Study Task 1

Dan Clowes

• One of the most important comics artists ever, specifically of the past 20 years
• Builds surreal/mundane contrasting narratives around apathetic disenfranchised and often emotionally disturbed characters
• Grounding of realism in visual aesthetic combined with sci-fi esque fantastical events and creatures 
• Most famous for Ghost World, story of cynical teenage best buddies Enid and Rebecca, as it gained cult classic status and was made into an Academy Award nominated movie. 
• Worked mostly on Eightball, comic series, where most of his books began as strips 
• I suppose he doesn't really need to promote himself anymore as he's reached a level of esteem high enough that there are multiple books published about his life and works.
• Our practices align in that I aspire to be him. 
• Also every aspect of his practice is something I wish to achieve. His proficiency with fluid brush strokes, the kitschy yet vaguely haunting 50's nuclear family aesthetic of his worlds and work, the captivating contrast between realism and utter nonsense in some of his stories, his ability to encapsulate the nonchalance of youth, his garish but complementary colour palettes, even the grooviness of his lettering. He is the master. 
• Influences include, Charles Schultz (coincidentally enough), George Booth, Will Elder, Dik Brown, Mort Walker. In a short documentary I watched about him the other day he listed all sorts of mad stuff like campy old horror comics from the 50's with humanoid insects on the cover and obscure european comics of the past, one in particular that clearly greatly influenced his colour choices.

Jack Teagle

• Mostly known for comics and fan art of The Simpsons, has broken into a trendy urban-outfitters-merchandise area recently with tshirts and superhero wrapping paper and such
• Acrylic paintings, bold garish colours
• Simple bold line work and shapes
• I read somewhere that his characters are all based on toys and action figures, which is quite evident when you look at them. There's a brittleness to some of them, a non-flexible rigidness one would get from using plastic toys as reference
• Often uses pre-existing characters like The Simpsons to create new narratives with the already established 'puppets' 
• Promotes self by attending comic fairs and conventions to sell work and network etc. Also won D&AD New Blood in 2009
• Influences "My influences come from a lot of popular culture, older video games, alternative comics, silver age comics, Tokusatsu and Kaiju, it’s all stuff that I came across at an early age, and the influence has always stuck with me. I’ve grown up in a very mundane place, I’ve lived on a farm for most of my life, so I like mixing my influences with the everyday, it makes my art feel a lot more personal."
• His alignment with my practice is mostly around his interest in self published zines and comics, which I enjoy too working with for the simplicity of the medium as well as the challenge of condensing a complete narrative into a limited number of pages.

Charles Schulz

• Legendary creator of Peanuts comic strips
• Created universally recognised characters Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Woodstock
• Studies of childhood friendships and naivety and such, often poignant thoughts delivered through the minds of children
• Influenced pretty much everyone who drew any form of cartoon since. Bill Watterson, Chris Ware, Dan Clowes
• Influences include Milton Caniff, Bill Mauldin, and George Herriman
• Alignments between our practices comprise of things I wish I could do to his level, the charm and knowing innocence of his characters, fluid dynamic lines and shapes, concise expression of ideas, utter mastery etc. etc. 

R. Crumb

• Most prominent figure in underground comics of the 60s and 70s
• Known for controversial, psychedelic, drug fueled, hyper detailed ink cartoons
• Draws constantly, obsessively. In Crumb (documentary) he described himself to become horribly depressed if he isn't drawing
• As a result many of his characters and the figures he draws are referenced directly from life, often he draws people in the street but to an impressive level of detail as if they'd posed for the drawinig
• Worked at various magazines to promote and publish his work, most notably Zap! where he accrued his fame 
• Our similarities are probably few, but I would take from his practise that I would like to draw more characters inspired by observation.

Eleanor Davis

• Illustrator and maker of comics, How To Be Happy 
• Comics based mostly on emotions, humanness, interactions and relationships, autobio and thoughts, vaguely surrealism anecdotes. 
• Chunky unthreatening naked body shapes
• Visually harmonious, flowery colours in amicable contrast
• Power Combo with Katherine Guillen as Never Ever Even http://nevereverevenillustration.blogspot.co.uk/
• When asked about influences 'My family, my friend, Kate, we’ve been best friends since we were in high school. I feel like I’m naturally kind of obsessive and cowardly and I guess I don’t really do a very good job of living life on my own very well and so I feel like the people I admire most and am closest to and have good influences on me have been folks who are really good at experiencing life and making good choices that they believe in: traveling and meeting new people and being open-hearted, you know, being brave. So those are my big influences. My friend Maggie, my friend Lacey, just ordinary folks who know how to live life well. I think a lot of artists don’t know how to live very well. You’re just too focused on this one thing.'
• I suppose her practise influences mine in that I like to make comics and cartoons based on experiences and moods, perhaps to a more personal extent as thats what makes hers so memorable.