Monday, October 11, 2010

Comic Influences

     Sure, I've always liked the whole motif of excitement, action, and suspense used in the classic comic books. Brave and selfless superheroes, gruff crime-fighters and detectives, gods and creatures concieved by the wildest of imaginations and forced in to worlds of color and lushness. Who hasn't day dreamed about what their superpower would be, or how their own hero would look and act? I have, to be sure.  But in terms of my own work, which is more comic in nature, my major influences come not from gritty graphic novels but from the newspapers.

       Pogo Possum may be an unfamiliar character to many people my own age. I had the fortune of reading Walt Kelly's amazing strip due to a few anthology's of my dad. Before the days of mind numbing sameness ala Garfield and friends, Pogo Possum, Albert the Alligator, and all the others not only entertained but highlighted provocative issues about the environment and politics at the time. My love of the strip goes beyond the stories, however. Kelly's ability to render his characters in such a simple, yet elegant way makes me very jealous, and I can only hope that one day it is as effortless for me as his drawings seem.
    
     Calvin and Hobbes is my next real influence. Bill Waterson created a true world of imagination, and Calvin in a truly heroic protagonist. Again, he is an artist in every way, especially his ability to bring up social and philisophical issues in an unconventional medium. He is a natural visual artist, blending his sketches with watercolors to achieve amazing results. His choice to refuse any licensing of Calvin and Hobbes merchandise has kept the strip and its characters pure, an act that I wish more comic creators would emulate.
    Those are my two real influences, at least in terms of the work I've started in class. The foucs on animals and the natural world by these two artists is obvious, and both concepts are mirrored in my own work. If I can created pieces half as elegant and thoughtful it will be a success

No comments:

Post a Comment