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The Shelf!
Picking up where I left off a couple weeks back, this week I’ll start to look at the works I keep handy on my office bookshelf. These are key reference tomes I use for both inspiration and problem solving.
Watchmen
I’ll spare you what is surely just yet another old guy’s same old take on Watchmen and say only that whatever it is about comics that I love is all in here and as a craft reference it is invaluable.
I highly recommend the Cartoonist Kayfabe video walkthroughs of each issue: No one making comics shouldn’t try to understand how this book works, of course, but especially what Dave Gibbons achieved art wise.
True mundane story: At the first convention I ever did, Cassie Anderson and I were signing Lifeformed: Cleo Makes Contact in the Dark Horse area at Rose City Comic Con and up until that point the con had felt like some huge affirmation of my creative choices and I felt like I’d really made it or something, but it was DEAD at our signing because no one knew who we were, and when some guy finally walked up his question to me was “Do you know where Dave Gibbons is?”
Comics… forever humbling. Anyway, moving on to…
New Frontier and Parker, the Martini Edition!
I’m not telling you anything you probably don’t already know, but these books are incredible, and similar to understanding Gibbons’ achievement in Watchmen, understanding what Cooke did in these books feels very important. AND just like with Gibbons, this is masterful storytelling that it always helps to check out when I’m stuck. Looking, for example, at how the grid is used in both of these (Darwyn’s three-panels in New Frontier, the nine panel grid in Watchmen) and comparing and contrasting the approach is very helpful, being as they are on such opposite ends of the spectrum. And Parker, less stylistically strict, is on some entire other level where nearly each page has something to tell you about how to execute a particular type of beat or effect. I pulled both these Darwyn books out recently for lettering reference when I was lettering a ThoughtScape story drawn by Jacob Edgar, who has a very classic-looking style. I ended up dissecting and attempting to land in the ballpark of the New Frontier approach (NF lettered by Jared K. Fletcher), but JUST THE LETTERING ALONE in Parker is perfect pop art unto itself and it has me wanting to do something a bit more free/loose.
Speaking of pop art…
Saul Bass! And, specifically, the epic Saul Bass: A Life in Film and Design hardcover.
Access to something as instructive and intimate as sketch process work from one of the all-time masters of design? Sign me up.
This big, gorgeous book has paid for itself many times over, helping me think through both issues of logo design and layout for my day job, and for covers, layout treatments and the fake ads of ThoughtScape Comics. Every aspect of Bass’s career is covered, from movie posters to corporate identity to filmmaking.
Outside of the incredible material it covers, the book itself is wonderfully designed and super instructive when it comes to how to present design work. Countless hours of inspiration, many examples to follow and many insights into the thinking behind the designs.
Hawkeye
Bridging the worlds of comics and design is the omnibus collection of Fraction and Aja’s Hawkeye run. I’ve gone to this book for help with design problems as often as I have sought inspiration in it for some comics sequence or another. Aja is next level in his ability to pack visual information into a space but keep it clean and beautiful with room to breathe.
Alright, enough for now. Hope all that is brain fuel or something for you as it is for me.
I leave you now with a peek at a glorious cover for a future chapter of ThoughtScape 2319 that Dave Law sent over this week…
Have a great weekend,
Matt