Those European Guys

                                                    

Early in my career when I was discussing my latest work with my editor Joe Orlando, he sighed, shook his head, and said, "You're looking at those European guys too much."  For anyone other than Joe I probably would have taken that remark as the ultimate ignorance, but Joe was a man who understood and admired the finest art and illustration in comics. An excellent cartoonist himself,  Joe had originally worked with Wally Wood, did several of the famous E.C. stories, was a mainstay at Mad Magazine before eventually working as an editor at D.C. Joe was the one who brought to American comics as entire school of brilliant Phillipine artists such as Tony DeZuniga, Alex Nino, and Alfredo Alcala. 

The essence of what Joe was trying to say was what he had experienced  firsthand from the fans reaction not only to the Philipine artists, but also to the likes of Alex Toth: in comics, style was more important than substance. And the current style was exaggerated super heroes. Fortunately, I took Joe's advice with a grain of salt. I've told folks many time, as I wasn't the most popular  or skilled comic book artist, no one ever said, "Don't change!"  Success often has a way of stunting your creative growth, but consequently I was free to experiment and learn and move forward as an illustrator beyond just comics. In the other fields of advertising, animation and movies, the skills were more appreciated. 

What I've always admired is draftsmanship, clear storytelling, and dynamic composition. And lots of those European guys were masters at these qualities, because they started out studying the "old masters", as well as the current cartoonists. They were more influenced by the greats of the comicstrip (Foster, Caniff, Raymond) than the current Marvel style. 

Two of the earliest examples I saw were two Spanish cartoonists. When my friend Augie Guzman came back from a trip to Mexico he brought back a book with art by an artist named Esteban Maroto; there was another strip called Delta 99 but it was unsigned. The Maroto story  was printed in blue ink instead of black and the work blew me away. His male figures were strong and muscular, but elegant and graceful. His women were just otherwordly beautiful. He was another Al Williamson. And all with an exquisite art nouveau  background. I was pleased in later years to start seeing his work regularly in the Warren books.

Howard Chaykin introduced me to the work of Carlos Giminez, via a wonderfully whimsical strip Dani Futuro. His work reminded me a bit of both Wood and
Eisner, but again with a definite art nouveau influence. And lo and behold this was the artist who had drawn Delta 99. My Starfire pages were full of little bits and pieces (we call them swipes) from Giminez. And I also found his work in Trinca, one of the many imported books Doug Murray gave me as payment for a poster I had did for him.

Trinca was one of Europe's best anthology books, featuring several strips ( among them The Smurfs) and it introduced me to another lifelong influence, Victor De La Fuente. The two strips that De La Fuente had in the book were Haxtur and Matia D'Or, both post-apocalypse barbarian strips. Victor's figures were skinny little wiry guys , but they looked like they could rip any Marvel superhero to shreds in the real world. His gutty penline and sense of realism gave the stories a vitality I'd never seen. Later, I discovered he also worked on any number of Western strips.

Another of the books that Doug Murray passed on to me was Paul Gillon's Les Naufrages Du Temps, an elegantly drawn sci-fi strip. Oddly enough, I didn't respond to the work much at the time, perhaps because it was in black and white with a single neutral tone on it. It was only in later years when I saw his work in full color (La Survivante,Le Plan Aspic) that I really started to examine and emulate the work. Chaykin had dubbed him the French Leonard Starr.

The regular artist on the Warren strip Vampirella was Jose Gonzalez. His work was stunning, and you never knew what to expect. His color work was as alive and vibrant as San  Julian, and his black and white work was always a conglomeration of charcoal, ink, pencil, marker and wash...but all brought together in a cohesive pattern.

When I started sharing a studio with Chaykin in the sleepy LA suburb of Montrose, he introduced me a number of other of my influences. One was Alfonso Font, who did several stories together with Carlos Gimenez about the Spanish Civil War. There was such  spontaneity and life in the drawings, and his use of spotting blacks was masterful.

If "Shanghai" was the only album Attilio Micheluzzi ever did in his short but brilliant career, I'd still have him as one of my favorites. It's the closest thing I've ever seen to competing with Caniff's early Terry and the Pirates work. The man definitely had a movie camera behind his eyes. I'm often amused, noting Micheluzzi's architectural background, to often find him choosing to place words balloons over people instead of buildings. His Air Mail strip is worth hunting down. His last work was on a series called "Afghanistan", and was printed in the European magazine Comic Art. The last story, published unfinished, shows his working style with a combination of pencil roughs, line work, and finished frames.

Ferdinando Tacconi did several of the Un Uomo Un'avventura books along with Sergio Toppi. Tacconi's work was light and breezy and whimsical like Gimenez, but with a wonderfully controlled looseness. Sounds contradictory, but it worked for him. And the use of blacks would make Toth and Kubert jealous.

You can see the influence of Tacconi in Walter Simonson's work, and even more so with Toppi, one of the great illustrators to come out of Italy. The design and penwork is of such facility and confidence. The graphic design breathtaking. I'm not sure if he was influenced by Brad Holland or the other way around.  Whatever, the man just makes me want to draw. 

And now there is the new kid on the block by the name of Gigi Cavanego. Not only has he learned the lessons well from all of the great Italian and European cartoonist, but you can also see the influence of Simonson and Sienkiewicz and Bob Peak and the like. The work has a breeze and a spontaneity and his  color work brings it to the level of illustration. He works basically digitally and the work is always inspiring.

But all of these continentals made me want to pick up a pen or pencil and just doodle away. There were a number of others who were inspirational such as Moebius, Druillet, Palacios, Loisel, Bernet...the list just goes on. While I grew up on American cartoonists and they are my roots, certainly the Europeans were my step toward maturity. I've found a few links to some of these artists, but it would be well worth the time to google them all and study the images.

Carlos Gimenez: http://www.comicvine.com/carlos-gimenez/26-28387/

Esteban Maroto: http://www.estebanmaroto.com/

Victor De La Fuente:http://www.dandare.info/artists/fuente.htmhttp://www.dandare.info/artists/fuente.htm

Paul Gillon:http://www.coolfrenchcomics.com/naufragesdutemps.htmhttp://www.coolfrenchcomics.com/naufragesdutemps.htm

Attilio Micheluzzi:http://comic-historietas.blogspot.com/2009/09/attilio-micheluzzi-y-el-cuarto-se-queda.html

Jose Gonzalez:http://www.vampilore.co.uk/artists/gonzalezJ.html

Ferdinando Tacconi:http://www.dandare.info/artists/tacconi.htmhttp://www.dandare.info/artists/tacconi.htm

Sergio Toppi: http://www.ultrazine.org/ultraspeciali/ultratop/ut001/eng.htmhttp://www.ultrazine.org/ultraspeciali/ultratop/ut001/eng.htm

 Alfonso Font: http://www.alfonsofont.com/en/

 

WARBELT!

I think this was my first published comic book work done in the very early seventies when I was still trying to get samples ready to show to Marvel and DC to break into their lineup.  Hmmm...why weren't they impressed. Looking back I wasn't as bad as I thought I was starting out. My strength was certainly realistic narrative and not the more dynamic superhero approach. Growing up in Pontiac Michigan, the history of this was of particular interest. The strip was done for a tabloid size newspaper that sprang up in my hometown  as competition for the Pontiac Press.  

My friend Al Migrom gave me a hand inking a couple of these pages, and Tom Orzechowski, one of the most talented letterers I've worked with graciously did the copy.  Best, Mike 

New week a new story from my career at Marvel. Be there!

 

REELART Pt.1

 While I started out my career as a comic book artist with virtually no formal training, one of my ambitions was to learn how to paint and become an illustrator. While there was rarely a shortage of comic book and animation work, when I did get free time I spent it learning how to draw better and some of the basics of painting. Since movies had been a love from the time I was a youngster, it seemed logical that I would start to use them as my inspiration for my pictures. And getting excellent reference photos was never any problem.

Practice, practice,practice I've always found is the real secret. The series of  illustrations I've turned out over the years I've called my Reel Art. Here are some of the examples.  Best, Mike Vosburg

Errol Flynn was one of my earlier attempts. Loved him as the arrogant swashbuckler whether in Robin Hood, Captain Blood, or the Sea Hawk.

Since the Maltese Falcon was one of my all time favorites both as a novel and a movie,  with Mary Astor as Brigid O'Shaughnessy and Bogart as Sam Spade.

I loved all the Woody Allen films and how can you miss with Casablanca. I seemed to have as my finishes on Bogart and Bergman left a lot to be desired. There was definitely a lot more life in the pencil. 

Bette Davis had an etherial beauty early in her career, but like Joan Crawford, I found her later roles a bit offputting. Here in The Little Foxes. 

Ava Gardner was just drop dead beautiful...but difficult to capture all that loveliness.

Bull Dog Drummond remains one of my favorite bits of humor and escapism with Ronald Coleman playing the lead with a delightful whimsy and Warner Oland for once cast as an anglo-villian rather than the asian ones he usually played.

Since I first saw her in the Addams Family, Christina Ricci impressed me with her acting and poise.

Gary Cooper I started drawing likenesses of when I was in my early teens. My boyhood idol from the screen, I'm often "casting" him in my comic stories, most recently as Parker in Retrowood.

Catherine Zita-Jones is another beauty that I can't draw often enough...along with another beauty, Repo the cat.

I'm not sure if Shakira qualifies as a film star, but she is certainly an entertainment icon.  I like to think of this one as my self portrait with her. 

Not only of of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, but also one of the most brilliant, "Bombshell" Hedy Lamarr I was in love with from the early Bob Hope movie "My Favorite Spy."

When it comes to stunning elegance mixed with jaw dropping sexuality Marlene Dietrich was a true screen goddess. The background was from Shanghai Express and Marlene was probably from a George Hurrell photograph.

Paulette Goddard had a captivating  screen presences with her delightful smile and wit. Here with Gene Krupa in the background.

Dancer Josephine Baker was one of most accomplished and remarkable women of the 20th century. A leader in the civil rights movement she spent most of her life in her adopted France.

Loved Hitchcock films as a young boy and enjoy them just as much as an adult. A true judge of quality when you can appeal to both audiences.

One of the classic screwball comedies of the thirties was Midnight, with Claudette Cobert, Mary Astor, Hedda Hopper and John Barrymore among others. A laugh fest not to be missed.

Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge with Nicole Kidman  was surprising delight for a such at ragic story.

Ralph Fiennes is always to watch. My favorite might be The English Patient (which is always a divisive film among fans.)

While William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles had absolutely nothing to do with the characters created by Dashiell Hammett (his autobiographical look at his relationship with Lillian Hellman), the Thin Man films remain delightful and entertaining..

Zhang Zizi was stunning in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon . A fit image to end this  entry on.