Influence Map
Here's my own "Influence Map", but comprising only things that have influenced my comics drawing, and only things that had had influenced me by the time I was 18 or so; for my style has been pretty consistent since then (or has it)?
So here we are: Ian Cockburn's Formative Years Cartooning Influences Map!
Well, I made a mess of that, didn't I? You can't see those pictures very well, can you? Let's have some close ups.
Lyonel Feininger- Better known as a proper legitimate fine artist. Here's "The Kin-Der-Kids" a short lived 1906 strip for the Chicago Tribune
Leo Baxendale- The legend. I have a letter from him somewhere. Here's "The Banana Bunch" from The Beezer
James Gillray- Greatest British cartoonist ever. Apparently the suggestion of having tea without sugar was a scandal worthy of satire back in the days of George the Third.
Bob Dewar- certainly the most obscure name here but a great childhood favourite. Note the use of wrinkles on the dog's body and the stylised mouth of the cat- both tics shamelessly adopted by me.
The famous Dudley Watkins- I like his early (1930s, '40s) cartoony style best. Even as a kid I was an antiquarian.
George Herriman- The patron saint of the comic strip. On discovering Krazy Kat I tried to forget everything I knew before and start from scratch simply ripping off George Herriman.
Jaime Hernandez- God, I love Jaime Hernandez.
Davey Law- the DC Thomson artist whose artwork was much mocked for its crudeness but still more often loved. Here's Beryl the Peril, one of the finest strips ever in British children's comics (but only while he was drawing it!)
Gustave Doré- maligned or damned with faint praise by the fine art critics but what other book illustrator would they bother even to acknowledge? From "Baron Munchausen".
John Geering- My favourite comics artist of all as a kid. His drawings were just intrinsically hilarious. He was miraculously prolific, too.There was never any shortage of material by him to buy. "Puss 'n' Boots" from a 1970s Sparky annual
Ronald Searle- The master. Below "Pythagoras puzzled by one of my theorums" from "Down With Skool"
David Sutherland- "Beano" stalwart for five decades, and master of many different styles, but, for me, if he had done nothing else but the material in "The Bash Street Kids Annual 1982", (containing reprinted strips from about 12 years before), he would have his place in my pantheon. It could be the most pored-over and studied comic book in my collection. (And now it's completely falling apart). Who can guess what happens next in this story?
Albert Uderzo- though I love the writing more than the artwork in the "Astérix" books- which have obsessed me since age six- Uderzo's artwork has nonetheless left an indeliable impression on my own. You only have to look at the nose I give myself in my autobiographical comics.
Arthur Rackham- I did go through a phase in my teens of copying all his drawings that i could find... I'm not so sure I like his pictures quite so much anymore. I think I prefer Edmund Dulac now.
So here we are: Ian Cockburn's Formative Years Cartooning Influences Map!
Well, I made a mess of that, didn't I? You can't see those pictures very well, can you? Let's have some close ups.
Lyonel Feininger- Better known as a proper legitimate fine artist. Here's "The Kin-Der-Kids" a short lived 1906 strip for the Chicago Tribune
Leo Baxendale- The legend. I have a letter from him somewhere. Here's "The Banana Bunch" from The Beezer
James Gillray- Greatest British cartoonist ever. Apparently the suggestion of having tea without sugar was a scandal worthy of satire back in the days of George the Third.
Bob Dewar- certainly the most obscure name here but a great childhood favourite. Note the use of wrinkles on the dog's body and the stylised mouth of the cat- both tics shamelessly adopted by me.
The famous Dudley Watkins- I like his early (1930s, '40s) cartoony style best. Even as a kid I was an antiquarian.
George Herriman- The patron saint of the comic strip. On discovering Krazy Kat I tried to forget everything I knew before and start from scratch simply ripping off George Herriman.
Jaime Hernandez- God, I love Jaime Hernandez.
Davey Law- the DC Thomson artist whose artwork was much mocked for its crudeness but still more often loved. Here's Beryl the Peril, one of the finest strips ever in British children's comics (but only while he was drawing it!)
Gustave Doré- maligned or damned with faint praise by the fine art critics but what other book illustrator would they bother even to acknowledge? From "Baron Munchausen".
John Geering- My favourite comics artist of all as a kid. His drawings were just intrinsically hilarious. He was miraculously prolific, too.There was never any shortage of material by him to buy. "Puss 'n' Boots" from a 1970s Sparky annual
Ronald Searle- The master. Below "Pythagoras puzzled by one of my theorums" from "Down With Skool"
David Sutherland- "Beano" stalwart for five decades, and master of many different styles, but, for me, if he had done nothing else but the material in "The Bash Street Kids Annual 1982", (containing reprinted strips from about 12 years before), he would have his place in my pantheon. It could be the most pored-over and studied comic book in my collection. (And now it's completely falling apart). Who can guess what happens next in this story?
Albert Uderzo- though I love the writing more than the artwork in the "Astérix" books- which have obsessed me since age six- Uderzo's artwork has nonetheless left an indeliable impression on my own. You only have to look at the nose I give myself in my autobiographical comics.
Arthur Rackham- I did go through a phase in my teens of copying all his drawings that i could find... I'm not so sure I like his pictures quite so much anymore. I think I prefer Edmund Dulac now.