Current Influences

I've been thinking this week about how the look of the comic will be a balance of how I [we] want it to look, and what I am actually capable of.  And the extremely limited time we have available.  This in itself isn't unusual, of course - but for some reason because it is about drawing, it feels more worrying.  Perhaps because it is about making something physical, about making an object.  Or perhaps its because it is such a long held ambition;  before acting, before writing, before making films, installations, performances, before any of those things that I [we] did or do now, I drew comics.  Wanted to draw comics when I was older.

More about those early efforts another time perhaps.  But here are some of the current influences on how I [we] want it to look.  I think Chris [and I] would actually like A Man Amid The Wreckage to look like it was drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz, particularly his work on Big Numbers and his own weird and wonderful Stray Toasters.  I've been a big fan of his work since Moon Knight (particularly the later issues) and New Mutants.

However, I've been looking at and thinking about some more realistic influences.  Not that I am suggesting I can draw as well as any of the following, of course.  

I really like Jamie Hewlett's work, but it's the early black and white Tank Girl comics that have the most power for me.  The more stylised Gorillaz and Monkey work is great, but in those early, more 'realistically drawn' strips, you can see that, man, can he draw people.  Really confident.  I remember one of those early episodes having the words 'Brought to you in under 48 hours by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett' on the opening page, and under another panel he'd written 'Bad Frame. Baaaadddd Frame.'  Not happy with it, no time to change it; deadline looming.  An influence, I think, on the challenge Chris and I have set ourselves.

I love Tom Gauld's work, particularly his strips Hunter and Painter (originally in the Guardian) and Guardians of The Kingdom, which for me are about how people get on with each other, whatever their situations.  He makes these really nice Very Small Comics sets, too, which all fold out in different ways.  His drawings appear very simple, but when you look closer you can see that there is a lot of work in them.  A lot of lines.

Another favourite is Olivier Kugler, particularly his reportage and travel drawing.  Beautiful line drawing, and I love the way he gives a sense of time passing, and a real feeling of him being there, drawing live, in the location with the subject.

So, those are my bench marks; my aspirations, I guess.  I'm not expecting to get up there quality-wise, but hopefully in spirit and feel we might get somewhere close.