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| Veronica Blue- my first attempt at a comic book |
Inspired by the movie Brown Sugar, but instead of hip hop, I asked when did you fall in love with comics? For me, who grew up with two older brothers, I can say that I was exposed to comics at a pretty early age. I could even tell the first time I set foot in a comic book store and why, but when I fell in love with comics... that is a story I want to share.
In high school I shared a bond with a unique group of individuals, we were the art kids. We were our own clique, you see we knew we didn't fit the mold of the normal teenagers. We were quirky, creative and lived in the art room. We thrived off of each others' creative abilities, pushing each other to grow. You see, my friends Patrick Titus, Matthew Wright, and Danny Prahl were all drawing "comic book" style drawings. All of them had their own flare and spin on the style, but I fell in love with comic books then. I realized then that comic books allowed artists/illustrators to push the boundaries. I no longer felt I had to draw exactly what I saw, but that I could elaborate what I saw, change proportions, and mix the fantasy world with the real world. I decided to try this style out when we were learning how to do batiks. My first batik, was done on a t-shirt, it was this anime style face with a tear running down one eye. Unfortunately, during the final process I burnt a hole in the t-shirt, I was quickly able to recreate a new one. I still cherished the first one, in fact, I remember Matt asking me if he could have it, he didn't care I had burnt a hole in it. I knew then that this style of work was something very special.
Now when it comes to the comic itself, and by that I mean the story inside. I didn't fall in love with that until much later on. I had read a few stories, but never felt the writing was all that, but I discovered later it was because I was drawn to comics first by the illustrations, not always the best indicator of a good story. I fell in love with the stories, when I took a graphic novel course in college. I found myself not only reading the required material, but diving into other comics and graphic novels needed to conduct research. While reading about Maus, Frank Miller's 300, I realized how the comic book was created to help bridge the gap of a growing nation, it was one of the cheapest forms of entertainment-dime store comic. (Not to mention it also helped with literacy). Our final assignment was to create our own comic book or graphic novel, I can honestly say, my story was awful, but I loved working on my illustrations. The picture attached to this blog, is the cover of my comic, called Veronica Blue. The premise was to be about a girl who grew up in Delaware, but had spawned powers of becoming half crab due to the levels of mercury and toxic waste in the water system. It was campy and ridiculous, but so much fun to create.
Since then, I have grown a fond love of all sorts of comics and graphic novels alike, which include: Persepolis, Embroideries, Maus, Mouseguard, Dead @17, Sandman, Batman, just to name a few. Today I had the privilege of sharing this love with my son for the first time. I had been wanting to check out my friend, Patrick Titus' shop- The Comic Book Shop, and since there was a special event the GI Joe #1 launch party, I decided this would be a great time to introduce my son to comics and to visit my friend. We had a wonderful time, realizing how many new titles are out, and also getting Finn's first comic signed!!! Although he may be too young just yet, to really understand how special today was, I am sure he will cherish this comic along with others in the future!
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