inspiring 1.6

inspiring 1.5

you might have recognized one or the other artist in the past INSPIRING posts. there were only some files where I had noted the name of the artist, so I decided not to add names in the image compilations at all, it’s more about the art that inspires us, not the name. but – I understand that some of you are curious about some more work a particular artist might have created. below is a list of the, in my opinion, most important comic strip-, cartoon-, caricature and character-design artists, whose work is already represented in the past posts, or will be in the upcoming ones. I am still working on a second list of most important illustrators and concept designers.

after realizing I forgot some important artists I changed the list.

inspiring 1.4

inspiring 1.3

inspiring 1.2

illustration archives 4

Krazy Kat (also known as Krazy & Ignatz in some reprints and compilations) is an American newspaper comic strip by cartoonist George Herriman, which ran from 1913 to 1944. It first appeared in the New York Evening Journal, whose owner, William Randolph Hearst, was a major booster for the strip throughout its run. The characters had been introduced previously in a side strip with Herriman’s earlier creation, The Dingbat Family.[1] The phrase “Krazy Kat” originated there, said by the mouse by way of describing the cat. Set in a dreamlike portrayal of Herriman’s vacation home of Coconino County, Arizona, Krazy Kat’s mixture of offbeat surrealism, innocent playfulness and poetic, idiosyncratic language has made it a favorite of comics aficionados and art critics for more than 80 years.
( from wikipedia )
I recommend to look at these 2 ( one / two ) articles about herriman

© george herriman

composition 3

today some more composition ideas from major comic strip artists – moebius, jim holdaway, dino battaglia, hugo pratt, alex nino, john watkiss, sergio toppi, al williamson, alberto brecchia, john burns

© moebius, jim holdaway, dino battaglia, hugo pratt, alex nino, john watkiss, sergio toppi, al williamson, alberto brecchia, john burns

composition 2

comic strips usually work with the same rules that apply for film, especially when it comes to the composition of the panels. interesting placements of the characters, their framing, viewing angles, the general readability and depth of the scene, balance of elements as well as a dramatic use of light can be found especially in comics done by the masters. I collected some interesting ‘shots’ from a wide diversity of artists – MOEBIUS, HUGO PRATT, ALBERTO BRECCHIA, JIM HOLDAWAY, AL WILLIAMSON, SERGIO TOPPI, JOHN BURNS, ESTEBAN MAROTO, DINO BATTAGLIA and others. first I only concentrated on their black/white work.

© MOEBIUS, HUGO PRATT, ALBERTO BRECCHIA, JIM HOLDAWAY, AL WILLIAMSON, SERGIO TOPPI, JOHN BURNS, ESTEBAN MAROTO, DINO BATTAGLIA

Le Trombone illustré 2

© franquin / spirou

Le Trombone illustré 1

published from 17.march to 20.october 1977 under the impetus of Franquin and Yvan Delporte, Le Trombone illustré is a supplement stapled thirty times in the middle of Spirou’s newspaper. independent of its format and spirit, this scratch-hair publication, which brought together artists from different editorial offices, was announced in n° 2026 of 10.february by the same blue footprints that had preceded the arrival of Gaston Lagaffe. a translation of the explosion of the adult comics phenomenon for adults (Fluide glacial, L’Écho des savanes, Métal hurlant, Charlie Mensuel…), Le Trombone breaks the formal conventions of the drawn story and the taboos of a rather well-meaning newspaper.

(translated from french wikipedia)

here now the first part of the covers of this incredible magazine, created by my most favorite comic strip artist – ANDRE FRANQUIN…

© franquin / spirou / trombone illustré

style 14.1

during the first months in 1995 working on the style development for MULAN I was researching everything I could get from china, books about traditional art, photography of the environment and graphic novels. I call them graphic novels, because they are so different from the comic strips we are used to in our western world. CHEN-YI CHENG, who was responsible for the character design, and myself went through chinatown in L.A. and found after a while treasures of artwork.
below you will find one of these graphic novels, it must have been created by a real master! I wish I knew his name and could see some more of his work. maybe there is one of my chinese viewers who can help.

© ???

alfred j kwak 1.0

all this original black/white artwork for ALFRED J KWAK was done in 1990 by harald siepermann and myself for merchandise publication, on t-shirts, bedsheets and so on. we had to create hundreds of illustrations within the shortest time. the producer of the tv-series, DENNIS LIVSON, had organised another team of illustrators to help us out. but it ended in a disaster. we didn’t want to drop the quality standard of the artwork below an acceptable level, so we just had to work day and night and do everything ourselves. and all that together with the unfinished third volume of the comic strip series. hectic days! to remind you, in those ancient times everything had to be drawn on paper and then colored with feltpen. photoshop would have made it much easier, but that was not invented yet.

© bilderfabrik
© van veen/siepermann/bacher

alfred j kwak calendar 1.1

these are designs for a calendar I did in 1991 for the merchandise program that came with the tv-series based on the comic strip series THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF ALFRED J KWAK, that harald siepermann, herman van veen and myself had created. the calendar was never finished, for some personal reasons I stopped working on the project and from then on hardly anything was ever published again. my whole work in germany stopped in 1991, I joined spielberg’s amblimation studio in london and started to work on CATS followed by BALTO, and concentrated from then on solely on animated feature films.

© bilderfabrik
© AJK van veen/siepermann/bacher

page 17

© bilderfabrik

alfred j.kwak 1990

© van veen, siepermann, bacher

mulan findings 10

that’s how MUSHU looked like around mid 1995. CHEN-YI CHENG came up with that version. as you can see the design is very much influenced by chinese dragon pictures and sculptures, the cartoony touch is missing. disney had given me the opportunity to invite comic strip artists from all over the world, artists who could give us different ideas about the look of the film MULAN. REGIS LOISEL was the first comic strip ‘giant’ I invited. you can see his designs in some of my earlier posts. another artist who joined us for 2 weeks was vietnamese born belgian comic strip artist and painter VINH KHOA. and in summer 1995 my former partner on the ALFRED J.KWAK comic strip and tv-series, HARALD SIEPERMANN, came to L.A. for a few weeks. harald concentrated on MUSHU, and as you can see below, added the missing cartoony touch to the character.

© disney enterprises, inc

two for tea

DAAN JIPPES did this limited edition poster around 1981 in connection with the publication of his comic strip album TWEE VOOR THEE. daan is a master in the art of visual storytelling, he created numerous covers and stories for the dutch DISNEY comic magazine, spent some years at disney publications in L.A. and from around 1989 at disney animated feature film. we worked together for many years, at disney and amblimation. he is an incredible artists, can draw like ‘hell’ and is a good friend.

© daan jippes

corto maltese

HUGO EUGENIO PRATT, june 15, 1927 – august 20, 1995, was an Italian comic strip artist who combined strong storytelling with extensive historical research. like his most popular creation, CORTO MALTESE, whose stories first appeared from 1970 on, pratt was a restless world traveller all his life. born in rimini, italy, he spent most of his childhood in venice, then moved with his parents to ethiopia. back to italy he became part of the VENICE GROUP, an association of writers and artists, one of the members – DINO BATTAGLIA. together with them he worked on several comic strip series until because of poor work conditions for comic strip artists in post war italy he moved with a few others to argentine in 1949, where he created numerous comic series for argentine magazines. then pratt taught for a while at an art school in sao paolo, brazil, until in 1959 le left for london to contribute his work to war picture libraries. he briefly moved back to argentine, but settled finally from 1962 on in europe, first in milan, italy, then from 1970 to 1984 in france, later in lausanne, switzerland where he died in 1995 of cancer.

pratt is considered to be one of the greatest comic artists, who cited ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, JOSEPH CONRAD, FENIMORE COOPER and JACK LONDON as influences, along with cartoonists WILL EISNER and MILTON CANIFF. pratt’s cult series protagonist, CORTO MALTESE, an anti-hero sailor-adventurer world-traveler, takes the reader to the most fascinating places in the world, from the WWI-era pacific islands and their smugglers and pirates to dramatic events during the russian civil war after the october revolution and the spanish civil war.

one of pratt’s stories, CORTO MALTESE IN SIBERIA from 1975, has been translated to the big screen as a traditional animated feature film. LA COUR SECRETE DES ARCANES released in september 2002 in france. directed by PASCAL MORELLI and with stunning backgrounds by FREDERIC BLANCHARD, GISELLA GIAMPIETRO, LUCIE TREMBLAY, OLIVIER VATINE and JEAN-FRANCOIS MIGNAULT, creates a believable ‘pratt-world’ with all his characters come ‘alive’. it must have been a challenge to go from comic to animation. it shows in some parts of the film, – what works in a graphic novel doesn’t necessarily work in film. but, compared to a lot of other animation, this film is a visual masterpiece. below some of the artwork.

© hugo pratt / ellipse animation / canal+

alfred

digging through boxes and drawers I found some historic ‘ducks’, probably from 1988 / 1989, – ALFRED JODOCUS KWAK. the concept had been developed by dutch entertainer HERMAN VAN VEEN, HARALD SIEPERMANN and myself did all the thousands of drawings for 3 comic books, 4 educational books, the storyboards and style-designs for a 52-episode tv series ( produced in japan ) as well as tons of drawings for the connected merchandise ( about 400 different products available in some bigger stores and QUELLE at that time ). there was no photoshop, it all had to be drawn with steel-nibs and chinese ink on some white sheets called ‘paper’ and colored with extremely life threatening chemicals out of funny looking felt-sticks. I know from my students that these little unknown details have to be explained to a younger generation…

© van veen / siepermann / bacher

moebius

8 May 1938 – 10 March 2012

JEAN HENRI GASTON GIRAUD, or as we knew him under his pseudonyms MOEBIUS and GIR, has died today in paris after a long battle with cancer, age 73. besides his creations in the comic strip world – BLUEBERRY, THE MAGAZINE METAL HURLANT, THE AIRTIGHT GARAGE, ARZACH and L’INCAL – moebius worked in live action and animation films – ALIEN, THE FIFTH ELEMENT, TIME MASTERS, LITTLE NEMO and TRON. HAYAO MIYAZAKI and GIRAUD were longtime friends. miyazaki said about moebius’ work – through ARZACH, which dates from 1975 I believe, I only met it in 1980, and it was a big shock. not only for me. all manga authors were shaken by this work. unfortunately when I discovered it, I already had a consolidated style. so I couldn’t use his influence to enrich my drawing. though, even today, I think he has an awesome sense of space. I directed NAUSICAA under MOEBIUS’ influence. –

© moebius