List of Inspirations and Reading

I just realised I haven't formally noted what I have read recently and what has inspired me, mainly because I read a lot of comics and books or articles about the subject, but in a nutshell, this is what I've been looking at:

1666, by Pat Mills & Leigh Gallagher, a 2000AD comic, mainly because it's just a great story and it's just absolutely great inking. I keep on looking at it to get inspiration for my black and white inking technique. I think these guys are an ultimate reference in terms of inking.


Tank Girl, by Alan C. Martin and various artists including Ashley Wood and Rufus Dayglo, Image Comics and Titan Comics. I just like to see how a story evolves after going through so many authors and artists. I also watched the film adaptation which was surprisingly brilliant! I did expect Tank Girl to have a deeper voice instead of the high pitched one.

Nemesis, by Mark Millar (the man who wrote the comic book Kick-Ass, which is now a "major motion picture") and McNiven. This comic is the answer to Kick-Ass, in a way that it's a real world masked super-villain in our contemporary times.

American Splendor, by Harvey Pekar and various artists, including Robert Crumb. Harvey just writes about his day to day life and underground comic book artists draw it up. It's my main inspiration for writing my stickmen comics about myself.

Scott McCloud, he's a comic book historian and teacher and artist amongst other things. Scott's probably the biggest academic reference in terms of American comics. He writes his books in comic book form, so it's a good read to see how he teaches about comics in comics.

Will Eisner, which a lot of people know as the creator of The Spirit, adapted to film by Frank Miller, or his comics about New York, such as The Contract with God Trilogy. Needless to say the man is a comic book genius, and luckily he wrote instructional books. The one I refer to quite a lot is Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative, which is basically about the semiotics of comic books, and how details, expressions, and items are a way of telling a story. Comic book readers find this obvious, but when it's written out in front of you, it's very clear that some weapons are clearly made for bad guys, or good guys, and even the way a person holds a gun can give more information about his character than any text. I try to use all of this in my comic books, using basic comic book semiology to transmit a narrative. Will Eisner tends to lay out all the tools available to comic book artists, and reading his books just shows the extent of the tools available.

Orc Stain, by James Stokoe, at Image Comics. I can't wait till the next issue comes out. This comic is just genius in so many ways. It's so original in both the design, character creation and artwork. Luckily I managed to get in contact with James Stokoe, but he seems to be very busy working on his comics.

I think I'll stop the list there because I have more comics on my desk that most people have in their homes and I don't think it would bring much more if I described them one by one.