Alan Gardner of the website “The Daily Cartoonist” (dailycartoonist.com) occasionally profiles cartoonists by asking them to name artists who influenced them and current artists they admire. I thought I’d offer three of each, with the understanding that it’s not an exhaustive list and could be entirely different tomorrow (e.g., Schulz, Watterson, McCay, Kirby, Telnaes, Herriman, Arriola, Miyazaki, Pini, Thompson, Telgemeier….).
Three Influences:
Walt Kelly, “Pogo.” Kelly’s writing was witty and trenchant, I loved his wordplay, and nobody in the business handled an ink brush with more style. He began his career as a Disney animator and it shows. If I could ink like any cartoonist in history, it would be him.
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| Pogo by Walt Kelly. I happen to own the original art for the comic strip on the right. |
John Buscema, Marvel Comics. Buscema wrote an important “How To” book in 1978 but I’d discovered him long before then. Despite disdaining superhero comics, he drew them with immense skill, power and elegance.
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| The Avengers, Conan, and the Silver Surfer vs. Thor by John Buscema. The composition and dynamism of that Silver Surfer cover are insane. |
E.B. White. Not a cartoonist, but a writer whose body of work went far beyond Charlotte’s Web. His mid-century essays for “The New Yorker” are lyrical, clean, economical pearls of perfection, and I owe some of my writing style to him.
Three Cartoonists I Admire:
Will Henry, whose “Wallace the Brave” is a flawless syndicated strip that should be in every newspaper.
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| A book cover and a “Wallace the Brave” comic strip by Will Henry. I happen to own the original hand-colored art for the strip on the right. |
Stacy Curtis, a cartoonist and children’s book illustrator, who posts daily warm-up drawings (or “drawerings”) that are wonderfully creative and charming.
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| Drawerings by Stacy Curtis, who illustrated the bestselling book in the center. I happen to own the original art for the haunted tree on the right. |
Noah Van Sciver, an unbelievably prolific graphic novelist, which I’d admire even if his work weren’t consistently interesting and worthwhile, which it is.
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| Comics by Noah Van Sciver. The center page is from his 2022 book Joseph Smith and the Mormons, beautifully designed and printed by my publisher, Abrams. I thought it was one of the best books of that year and should have won all the awards. |
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