Were You Influenced by Comic Book Artists?

[NoSeRider]

I know a lot of you say 'now' that you're influenced by NC Wyeth, Winslow Homer, Howard Pyle, John Singer Sargent...and so on, BUT initially was or is your initial inspiration come form comic book artists?

It seems our first impressions of what concept art is comes from either comic books or perhaps cartoons when we're impressionable and young. I've gone to Gnomon workshops and have heard about statements at the Massive Black Workshops.

Justin Sweet stated his initial influence was John Buscema
Dan Milligan stated his initial influence was Frank Frazetta

I've seen other artists work and I can clearly see influences of John Byrne.

And I'm always amazed by Travis Charest, Adam Hughs and Neal Adams.

Was your initial inspiration from comic book artists, and who were they?

A lot of people like Jeffrey Jones and Bernie Wrightson, who's talent goes way beyond most people, were and are comic book artists and are now considered iconic in ability.

IF you're no longer inspired by comic book art now, why did you move on?

[Rich Pellegrino]

Todd McFarlance baby. Who didn't like all those Spidey comics and the early Spawn?

[jrr]

well for me everything started with winnie the pooh, then art adams comics then neal adams, frazetta and charest. i still love looking at that stuff

[Tully]

For me it was fantasy illustrators like Keith Parkinson and Larry Elmore when I was about 10 years old. My brother read comics and I think they influenced him tons (he's also an artist), but I never really paid a whole lot of attention to them.

[2b BOY]

My first inspiration from a comic book artist would be Glenn Fabry. The covers for the Preacher and Hellblazer comics are amazing. One thing that seems to bother people is the over use of muscle with children and women, but I always found it interesting. His websites Q&A is full of great advice. And on the japanese side, it would Hiroaki Samura. He did the Blade of the Immortal Manga.

http://www.glennfabry.co.uk/

Drama, Exxageration, Realism, Good (perhaps cliche) composition, great style.
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Rythm, Rythm, Rythm

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I like the word for some reason. RYTHM. Say it slowly. It sounds funny, just like Scuba. Ryyyyyyyyttttthhhhhmmmm.

It's all in the timiiiiiinnnggg. Hehehe

You can tell Glenn was highly influenced by Hogarth.

[blog]

fuck yeah, you bet I was. And 2b BOY? those images are the shit!

[rblitz7]

WOW those Preacher covers are fantastic! have to look that guy up.

[3ch1n0]

Calvin and Hobbes by Watterson.

[j a k e]

For me it was all MAD magazine. And from there I never looked back!

[Hyskoa]

JtHM. Nuff said.

[Ostrander]

Bernie Wrightson's work influenced me enormously growing up. Especially through high school. I discovered him through reading Stephen King, ala Cycle of the Werewolf. I had seen work from him previously when I was a little kid (but didn't realise it till later on) when my older brother brought home Mary Shelly's Frankenstein from the public library. I had to of been maybe 7 or 8 when I saw those pen and ink illustrations he had done. When I was in high school I found everything I could get my hands on from the guy. (of course this continued on through college and beyond some) Haunting the local comic cons for anything done by the guy. From there it was a natural progression of looking at who influenced his work. Going back to Frazetta and the old EC/MAD comic artists (Jack Davis, Graham Ingles, Wally Wood) and further back to some of the great american illustrators like Franklin Booth and NC Wyeth. And looking Wrightson's contemporaries he worked along side in the 70's. Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor-Smith, Jeff Jones.
Some other artist that had an impact on me were Art Adams, Brian Bolland (the Art of Brian Bolland is incredible), Charles Vess. Those guys were all great too. I could probably name a dozen more. There's such a wealth of incredible imagery generated from the field of comics that it's impossible not to get any influence from it. I'm still inspired.

[Lone Wolf]

Erik Larsen! His work on Savage Dragon was just mind-blowing, I use to walk 1.5 hr. to my local comic book shop in the middle of a Canadian winter just to get my hands on a new SD book.
-Mike Mignola is a big inspiration right now.
-Frank Miller
-Leinil Francis Yu
-Joe Madureira
-Dale Keown- PITT!

[bunny]

The MAXX, baby. Wonderfully strange!

[megadubitably]

...I liked the "Where's Waldo" drawer guy, does that count? Also, the Sandman comic books (graphic novels, whatever) were amazing, even though many different illustrators worked on that series.

[sweetoblivion314]

Im trying to think back to my first influence and its kinda hard. i'd have to say its either Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird with TMNT or Jim Lee's X-Men. i loved those comics as a kid and drew them all day long. However the first time i really remember saying "it would be awsome to be an illustrator for a living" i think was when i played M:tG in High school and saw Todd Lockwood's Bronze Angel painting. And i just realized the other day that one of my favorite book covers i saw as a kid was from Boris Vallejo. It was his painting of Dracula (without the girl). I actualy stole the book from the school book drive when i saw it just for the cover haha.

Comics still influence me but not really your standerd superhero comic style. i still love the TMNT style, other then that i love Frank Miller and Tim Sale. The Sandman comics have awsome illustrations also. I like the grittier darker style and Noir is awsome.

[wil.whalen]

A lot of my initial exposure to the kind of art I (try to) do now was on Magic:tG cards. I always liked looking at comic book covers in the shops, but the interior art always turned me off from reading them.

[bhanu]

Mike mignola , ashley wood are really inspiring me right now. ALso dave mackean and kent williams.

[Elwell]

Neal Adams, John Buscema, John Byrne, Howard Chakin, Walt Simonson, Bill Sienkewicz, Wll Eisner, the Hernadez brothers...

[Rich Pellegrino]

Elwell, does Bill Sienkewicz still teach at SVA?

You guys are taking me back to some great memories. I forgot all about the Eastman and Laird TMNT comics I used to have. I think the new movie is sort of based on them from what it looks like. Who here had all of the Jim Lee X-men 1 variant covers? I know I did!

[CCThrom]

My really earliest influences would've been Dr Seuss and RL Neil.

Didn't get into comics until a bit later... but heck yeah! Frank Frazetta, George Herriman, Winsor McCay, Berni Wrightson, Todd MacFarlane, John Romita, Mark Texiera... I'm sure there's tons more if I think about it.

[2b BOY]

My newest one is Ben Templesmith. Check his website out, great artist.

www.Templesmith.com

[Eric Lofgren]

Comics are what initally lead me into art. It's tough to nail down influences, but in the case of John Byrne, ala The Dark Pheonix saga, it isn't. Most particularily when he was inked by Terry Austin. But I was also very inspired by Sal (not John) Buscema at an early age. Then John Buscema, of course. And John Bolton. Hmmm...lot's of Johns :) Very early on, it was Joe Kubert's work in his war comics and the artist for Magnus, Robot Fighter. We're talking late 60's early 70's there, but I can't recall any names for Magnus. There are a number of Gold Key artists worth mentioning as well, for when I was very young, but again I can't recall names.

Lately, I've become a huge Mignola fan. Followed by Arthur Adams and Jimmy Cheung. There are others, of course, such as Wrightson and Frazetta, the usual suspects. But in terms of strictly comics, definitely the ones I mentioned above. Honourary mention goes to Charest and Kirby.

[Professor Az]

Oh lord, where do I start? There are just so flippin many! My top three would have to be Jack Kirby, John Byrne, and my favorite inker in the whole world, Terry Austin.

http://aztech.kuiki.net/comicon_06/terryaustin01.jpg

I got to meet Terry at the last Cactus Comicon. Really, really nice guy. :confident

[Elwell]

...Gil Kane, Paul Smith, Wally Wood, Alex Toth, Walt Kelly...

[invinciblewombat]

Lane Smith, Katsuhiro Ōtomo and Todd McFarlance. kind of an odd combination in retrospect.

[woodbert]

Jim Lee, and Mcfarlane, first and then later artists like Charest and Joe Madureira.

I've also been inspired by the greats like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Dave Cockrum, Neal Adams, and John Byrne

[Juhani Jokinen]

For me the first real inspiration for drawing came from Spider Man comics at a very early age. I copied the drawings in them furiously and gradually improved and improved with age. I think a lot of my drawing foundation comes from those days and nowadays I'm trying hard to learn from the traditional masters who didn't inspire me so much back then.

JJ

[Art_Addict]

My biggest and earliest influence came from Grégorz Rosinski.
A Polish-Belgian comic book artist primarely known for his work on 'Thorgal' and 'the Shninkel'.
Thorgal was without a doubt my favourite comic book when growing up.
Not just the drawing part but storywise as well. I think few others can match it.

A few examples i could find on the net :

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[Dougbot]

I've been influenced by so many artist, especially comic artists. One I didn't see so far though was Mike McMahon of 2000ad fame. His later stuff on the Judge Child and Fink Angel series was amazing. I think his whole big boots, thin body, design influenced a lot of artists today, even Hewlitts (sp?) awesome Gorillaz designs seem to have a certian McMahon quality about them. Tons of others also influenced me though, too numerous to mention...or remember (like Moebius...duh).

[Gory]

Okay it's not a comic book but what initially drew me into art was Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. I branched out quite a bit afterwords, but Watterson has always influenced me in a number of ways that I can't even begin to describe.

[masque]

Copying photos out of my Dad's Field & Stream (in oils) is the earliest (age 8 or so) i can recall attempting "art," soon to be followed by copying (mainly) Steve Ditko & the original Spidey, and a great number of other Marvel artists; Carmine Infantino and Gil Kane among the better & best of the DC stable (at the time); Alex Raymond (via Flash Gordon reprints) and Hal Foster (Prince Valiant); then in the late seventies Forrest Ackerman hit me over the head with Creepy, perhaps the very first comic/graphic short story anthology magazine (i'm not an expert, there may have been others done earlier), featuring Al Williamson, Reed Crandall, Joe Orlando, Frazetta on nearly every cover (!!!), and more and more, just an incredible feast for young eyes.

Many have mentioned Berni Wrightson -- interesting that in a fairly early issue of Creepy, he submitted a beautifully done ink drawing for publication on the Creepy Fan Club page (maybe some of the earliest examples of fan art in that section). His talent was boldly evident.

How could anyone escape "comic" art influence?

[jrr]

Elwell, does Bill Sienkewicz still teach at SVA?





when did sienkewicz teach at sva?? i dont' remember that.

[Azrael]

Who doesn't dig comics?

Comics have been my single biggest moivation growing up. One of my favorites was Adventures of tintin. Great reading and the art is simplistic, yet hits the spot. Very effecient.

Of course just bout every Marvel illustrator from 1985 to present has been influential, but to Name the the greatest influence that I just can't get enough of I have to name Joe Madureira. Awesome skills there. Bill Sienkiewicz is also a huge influence his work on Voodoo Child is sick.

[nickzorn]

For me, it was all about the Marks: Bagley and Texeira. Joe Madureira was a big one too. I was never a big McFarlane fan, ever since seeing that his "classic" Spider-Man sitting in the web is a direct copy from one of the first images in Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy book. Dan Brereton is another fantastic artist, as is Alex Ross, they've both had big influences on my style.

[Elwell]

when did sienkewicz teach at sva?? i dont' remember that.
I don't believe he ever did. Walt Simonson did for a while, is that who you're thinking of, voodoochile?

[Rich Pellegrino]

One of my friends who goes there, Edwyn Vazques (if you know him, he is in the Comic dept.) said that he was teaching a comics class there. But maybe he was wrong. I do know David Mazzuchelli teaches there. I had him for a teacher at RISD two years ago, great class, great teacher, and a cool guy to boot.

[bhanu]

Ok so right now my art is really being influenced by ashley wood. I actually read automatic kafka earlier.I just got the Hellspawn comics the first 9 issues. And it kicks ass. shit man its so fucking good.

[Justin.]

I guess alot of kids started drawing with comics... I never really had any or saw any for that matter.. I really wish I had, I would probably be so much of a better artist. The earliest thing that I really remember drawing is Sonic the Hedgehog back in 2nd grade. Then I moved on to.. Dragonball Z I think. I would continually jump around anime (not copying directly, just admiring and stuff.) I never really got stuck on them though. I never learned any artists names until I came here. I knew Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and some big popular artists.. The names thrown around in this thread are not even familiar to me aside from Frazetta (who I never heard about til I came here) and Toth (who I never heard about til I came here.)

I totally wish I had comics as a kid... All I would do before I went to elementary school (and while I was in it) I would draw on these gigantic pads of 18x24 paper we had around. I did that DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY. It was awesome. If I had comics, I would have drawn them so much..

[Dizon]

Major influences have been Mignola, Frazetta, and Bradstreet.

[sweetoblivion314]

oo Bradstreet rocks and Ramita and his son and mazzuchelli and sal and john Buschema. Reading through all these names and looking them up is bringing back great memories of my childhood. I never really looked at the writer or artist of the comics i just devoured it as a whole and copied it on paper. But seeing these names i realize how much i know of their stuff and how many times i copied there stuff as a kid.

[nicolas]

Neal Adams, John Buscema, John Byrne, Howard Chakin, Walt Simonson, Bill Sienkewicz, Wll Eisner, the Hernadez brothers...


...Gil Kane, Paul Smith, Wally Wood, Alex Toth, Walt Kelly...

Jack Kirby, Bob Crumb, Harvey Kurtzman, Chris Ware, Otomo, Herge, Geoff Darrow, Steranko, Cam Kennedy, Windsor McKay, Barry Windsor-Smith, Eduardo Risso..... >:D

[kawakaze]

i never really got into comic books but i used to collect lots of cards. funny thing is i didnt really study up on the names until recently. then i found out one of the guys who did a lot of them was marko djv? making that connection brought back a lot of inspiration. alex ross is pretty ridiculous as well, its amazing what he can do w gouache.

[Fipse]

Harold Foster was my first real big influence, later Will Eisner and there haven´t been any more modern comic artists that made it for me. Though I loved since my early teens Heavy Metal / Metal hurlant. But I´m old anyway ;).

Fipse

[El_Bert]

Hmm..my first influence..either that must have been Don Lawrence (allthough that no longer shows in my works) or Hergé (Tin Tin) and Edgar P Jacobs (Blake & Mortimer), my dad collected those comics back then and now I am still trying to finish up the B&M collection.

Then I started collecting Dark Horse Star Wars comics and I mostly liked Olivier Vatine (his Heir to the Empire comic was/is awesome!) and Killian Plunkett. Others that I like and sometimes try to steal tricks from are Hermann (Jeremiah), Moebius, Hanco Kolk & Peter de Wit (Gilles de Geus ;p). Never really was a Marvel fan.

Latest influences are Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Uli Oesterle and Ciro Tota.

[CCThrom]

Oh man, How could I have forgotten about Herge and Uderzo?! Tintin and Asterix were HUGE for me as a kid.

[mwillustration]

one of the first comic artist's i was blown away by was Mark Texiera.
i loved those sabertooth covers! (some sweet interior stuff on those too)

later came Travis Charest, then the amazing Alex Ross, along with Dave McKean and Kent Williams.
now just getting into Adam Hughs.

[FLenG]

Definately Jim Lee, back in the days, now still Jim Lee, Steve McNiven, Adam Hughes , Frank Cho.

[NoSeRider]

I believe Jim Lee was heavily influenced by John Byrne. I see alot of the same construction lines and anatomy.
Mark Texiera seems to be influenced by Neal Adams.
Bill Sienkewicz use to work and be mentored by Neal Adams, but now has a style in his own right.

[voraz]

I started drawing due to super-hero comic, I was influenced by a lot of artists that worked on Marvel, when I was a kid I knew their names very well, I only recall some of them now.

Some of my favourites were John Byrn, John Buscema, Walt Simonson, John Romita Jr., and one of my favourites Barry Windsor-Smith. I remember the reading a lot about Todd McFarlane before seing his work and i really liked the detail and thin lines he used but I didn't like the faces so I never really liked it very much. I am sure there are some more guys I a forgetting...
Later it was Jim Lee, Sam Kieth, Rob Liefield, Mike Mignola

And after that Enki Bilal, Simon Bisley, Moebius, Jamie Hewlett, Kevin O'neill, Ashley Wood, Manara, Azpiri, Richard Corben, Yukito Kishiro, Katsuhiro Otomo

and others I don't recall now.

[ah.heng]

i think 1 of my earlier influences was dragon ball.
american comics weren't very popular in my area.

[Farvus]

My biggest influence was always Grzegorz Rosinski comics.

Art Addict posted some examples but here is one cover from my favourite album.

71949

[Eric Lofgren]

Killian Plunkett.

Good call on Killian Plunkett. Many years ago I was given the background book on Shadows of the Empire. That's where I first encountered his work. His pencils are outstanding.

Another recent influence on me is Juan Gimenez. His Meta Barons work, not to mention everything else he does, is fantastic.

[Jason Snair]

Count me in the Erik Larsen camp. The first comic is ever bought was a Spidey one with him as artist. I loved his Spidey...and his mary jane.

I really liked his Savage Dragon too, that is, until about issue 20 or so...and then it started to tank in my opinion. He looked like he was just speeding thru it...just to get it done..for dones sake. He was such an inspiration, though, that if you look through some of my high school comics that I made...there are sooo many poses that are ripped right off. I even sent him somthing for his Fin (Fan) page and he actually printed it in, I think it was, issue 12 or something. (It's the one with the giant purple tenticle wrapping up around Dragon. My drawing is in the back...it's pretty shitty)

In College I went through an Alex Ross and Travest Charest fase.

I wasn't really into comics that much after high school.