Back to the roots of everything. This is a milestone in a way. Today I post the 200th image in my Family Styles series.
I say back to the roots… because that’s exactly what the work of Bill Watterson is to me. I’ve gone on and on about his lines and color work in Calvin and Hobbes for 25 years. And, I could continue to go on about it gleefully.
But I’d rather let his work to speak for itself. There’s Bill Watterson… and then there’s everyone else.
For the next Family Series set, I go back to the early 1990s (again).
Around 1990-92 I was really into comic book collecting. This was the guilded age of the special edition cover, when Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Jim Lee and Rob Liefield ruled the pages. I was especially into Spiderman…not too much DC, lthough I still picked up all of the Superman titles: Action, Adventures of Superman, etc. It was a great time to be a comic reader.
One day when I was at my local comic shop (which is still in business… but in another town) I happened to see a poster of Iron Man drawn by a one name artist: Moebius. It didn’t look like all the other posters…Iron Man looked mean… and made less of iron and more like stone or some sort of weird marble masonry. I bought that poster instead of comics that week. I remained on my wall thru my high school graduation. Then… poof.
It didn’t catch on fire or anything… I just took it down. Eventually, it was thrown away (inhales sorrowfully).
So I remembered that poster and the work of Jean Giraud (Moebius) when thinking of my next series. Feels like the 1990s again. Hope you dig it.
Now, as with the previous Hopper series, I felt the need to do every member of my family individually. The motives are purely selfish – I dig Modigliani’s work and want to do more. I genuinely feel at home in his style. But, I’m sure I’ll learn a thing or three diving into his work.
Hope you enjoy this next series… I’m just as eager to see what I’ll do as I hope you are.
January 21 always holds a little special place in my heart… it’s NATIONAL SQUIRREL APPRECIATION DAY. A day set aside for those of us who’ve yet to fully appreciate the beauty and the beastliness that is the humble tree rat.
It’s not anybody here of course.
So, if you see someone out there not appreciating… let them know that it’s far, far better to appreciate every day, than to appreciate one day.
Bill Watterson style…
