Spot #5 gets us the one and only Paul Pope!



I first became aware of Paul Pope through the pages of Dark Horse Presents in the mid 90ies I guess. Back then, he was already lauded and the press extensively talked about his experience as a mangaka in Japan, a first for an amaerican cartoonist. I must confess that his style didn't nstantly appeal to me, but I nevertheless bought most all of his early DC work on Batman and for Vertigo. The Stories were all brilliant, but I yet had to completly ckick with the art. I knew it was good, but I couldn't get 100% excited with it yet. Then some ten years ago, his coloring drasticly improved, I discovered THB and irredeemibly fell in love with it, deeply so! I now have a hard time isolating the one pagers done for fun for mainstream comics from the decades lasting epics of THB or his Eisner awards minis. Ohter aspect of his work that I admire is his lettering, one as striking as the ones of such masters as Toth or Moebius, and his sublime sense of design, be it layout, structure, or cover composition.

Here's a few exemples from some of his major works and less so, I can't get enough!



















After successfuly launching his latest creation a couple of years ago with Battling Boy, he turned it into a franchise that he's now the head writer to, but left the art shores to the great newcomer David Rubin.

5. Bryan Talbot
...for Tale of One Bad Rat

I feel like Bryan Talbot is best known for Adventures of Luther Arkwright and its sequel Heart of Empire. But while I remain impressed by his work in both series, neither of them really connected with me. What I love of his is Tale of One Bad Rat. The subject matter alone sets it apart. Chronicling the story of a young runaway coming to terms with the sexual abuse she endured at the hands of her father. A story with that premise can really only be great or terrible. But Talbot did his homework, and really got into the head and heart of the young girl, bringing her story to life through words and pictures, in a moving tale using Beatrix Potter books as a backdrop.

Jim Davis - Creator of Garfield the Cat






I just love Garfield and one of my favorite animated special is the Thanksgiving Special and I provided all of you a 90+ second You Tube for your enjoyment. Garfield is one of the most beloved cartoon character that Jim Davis ever created and I just loved the way he draw him in the most simplistic way possible and his drawings are so clear cut and original. Garfield had cartoon shows, Televised Animated Special, and even a movie that came out in 2004; of which it's wasn't all that bad and I enjoyed it for all it's worth.

I just can't believe that I'm the only one that mentioned Garfield that Jim Davis created in the Classic Comics 12 Days and I'm shocked to see that. Jim Davis is a talented artist and he created Opie, Nermal, Jon, and others for all of us to be entertained in everyday - My own newspaper still carry Garfield for more than 25 years. Jim Davis is an icon himself.




Thanksgiving Special You Tube




Garfield the Movie - 2004 Trailer

On the eight day of Christmas, old Merlin gave to me…

#5 Hal Foster



Best known for his creation of… Prinz Eisenherz!

Wait, who?

Therein lies a tale. Way back when, in the early ‘90s, I was aware of the existence of Foster’s Prince Valiant series, mainly because my parents had read it when they were themselves young and because any book on the history of comics would mention the strip. Prince Valiant was ranked alongside Flash Gordon, Mandrake, the Phantom, Tarzan and Dick Tracy as one of the greatest adventure comic strips ever published. It had status. But apart from the one page I had read (in a very old supplement to a Boston newspaper, found in an old trunk in my grandmother’s attic), I hadn’t really read Prince Valiant. (I had seen the Robert Wagner film a bit before, though, and did find it quaint and charming).

Moving to Germany at some point, I found that the character was still in print over there. How cool! Reading comics had always been my favourite way to learn a new language.



I was about to discover another of those classics that do not fail to deliver on their promise. Prinz Eisenher…er… Prince Valiant was genuinely as good as most comics historians were saying (and much better than Jacques Sadoul said in his Panorama de la bande dessinée... where he also lambasted my beloved Conan the barbarian. Boo, hiss). Grand and epic storylines mixed with down-to-earth humour, characters who knew tragedy and underwent great silliness, and the majesty of King Arthur’s court all lived alongside the little joys and misfortunes of all too human people we could really relate to. As for the art, it was the kind that states “from here on, this is how comics will be drawn”. Elegant, breathtaking, worthy of framing, but at the same time a lot of fun.



Hal Foster eschewed word balloons for captions. This will probably be decried as outmoded by some, but it is simply a choice that offers a different sort of approach to storytelling. Having used the technique myself, I can vouch that a story told in captions has a much quicker pace that one told in dialogues; this allows ambitious plots to be told in a relatively short number of pages.

Here’s my favourite example of Foster’s skill at distilling a story worthy of a Wagnerian opera down to its purest essence. In modern days, it could easily be a twelve issue maxiseries. On TV, it would be a six-hour show. As a movie, it would exceed two hours. Here it takes… eight pages.

Page 1: Prince Valiant, freshly knighted by King Arthur and doing the knight-errant thing for a bit, comes across a mountain castle besieged by an army of Huns, followers of Attila. Deciding to help the besieged, he takes advantage of the falling night to start a brush fire close to the Huns’ camp.

Page 2: As the Huns are busy facing what they think is an attack on that end, the besieged decide to attack for real as their foes are distracted. They charge out of the castle’s gate and a great battle ensues. Valiant joins them against the Huns. The lord of the castle, dashing Camoran, welcomes Valiant and promises more fighting and more noble deeds in the coming days.

Page 3: The siege continues, and life inside Castle Andelkrag (I guess the name was different in English!) is one of idealized knighthood: fight against the Huns all day, and feast gaily with gentle ladies all night.

Page 4: The Huns will not give up, regardless of their enemies’ fierce defense. They bring in siege towers. Valiant is worried that the castle’s defenders seem to be taking things on the light side, but Camoran insists that he and his people will never let barbarians rob them of their dignity and distinguished ways; not even in the face of certain death. They will continue living like noble men and noble ladies, singing songs and reciting poetry to the end.

Page 5: Eventually the castle runs put of food. Camoran announces, no less cheerful than usual, that on the morrow the defenders will do what they must.

Page 6: The ladies of the castle decide that they will not be taken alive by the Huns. They retreat to the castle's highest tower, which is set on fire as the men go down to fight the invaders in a final, epic battle.

Page 7: Huge fight! Valiant is the sole survivor atop a pile of corpses, much surprised to see the enemies back off before they overrun him.

Page 8: A bruised and tired Valiant sees the Huns retreat, like a long snake of fire into the night, going back east. Attila is dead, and their appetite for conquest has vanished. Valiant finds the body of Camoran, who fought to the end for the knightly values he believed in. He throws the man’s body in the pyre of his castle.

Eight pages!!! It’s just amazing.

Foster inspired many later artists; it’s clear that John Buscema, for one, must have enjoyed the atmosphere that Foster conveyed in his work. And naturally, Etrigan the demon was crafted by Jack Kirby as a homage to a disguise Prince Valiant used early in his career!



“Nun erhebt euch, Prinz von Thule und Ritter der Tafelrunde!”

5. Will Eisner

Will Eisner is the source of a lot what exists in comics today. He worked in the early days of superheroes and genre comics, established an early “shop,” used comics for education, created some of the first “graphic novels” (and is credited with creating the term), adapted classics… At the heart of all this is an understanding of how to establish character, tell story, and set mood visually.

No one could do more with a single splash page to set the tone of a story.

European flair with today's selection...

#5- JOOST SWARTE



Cartoonist.  Graphic designer. Furniture designer. Architect.  
Not many cartoonists can put that on their resume.  Dutch cartoonist Joost Swarte is a man of many talents.  I first came aware of his work buying back issues of Heavy Metal and saw one of his most famous creations, Jopo de Pojo (see above).  As the creator that coined the term "ligne clair" (clean line), his artwork is meticulous, playful and downright a delight to enjoy.  





Mixing equal parts surreal and equal parts clean line graphic designed architecture, Swarte's world of his characters is so fantastical and fun, its like you want to live there.  Swarte's big introduction to the US market has been profound as of late as he's been doing several covers for The New Yorker.



As I mentioned, Swarte's designed clothing, furiniture and an actual building.  He was also a key person the designing the Musee de' Herge in Belgium as well.