The Art Of Cancer

(Via)

Wooha! While we initially thought that Cancer was a Japanese artist based off of his taste in subject matter, we quickly realized that the talented 23 year old illustrator actually hails from China. That's what kind of tipped us off about his work, the fact that it was so uncharacteristically painterly for fanart. Not saying that this level of rendering doesn't exist in the Japanese fanart scene, it's just rare.

Cancer's artistic upbringing with a lot of traditional mediums is front and center here, featuring a really cool rendering style that mimics painterly brush strokes and a fantastic grasp on subtle color variation. This imbues his tribute pieces to franchises including Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and Kill La Kill with a level of refinement that's truly above and beyond what we're used to seeing from fanart. Couple that with a smattering of really cool personal pieces and you've got one solidly rounded out illustrator. Check out more of his awesome work after the break.

The Art of Yusuke Matsumoto (Three Bar)

(via)

Yusuke Matsumoto's (also known as Three Bar) work has caught my attention for a while, his distinct character designs are best described as "anime punk-rock" with it's gritty feel. Mixing pieces of pop culture, Three Bar blends the lines between nerd culture and a grungey cyberpunk-esque future. The sketchy lines and scenes of subtle violence reminisce of Dorohedoro's Q Hayashida's work in all the best ways.

With the amount of character in each piece, Three Bar's work is a batch of character designs that are deserving of a serialized manga. After the jump is more of Three Bar's work, that JoJo's Bizarre adventure piece is damn awesome.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle Is Looking Hot

Can this game get any more fabulous? Hirohiko Akari's famously quirky series, featuring many generations of protagonists cursed with the gift of perma-voguing and entities known as 'Stands' has long begged for a proper videogame adaptation, and this latest trailer has sold me on that aspect. Araki's dynamic style has always hit a certain note in me, mixing high fashion, idealized masculinity and the aesthetics of the highly unorthodox color schemes of Paul Gauguin to create a truly striking, over the top series that's left an impression on me.



I personally couldn't be happier that the folks over at CyberConnect2, best known here in the US for their stellar Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm series took the reigns for this project. The game is currently slated for an August 29 release date in Japan, but we're hopefuly that All Star Battle will make the jump overseas sometime soon. Yare Yare Daze!

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure - All Star Battle Gets A Shiny New Trailer

Another new trailer arrives for the upcoming Jojo's Bizarre Adventure : All Stars Battle, a title that will thankfully be heading to US shores. The folks at Namco/Bandai have been doing a fantastic job of showing off just how faithfully they can adopt manga series into videogame form, especially ever since they finally nailed the formula with the Naruto : Ultimate Ninja Storm series.

Based off of the ongoing series by Hirohiko Akari, who has been writing and illustrating the series for 25 years now, the game will feature characters from the eight chapters created since 1987, with an emphasis on staying loyal to the narrative. You guys should really check out the manga if you're looking for something truly outside the box, the man has a knack for coming up with some of the craziest concepts I've ever had the joy of reading. Just to give you a frame of reference in terms of how influential Akari has been as a mangaka, he was invited by the Musée du Louvre to contribute work for their comic exhibition, as well as collaborations with Gucci, Lawson and other companies.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - All Star-Battle

As a huge fan of the bizarre world that the manga known as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has managed to give me over a span of an incredible 24 years (Starting in 1987 on Japan's Weekly Shonen Jump), the series focused on the misadventures of a family known as the Joestars. Each of the family members possesses a bloodline curse in the shape of a star shaped birthmark, which gives them the power to harness unique 'Stands,' special spirits that take on a shape distinct to their owners.

The series blew me away with its insanely creative approach to explaining these powers, and the epic battles between these different protagonists and their distinct powers. The only problem with this series is that I don't think it ever got videogame justice, with a slew of half assed fighting games being released over the last decade or two. However, this newly announced BandaiNamco title, called Jojo's Bizarre Adventure : All Star-Battle might just have a chance to redeem the series' videogame reputation with an awesome looking graphical engine that pays tribute to 24 years of memorable characters and the distinct style of the series.