Speed doodle.

Categories: artwork

Date: 03 June 2010 19:05:28

So, what feels like a million years ago, I was very into comic book artwork. Possibly unhealthily so :) I can remember the first picture that grabbed me (Ian Gibson's mighty double page Dredd spread for his second part of the City of the Damned storyline) and from that point on one of my eyes was always pointed to a comic or where I might buy one.... And I found a HUGE amount of awesome artists to follow and grow up with from the pages of 2000ad and then the vast realm of Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and indie comics. It remains a slight passion of mine but, and I hate to say this, with the advance of Image and the over the top, barely dressed and ludicrous excesses that followed I gave up on comics for a long while. Funnily enough I chatted to the marvellous Nick Page recently and he pretty much said that spoke of his experience. He suggested I read Bone and a strange French comic he couldn't remember the name of, I suggested Invincible and Cerebus by return. Cerebus brought me back to comics, but that's a little unfair to Cerebus. Sim and Gerhard's sequential story is to comics what the space shuttle is to elevators. It is a comic, yes, but it's also amongst the finest works of literature I can think of having read and enjoyed and deserves a far higher place in people's estimations that the word comic will limit it to. Invincible is different. It's a teen soap opera with superheroes. It's beatifully paced, wonderfully drawn, dramatic and ugly at turns, comic and joyous at others. It's brought me back to comics in a big way. Wonderful stuff. Sometimes very ugly, brutal and powerful stuff but, if I were to read a comic book fight scene I'd want to feel the punches, not see it as a nothing, trite, consequence free series of coloured in boxes. (Different subject but the Comics X app on the iPad is a thing of joy. That said one comic I picked up today did leave me in a very low mood because of its content. Not over violent but very affecting). So, anyhow, when I had ten minutes to doodle today following being out with le fam Invin sprung to mind and this came out of the Pad. Long winded way of saying: did a doodle.