B&W Artists of interest (to me at least)

I shot through them all pretty quickly when I did my presentation so here they are for anyone to mull over.

Charles Burns

Best known for his graphic novel black hole (which I'd recommend) Burns is heavily influenced by Noir, pulp magazines and comics and more obscure things such as Herge's TinTin (if you look at his work you'll see it on their faces). I looked at him for his composition and use of black and white. For insight into how he works and what inspires him look at In the Studio: Visits with Modern Cartoonists by Todd Hignite (which I brought in and then had stolen by Chiu). I'm still very interested in looking into how he finishes work and the mediums he uses.



David B.

Most famous for Epileptic (infact I struggled to find anything else by him online seeing as I can't read French) David B.s autobiographical work about his families struggles to cope with his younger brothers epilepsy is still something on my reading list. Again Black and white and how to compose things. Much more child like than Charles Burns but still highly credible. If anyone knows where I could steal a copy from...>.>


Cyril Pedrosa- Three Shadows

I actually read this over the summer but I thought it was relevant, if only in terms of panel layouts (Pedrosa hand draws each frame so they're never perfect and also often goes out of the panel). It's the first graphic novel ever to make me cry...Beautiful book and I'd highly recommend it. Its basically a story about the lengths parents go to to protect their children and the effect losing a child can have (it was inspired and dedicated to his close friend who lost their son). Everything about it works, even down to the lovely thick cream paper used to print on. Since Pedrosa was an animator for Disney for a long time his drawing is incredibly good in terms of angles and anatomy (though he doesn't draw photo realistic you can see a hint of Disney in his pictures). Its on my top 5 books of all time (thats normal books too xP)


Killoffer- 676 Apparitions of Killoffer

This was one of the comicteers Paul Gravett mentioned in his talk at the symposium at Cheltenham (see...those things are useful XP...and have free sandwiches). Like many of the above he uses alot of thick blacks and whites but what interests me most about this book is the obscenely complex composition of panels which always seems to work. The story about different versions of himself steadily appearing throughout and doing bad things (like killing each other, having sex with each other etc) so they build up steadily throughout the pages. Its another one I still have to read.

Peter Kuper (Especially Metamorphosis)

Another summer read, this version of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis tell the entire tale in thick wood block style images once more heavily blacked in (not sure what medium he uses...need to find that out!). It was another sad one, apparently Hartlepool Library only stocks depressing graphic novels which have never been taken out by anyone but me. He uses a few interesting techniques such as on one page (below) he has the text following the path of the transformed central character as he crawls up the walls and onto the ceiling. I like to collect these little techniques and hopefully use them eventually...It's really useful even if you never do, since it might spark ideas of your own to make your graphic stories more than just words and pictures in panels.