Comics UK

Hunt Emerson (Little Plum)
looks like he was influanced by Where the wild things are by Maurice Sendak.
Also Krazy Kat.......with the changing backgrounds!!!!!

Ollie Fliptrik artist must have been influanced by Asterixs.

Jak artist .........Manga

Lew...Steve...Jamie......Nigel P what were your heroes and influances?



p.s
I tried to meet Nick B in Cornwall just missed him.

Peter Gray wrote:
Lew...Steve...Jamie......Nigel P what were your heroes and influances?

Ken Reid, Leo Baxendale, Mike Higgs, Roy Wilson, Jack Kirby, Tex Avery.

Lew

Peter Gray wrote: Lew...Steve...Jamie......Nigel P what were your heroes and influances?

I read any comic I could get hold of as a kid, but my regular favourites were Sparky and Wizard. In my teens it was all Marvel and DC stuff, Silver Surfer, X-men and the Avengers mostly.

Unlike Lew and some other artists, I am no expert on any of it, and any knowledge I have of the biz has just been picked up over the years of drawing for a living, and not been sought. And before comics became my work at the age of 18, I had no idea of the names behind the drawings. Like so many people I've met since, I didn't give any thought to how they were produced - they were just there on the shelves each week.

I now know the names of many of most of those anonynous 'heroes', and I would have to put Ken Reid on my list also, along with David Sutherland, Jim Petrie, Bob Nixon, John Geering and Bob McGrath (Three Bears).

Outwith UK comics, Charles Schulz was my all-time hero. In other spheres of the art form, I loved the work of Giles, Norman Thelwell and Ralph Steadman. I also was bowled over by the astonishing artwork of Frank Frazetta, though that's getting a little off the cartoon trail.

I'm sure I've missed loads of names out that will come to me as soon as I've posted this, and I continue to learn and develop through encounters with artwork by new names emerging that I find on the web.

Comic artforms are under-rated, largely because of the dual factors of mass production and rapid turnover. But the best of the best can produce work that will rival anything you'll see in any gallery anywhere in the world (in my opinion).

Asterix, Giles and Will Eisner top my list, though I only discovered Eisner in the 80s, by which time I was in my 20s and starting to break into comics. His influence is really obvious in my Oink work.

I devoured the black & white Marvel reprints of the 70s, so when I close my eyes I still see the drawing styles of Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Gene Colan, John Buscema, John Romita, Jacky Kirby, Steve Ditko, Barry Smith and wish I could draw like them.

Of the funny books, it was Ken Reid's work that I loved most as a kid (The Nervs and Face Ache were my vintage, and I've since got a lot of Queen Of The Seas, plus some Jonah, Jasper The Grasper and Frankie Stein), and Leo Baxendale's Willy The Kid book (I was too late to catch Baxendale in the weeklies).

Stuff I hated - most DC Thomson art. I found it old fashioned, especially Desperate Dan & Korky The Cat. Black Bob & Billy The Cat used to almost depress me in their stifling look.

Also found most British art boring compared to American. When 2000AD started I was slow to catch on, thinking Dave Gibbons was very old fashioned and that Ezquerra and Mcmahon were just messy. I soon learnt.

Kev F out of The Beano
http://comicfestival.co.uk

Thanks for your input.

My influances other than my cartoonist Dad!

Is the Mr Men.....the graphic style is simple, fun and colourful. Tex Avery with that anything goes... I love Betty Boop and Popeye! the way objects are alive and kicking is wonderful. I do that a lot in my own work.

Also other than the cartoons......Popeye by Segar is great with the black humour and over the top characters.
Peanuts, Giles for the way he draws children, Calvin and Hobbes I've got all the books...love the fantasy element-

Terry Bave, David Sutherland, Mike Lacey, Robert Nixon, J.Edward Oliver, Tom Paterson, Leo Baxendale the way he draws crowds..e.g the Banana Bunch v's the police. Dudley D Watkins, John Geering, Sid Burgeon etc..

I like artists like Mucha, J. W. Waterhouse, Renoir....any painter who paints pretty women

Today I enjoy Steve Bright, Nigel P for his splats!!, Jamie for the silliness etc..

Doing the comic artist websites I've discovered Ken Reid....I do like black humour........not sure I could live with his work on the wall....those World Wide Weirdies were strange.