprehensive catalog of all the books he’s done over the last 15 years. There’s still some galleries that need to be put up that contain his Marvel and DC work but it’s a pretty cool page already. Head on over and check it out sometime.

Rex Reviews starting to appear online

A couple of reviews of Rex have already surfaced online and the word is good.


We made sure to print it on the sexy paper…glossy as hell.

Lee Newman of Broken Frontier chimes in…

There is almost a lyrical quality to the script. Not so much in the words, but the way it flows… the surprising last few pages make for the kind of story that one can imagine coming from Jello Biafra or even Henry Rollins (if the later weren’t so interested in laughs)… As to the pencils, they are unmatched by anyone working in comics today. As opposed to looking like line art, this book looks like it is made of Xeroxed photographs. The gritty sheen to the pages enhances the darkness of the story, but things look real, even when we know that they are fantastical. It allows for a unique suspension of disbelief that is so cinematic, it really is like watching a film.

Then Avril Brown of Comics Waiting Room takes a shot…

REX is a story of rage and revenge. The dark, smoky art fits seamlessly with the plot, and adds to the blend of harsh realities and dark fantasies… REX swoops in, punches you in the gut and swans on out without a hint of an apology. It can be a bit cliché at times, and not all of the scenes are easy to understand, but Zezelj makes it impossible not to take something from this book. Brian Azzarello, who wrote the forward, put it best: REX is raw. Most certainly not a typical prison break story, REX is nonetheless a powerful and emotional book that leaves a lasting impression.

And finally our fellow countryman Nick Defina over at Septagon Studios gave us the Indie Spotlight this week.

Thanks to everyone for giving the book a shot. We’re just getting started. We’ve only sold 25% of the first printing and still have 2300 copies on hand. We’re in this for the long haul.

You should see the lineup of artists I have for our forthcoming “Masters of Ink” interviews. Hope to have the first one up next week.
-Jay

Danijel Zezelj Badassery on YouTube

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Here’s some vids you’ve probably never seen featuring Danijel’s artwork.

Splinter Title Sequence


Design and animation by Jamieson Fry, illustrations by Danijel Zezelj.

Danijel’s artwork was taken and used in the motion graphics intro sequence from Michael D. Olmos’ film Splinter. The combination of images and music gives me goosebumps. Truly amazing. I caught this on DVD a few months ago. Nice gritty little crime flick. Michael’s dad Edward James Olmos (Colonel Adama) appears in the film as well.

The Shop of Wild Dreams

Here’s a second vid featuring Danijel doing a live painting session during an improvised oerformance by Jessica Lurie (sax) Andrew Drury (drums) Danilo Gallo (bass) Alfonso Santimone (piano). Gallery D406, Modena, Italy, Oct. 2006.

Danijel also now has a Facebook page (not profile) which will be updated regularly.

-Jay

Optimum Wound Comics to Unleash Danijel Zezelj’s Rex in May 2008

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OPTIMUM WOUND COMICS TO UNLEASH DANIJEL ZEZELJ’S REX IN MAY

REX_graphic_novella-Cover
For the first time ever, acclaimed graphic novelist and artist, Danijel Zezelj’s earlier and darkest book Rex, will be released in an English edition from Optimum Wound Comics (www.optimumwound.com).
The original pages were retrieved in May, 2007 from Croatia. They have been rescanned, retouched and the English translation was given a fresh polish. Rex is currently serializing as a webcomic and new pages go up every Wednesday at www.webcomicsnation.com/optimumwound. This has helped attract thousands of new readers to the book. It has been an honor, privilege and master class in comics working with Danijel this past year.
The man called “Rex” is imprisoned as a decorated police officer, emerging on the other side of his prison sentence as an unrecognizable monster, created by years of obsession. He searches for both closure and bloodshed as he tracks down a love from his past to say goodbye, and then feverishly turns his eye toward hunting down the men responsible for making him the brutal beast he has become.
May 7 – 80 pages – B&W – $9.95 – March Previews catalog: pg. 321, order code MAR08 3903.
“Revenge stories are timeless, and REX is one of the better ones. Zezelj’s art, no matter how beautiful and stylized it gets, retains a strong sense of realism that’s like a punch in the gut.” -Brian Wood, Writer of DMZ, Northlanders & Demo
“Zezelj’s glorious, hardcore black and white style grabs you by the throat and crushes your wind pipe with its Ink-chiseled-graphic-brilliance and sheer power of imagery. “REX” is a triumph of this extraordinary artist’s unique and compelling vision.” – Tim Bradstreet, illustrator (The Punisher, Hellblazer, Criminal Macabre) and co-founder of Raw Studios.
Danijel Zezelj is a graphic artist and illustrator, author of more than twenty-five graphic novels. His comics and illustrations have appeared in magazines and anthologies in Croatia, Slovenia, England, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, South Africa and the USA. Danijel’s work has been published by DC Comics/Vertigo, Marvel Comics, The New York Times Book Review, Harper’s Magazine, San Francisco Guardian, Washington Chronicle, etc. Most recently he has contributed art to DC Vertigo’s Loveless, Hellblazer, DMZ and Image Comic’s 24/7 anthology.
Optimum Wound Comics is a boutique publisher operating out of Vancouver, Canada, specializing in dark crime and horror graphic novels. OWC has been in operation since 2005 mainly as a webcomics channel.

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