help with comic book politics! >_<`

[Thetormentor]

alright guys... sorry my first post is a cry for help. ive been looking at this forum for monthssssss, loving it, and i guess this is the place if anywhere on the net i can get some help. Im on an art course in uni, Instead of abstract experssionism, and all the other valid art movements, (which i have explored and apreciate)on friday after listening and following my tutors directions and ideas like a sheep (and hating my self) i came out the closet in my seminar ... i told my tutor i like comic art, i was interested in graphic art, visual story telling,fantasy.. concept art ect ,that i have been since i was holding a pencil and watching masters of the universe. This did not go down well, he does not take it seriously, thinks i am taking steps backwards, the usual arguments against the style. Sure its accepted now that comics arent just superheros kids stuff anymore, but the fine art world still has its prejudice. So i looked like a dick, he argued me down, and i have one week to research the validity of the art form, however its not classic style comic art per se, you know story blocks and Sequential art , its the style and freedom of the illustrative style i love aswell
so im lookin stuff on the net, and nada,,,, i mean there isnt a name for comic book style graphics. ( that i can find) i get fantasy art , comic art... but i need something more descriptive on the style as a movement, something that lets it stand on its own with surrealism or abstract you know? it takes skill, its a form of escapisim i think its damn important, and im really pissed off at having to defend it, but the better my argument i can show him up, either way im doing what i want to do from now on, even though it will be a battle... id rather do something that im passionate about than dish out art that is meaningless to me....... PHEW

So basically any help on resources on comic art would help me out basically,hahah, sorry for the long blag, ill be posting some of my - post-comic-ilustration-fine-whoknows-art soon enough on this site now im registered at last, easy guys....

[cotron]

tell your professor to eat a dick, first off...

second, check out artists like george pratt, dave mckean, jeff jones, mignola... etc... those guys definitely play on the border of fine art/painting and visual storytelling.

scott mcloud's books are really good at explaining the artform, too.

[nil]

i dunno what to tell you, the only thing i've heard it called apart from comic or fantasy art is 'sequential art'. sure am interested to hear what other people have to say on this though...

[LaPalida]

I dunno anything at all about comics but I read Slaine and that was awesomely illustrated by Simon Bisley. I like Mike Mignola style too. There is a cool one called "World Without End". Other than that your teacher seems to have a pretty narrow vision of what Art is. Sorry can't help out more.

http://www.collectorsmania.com/EBAY%20SCANS/WORLD%20WITHOUT%20END/WORLD%20WITHOUT%20END%2005.jpghttp://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/1840234776.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

[fukifino]

You might also check out some of David Mack's Kabuki series, especially his newest one (Alchemy) and Metamorphisis. He really pushes the envelope of what the visual aspects of the comic medium can be. Metamorphisis was mostly watercolor paintings (if I'm remembering the right book) and the latest series, Alchemy, uses collage, watercolor, ink, everything. There's even a panel in one of the issues that mimcs the styles of various classical painters. (The earlier stuff in the series was fairly classical inkwork, but still pretty good art, and the covers are always exceptional.)

I agree with Cotron...your professer needs to suck it.

[emily g]

Comics work is more respected and appreciated now--there are galleries that have shown work of comic book artists. Maybe your teacher will think the genre is more respectable if x gallery has done a show on it?

And some artists have crossed the line between fine art and commercial art. Salvador Dali, for example, designed movie scenes and did concept art/storyboards for those scenes.

Also, you can look to art history. Using sequential art to tell a story has been used since the beginning of art, ex. ancient Egyptians and Mayan.

emily

[rswanson]

Show your tutor Will Eisner's Comics and Sequential Art and/or Scott McCloud's Understanding comics. Both great books that do a lot to firmly establish the principles of comics and their legitimacy as an art form.

Or just give him a copy of Frank Miller's first Sin City and if he still doesn't get it, then, to quote cotron tell him to eat a dick cuz there's no hope.

[Azazel]

I'd recommend brining up Jean 'Moebius' Giraud who is taken seriously both as a comic book artist and as a traditional artist (and has some of the most precise ink work I've ever seen).

http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/giraud.htm

I couldn't really find any proper galleries during my quick search but you should definatley have a look for it.

[Undertow]

I'm going to second Forest (fukifino) and say grab a bunch of issues of David Macks Kabuki and drop them in your professors lap, and then take Cotrons advice as you lay them down in front of him and say "Eat a dick". Or you can point him to his website.
http://www.davidmack.net/
Other artists I'd recommend that will shut him up are
Ashley Wood
http://www.ashleywoodartist.com/praxis2/
Dave McKean
http://www.mckean-art.co.uk/
Joe Chiodo
http://www.joechiodo.com/art/home.html
Alex Maleev
http://www.anthonysnyder.com/art/maleev.html
Adi Granov
http://www.sofos.com/adi/
Tim Bradstreet
http://www.timbradstreet.com/flash.shtml
James Jean
http://www.jamesjean.com/
Charles Vess
http://www.newlightgallery.com/charlesvess_bio.htm
I could keep going but I think I've given you more than enough ammunition;)
-Mike V

[klid]

after you give the teacher some eisenr, you can give him Panel Discussions (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1893905144/qid=1109132048/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/002-8666382-3405638), good book on design within in comics

[NoUseFrAName]

I second the motion to give him some of Frank Miller's Sin City stuff...that's just gorgeous art.

I would also mention the difference between a comic book, and a comicbook. One is a book of jokes and comedy, the other is a storytelling artform.

If film is a form of art(and it is) then comicbooks are.

-Rob

[Bretton]

definately present some frank miller

and also Alex Ross, he did Batman: War on Crime his books are painted beautifully in watercolor and are very realistic.

[Thetormentor]

cheers guys! yeh i rember seeing the kabuki comics art progress and become more surreal. Really like Ashley Wood, was so close to getting ashleys art book, but spent the money on something else, i decision i have lived to regret. yeh dude slains an amazingbook, did you know its pronounced sloin? i was told that by an irish guy who said its name was irish. Anyway great list of artists to look at, its always inspirational. problem is my seminar is on friday, and no time to get these books,,,, ah shit ill just splash out on ink print outs. anyway i spent all last night researching, and have a messy 10 pages of history, (starting from mythologies being some of our first subjects ie:egyptians, greek, celt art - to renaissance botticelli's venus, michelangelo's sistine chapel...to modern day fantasy art, sub branches of comic books arguably being modern mythologies, basically it all links up in a web of human psyche being vented in creativity.)artists like Moebius have there fingers in many genres ofvisual art. With the examples of all these great artists, ill hopefully get him off my back and let me explore my own visual style rather than his. now all i haveto do is produce a sketchbook of ideas, i chose human body, or was it peice of human being? anyway pretty open so ill let you know how it goes and upload some of my better images, thanks for your all your help

[theincredibleandy]

one word: Maus. It won a pulitzer prize in 1992. Here's the site to prove it:

http://www.pulitzer.org/

The pulitzer committee seemed to think of it as a worthy art form. If documentary films are valid, then this is valid. There's no difference.

But if he wants more proof, then what was the ceiling of the sistine chapel? An illustration of stories in the bible, in sequence. Isn't that sequential art, just like comics? It's already a part of art history, whether he thinks it's valid or not.

[nil]

undertow: yowzer, thanks for the links! <3

[Elwell]

The folks at Fantagraphics (http://www.fantagraphics.com/) take comics VERY (some would say too) seriously. The average issue of The Comics Journal is full of enough artspeak to make any fine arts professor happy.

[Undertow]

undertow: yowzer, thanks for the links! <3
np nil;) I was an aspiring comic book penciller before I was sucked into the gaming industry. I have a few friends and aquantances that work in comics still so I get pissed when someone knocks on comicbooks. To add a few more artists to the previous list, take a look at Travis Charest (currently finishing up a graphic novel for Metabarons), Leinil Yu (close second), and Tim Sale.
-Mike V