Philippe Druillet

·        Artist Spotlight: Phillippe Druillet

·        Introduction:  If I remember correctly, I first learned about Druillet while I was searching through a retro 70s sci fi art blog.  The art that he made that caught my attention was this little delight:

It peaked my interest so I did more research and I fell in love with his work.

·        Personal:  Phillippe was born in 1944 in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, France; but spent most of his childhood in Spain, before returning to France in 1952 after the death of his father.  At the time his family had no work and no money.  Phillippe wished he was born into a wealthy family with a castle, furniture, and books.  Since his family wasn’t educated, so his access to books and culture required sacrifice.  Philippe has also mentioned his family has origins from: the south-western part of France, Gers, Toulouse, and Bayonne along with every type of social class from: peasants to noblemen, to thieves, and to soldiers.  However he also enforces the idea that what matters is the life you lead.

Philippe Druillet 

Age: 15

·        Career:  Philippe’s first job was a photographer.  With this profession he greatly struggled for a few years before eventually ditching it to make comics.   His initial debut was 'Lone Sloane, le Mystère des Abîmes which translates to Lone Sloane, The Mystery of the Abyss.  The story is set 800 years after an apocalyptic event called the “Great Fear”.  The story follows Lone Sloane whose ship is destroyed and is thrown to another dimension where he becomes a space rogue and freebooter with mysterious powers.  He also is wrapped up in an inter-galactic struggle between space pirates, giant robots, dark gods, and other interdimensional sentient beings.  Kind of like Han Solo + Silver Surfer + Call of Cthulu.  His stories often take inspiration from his favorite writers such as Van Vogt and Lovecraft with the art having a puzzling and infinite feel of M.C. Eschar.  His work is known for being dark and psychological. While it was being published he was also working as a comedian.  In 1970 he worked for the magazine Pilote and his stories of Lone Sloane slowly became more flamboyant with its popularity.  While working there he was also given the nick name “Space Architect” for his structures being inspired by Art Nouveu, Indian Temples, and Gothic Cathedrals, being placed in a sci fi setting.  The adventures and tales of Lone Sloane were compiled into a single book called Les six voyages de Lone Sloane, which has been praised as a masterpiece.  Aside from working heavily in the fields of being a cartoonist and illustrator he has also delved into the fields of architecture, rock opera, painting, sculpting, and digital art.

·        Significance:  He is one of the most influential French Authors.  He is known for his bizarre science-fiction stories.  As stated before he’s taken inspiration from authors like A.E. van Vogt and H.P. Lovecraft.  He’s also applied the infinite feel of M.C. Escher to his work.  Also working in architecture hes applied his knowledge to his art creating beautiful backgrounds to his work.  He was also one of the creators and most famous contributors to the magazine Metal Hurland/Heavy Metal (U.S. release).  His work has also been hailed for it’s dark themes, beautiful artwork, and amazing story telling.

·        Works:

1.         Lone Sloane, 1966
2.         Salammbo, 1980
3.         Nosferatu, 1989

·        Sources:

1.         https://www.lambiek.net/artists/d/druillet.htm
2.         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Druillet
3.         http://norkhat.com/noam/druillet/druillet/druillet.html

Brendan McCarthy

• Artist Spotlight:
• Brendan McCarthy

• Introduction:
• I've always been drawn to retro comic book artists with exaggerated and colorful art styles and McCarthy met all my demands when I first saw him.
• Personal:
• Brendan McCarthy was born in London.  As a boy as soon as he could draw he made his own home made comics.  After he left Chelsea Art College he studied film and Fine Art Painting, and it was there he decided to become a full time artist.  After doing a indiependent comic and working for a british weekly music paper he started working for 2000 AD for comics such as Judge Dredd.    

• Career:
• Eventualy he would be inspired by George Miller's Mad Max 2 to make a post-apocolypic surfing story called Freakwave.  McCarthy also worked as designer for films such as Highlander, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Lost in Space, and The Borrowers.  Hes also been hired by Saturday Night Live producer to write and design the visual gags in the film Coneheads.  McCarthy spent a good majority or his time in the 90s working in film and television.  Which include the hit cartoon ReBoot and character designer for War Planets. In recent times, he was recently hired to co-write and design Mad Max-Fury Road alongside George Miller himself.  The two are also collaborating on an eventual animated feature called Fur Brigade.  
• Significance: 
•  McCarthy's beautiful artistic eye and love the wasteland feel are what made the new Mad Max movie feel so alive.  His beautiful style and love of color also  reign supreme in his comic books.  He's worked in so many movies, had he not been there things would've been much more differently.
• Works:  
• Judge Dredd-"artist"-
• Mad Max-Fury Road-"designer and co-writer"-
• Dr. Strange
• Strontium Dog-"artist"-
• Highlander
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 
• Lost In Space
• ReBoot
• War Planets
• Rogan Gosh
 
• Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_McCarthy

Sam Kieth

• Artist Spotlight:

Sam Kieth

• Introduction:
• I am a huge fan of Sam Kieth and his work.  I first learned about him from The Maxx which has been described as a deconstruction of the edgy 90s comic book trend of the time. Sam Kieth is a man whose art can range from dream like to wonderfully insane.  His way of drawing has a very imaginative and alien feel.  Something like Dr. Suess combined with Frank Frazetta and Gerald Scarfe gone mad.This is also seen in his characters who have a very exaggerated and caricature feel to them.  Such as The Maxx despite being in a human like setting has very cartoonish proportions or his take on Wolverine being hunched over with hilariously lumpy muscle arms.  My personal favorite is his take on Venom having a hilariously massive upper body and a grin that laughs in the face of anatomy.
• Personal:
• Born: 1963,(52)
• Sam Kieth has been drawing since he was about 8 years old.  According to him he drew on 3x5 index cards and made his own little stories.  He discovered comics when he was about 12.  Even when he got them he never got them in order but found them enjoyable as a child.  This eventually lead to him discovering underground comics.  Sam Kieth met his future wife at an unusually young age.  When he met her he was 15 and she was 30 at the time.  They never started dating until he was 18 and moved out.  Which was also the time when he started his career in comics.  
• Career:
•  He was initially a failure as an inker when he worked under Roy Thomas.  He got his first professional job when he was an inker to Matt Wagner's Mage and it got bigger when he got to pencil the Sandman book.  Sam Kieth got his big break when he was doing Terry Kavanaugh's Wolverine comic.  He loved doing it.  However his bizarre art style was both a gift and a curse. Because of his controversially different art style many kids wrote letters to him saying they loved the absurdity and embraced the new, or that they hated it and their world is falling from the sky.  It got so bad he was walking the edge of being fired, but wasn't because Terry backed him up.  Terry was the man who kept him going and had it not been for him Sam's career would've been way different
• Significance: 
• Sam Kieth's very exaggerated art style has made him very recognizable and very inspiring.  One of Sam's best and most works is his comic The Maxx.  A comic that is a deconstruction of the gritty and dark comics of the 90s by subverting many tropes and giving the characters more human problems.  
• Works:
• The Maxx
• Wolverine Vs Venom
• The Sandman-"Art"-
• Ojo
• Zero Girl
• 
• Sources:
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Kieth
• http://samkieth.blogspot.com/2012/02/daily-thoughts-as-i-work.html
• http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/dec01/kieth.shtml
• 
  

Ashley Wood

Hi everyone thanks for coming to my blog.  This is going to be my first post and I hope you all enjoy it.

Artist Spotlight:  Ashley Wood

Personal:  Ashley Wood was born in Australia in 1971.  The man specializes in many form of artistic media which include being a: illustrator, comic book artist, cover artist, concept designer, and even art director.

Career:  Ashley is mostly a comic book artist.  He is known for having an atmospheric look to his cover art and concept design.  He got into the art industry by working for the british comic book series Judge Dredd, before coming to the U.S. to work for companies like Marvel an DC.  

Hes also worked for both move and TV projects in the field of advertising and fine art.  He would eventually work alongside Konami and Japanese Producer/Director Hideo Kojima to produce a comic adaption of the Metal Gear Solid series. These would also become the first digital comics for Sony's PlayStation Portable platform.  His clientele do not just include video game or comic book companies, but even Music artists.  He did the album cover to Reuben and other music affiliates including Lismore, Kiss, and rapper Ice. T.

He has also won 2 Spectrum Awards which are to recognize the best fantasy, science, fiction and horror artwork created each year.
My Opinion: I am a big fan of Ashley Wood, I first learned about him when I learned he did one of the Scud The Disposable Assassin covers.  I also admire his art style.  He has a very retro dystopian feel with big bulky steam punk robots.  I also admire his use of lights and darks.  He has the very eye-pleasing sense of composition.  It always seems to just grab your attention

Notable Works:

• The Metal Gear Solid Comics
• Automatic Kafka
• Popbot
• Uno Fanta

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Wood
• http://www.worldofthreea.com/