Pillar of Art & Story
I just put up a shelf in my studio and am at last able to have the majority of my favorite comics-related titles and collections all available at a glance. It’s a bit intimidating to share my studio so palpably with the likes of the giants upon whose shoulders I (along with the rest of the artists and writers making comics today) stand. It’s also exhilarating and inspiring to see the massive range of talent and vision that this field has accommodated and nurtured, and to know the Trekker has been and continues to be fed by that rich landscape.
From the early masters of the form– like Kubert, Raymond, Eisner,Foster and Toth (sorry I didn’t squeeze Caniff in here!) to some of the most vibrant storytellers working today, every artist is well-served to seek the richest creative pools to drink from. The good news is that this is hardly a difficult task–there are more delightful stories told in a wider variety of settings and styles than ever before.
I’ll be dipping deeper into some of those sources starting next week when the first page of Mercy’s latest story posts. For “Jekka” I was drawing from classic sci-fi adventure. But starting Monday, “The Volstock Payoff” will need to look to grittier, urban crime sources. It’s a good thing I got such a tall bookshelf….
AL WILLIAMSON
JEREMY COLWELL
JOE KUBERT
MARK SCHULTZ
PAUL CHADWICK
PERISCOPE STUDIO
RonRandall.com
THOMAS YEATES
FAMILY MAN
MAD GENIUS COMICS
PERILS ON PLANET X
QUANTUM VIBE
THE LAST DIPLOMAT
THRILLBENT
TRAGEDY SERIES
TRANSPOSE OPERATOR
That’s an interesting selection of books (yes, I’m the kind of guy who looks at the photo trying to read all the titles on the spines!); I’m not surprised to see Eisner, Kubert, Caniff et al. in there, as their influence can be seen in your art, but I see you have some Hugo Pratt as well. It hadn’t occurred to me before, but now that I think about it, I can see some of his influence on your storytelling…which is great because I always loved his Corto Maltese stuff.
Yes– I think there’s a lot of shared sensibility between Caniff and Pratt especially. Caniff’s bold, coarse textural approach to his rendering as well as his over-all storytelling sense of structure and pacing, which I’d describe as bold and “muscular” were all profound influences on a wide range of European cartoonists, it seems to me. I think those influences in my own work are perhaps more subtle due to my love of clean line work and more “romantic” or idealize imagery. But, whenever they do seep in, they bring great energy!