Early Influences - Marie Severin: G.I. Joe 28

 

G.I. Joe issue 28 from October 1984

I shared several posts last year that focused on some of my early influences, and I felt it was time to do another post in this series. In October of 1984, I turned ten, and the issue of G.I. Joe that arrived in the mail was number 28. This issue immediately caught my eye. It looked and felt different than the previous twenty-seven issues. I put a lot of the difference, what made it feel so unique, and why all these years later, it remains my favorite issue of the original series at the feet of Marie Severin. In 1984 I had no idea who Marie Severin was and the length and breadth of her career. I only knew that I loved how the issue was drawn, and I could not stop pouring over each page. Before I go any further, I would be remiss in not mentioning the ink work of Andy Mushynsky and the writing of Larry Hama on this issue. For this post, though, I am focusing on Marie's drawing and visual storytelling. Starting with the cover, we see some Joes in mortal peril in their MOBAT as a Cobra Rattler lets loose a volley of missiles. How will there ever survive?! If the cover is any indication, then I must read this issue right away!

Upon opening the book, you are presented with a trio of Joes in a raft heading towards a large ship. I remember seeing this page for the first time and being excited to see my favorite Joe, Torpedo, but I was also drawn in by the sculptural rendering of the faces and water. It felt very different than what I was used to in a comic book. Also, check out that advertisement for Buckaroo Banzai. They don't make them like they used to.

If I remember correctly, by this age, I had a copy of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. I recall looking at these pages and thinking how they followed many of the rules I was desperately trying to learn. I love the first panel in the middle row on the right page, with Buzzer in the extreme foreground looking back at the viewer. There was something about it that made me realize that context in the rest of the panel could allow you to imply that other things were happening. The other characters were on swamp skiers, so it was implied that Buzzer was as well, and you didn't have to show it. At the time, this was mind-blowing to me. You didn't have to show everything to tell a story.

This page is great—a lot of action, humor, and onomatopoeia. We continue to see sculptural handling of faces that I was drawn to. We also see Chief and R.L. for the first time on this page, and they are so fun in this issue.

Again, we see an excellent combination of close-ups, bird's eye views, and everything in between to make the storytelling clear and exciting. It is also two pages full of Destro, the Baroness, Cobra Commander, and Firefly; how could you go wrong. I also love Firefly ripping the control panel off to review an arcade-like set of control.

I am not positive, but I feel somewhat sure that these robotic Cobra troopers were the prototypes for the eventual BATS that would join the ranks of the Cobra forces in a year or two. I thought the design of these robot troopers was a lot of fun, and I sometimes wish some of this look made it into the toys. While we are here, I find the design of the HISS tank to be one of my favorites in all of G.I. Joe, and I adored the toy version. Also, I was curious and looked it up. Westfield Comics is still around and selling comics, though they are now a little more than forty cents.

This spread is one of my favorites. The destruction of the robot troops is dramatic and gruesome. The second panel on the middle row of the right page is some of my favorite drawing in the whole issue. I find the shattering face of the far right trooper to be particularly fun. Lots of action compressed into a few panels.

We all love a good art history reference, and I was thankfully knowledgeable enough at ten to get the visual joke on the left page. More action, various compositions and angles, and yummy drawing fill the rest of the pages.

This is likely my second favorite page spread in the book, and it might eventually become my favorite. The Joes feel like they are in peril as they have a pitched battle with Destro. The bullets bouncing off Destro's faces thrilled me as a child, and I was amazed that his mask was so strong. Giving two panels for the Rattler to explode is also a decision that I adore. There is that moment after Destro ejects that the fighter is still flying also as the fire spreads and systems fail before it finally explodes in a massive ball of flames. I really feel a sense of time and anticipation in those few panels.

Lastly, we come to the final panel. Again, we see Buzzer in the extreme foreground, implying another motorcycle that he is riding. His placement adds depth to the panel and makes it less flat. The background as a child always confused me. It was not until later in life, when I observed streets at night with lots of lights and signs, that I understood how the sky goes solid black because of all artificial lights. You will not see stars on the street like that. Also, the Transformers are here!

Sadly, Marie Severin is no longer with us, and I will never be able to tell her how much this issue and her drawing style means to me. I, unfortunately, continue to seek out my early influences only to find that they are gone.

That's all for another exciting week on the blog. See you back here on Monday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Early Influences - Richard Corben

The news of Richard Corben's passing was announced last week. Each year brings the end of more and more voices and talents that paved the way for us and were an inspiration for so many. I do not know a time that I was not aware of Corben's work. I may not have known his name, and I was definitely too young to read the stories he wrote and illustrated, but I knew his mark-making anywhere. It was likely a copy of Heavy Metal flipped through at a gas station on a family trip or an accidentally grabbed horror comic at the comic book store, but Corben's hand caught my eye and never let go.

I can definitely say three things that make me love Corben's work. First, I love how he renders forms and volumes. His images have so much mass and shape to them, I feel they are three dimensional. Second, I love his textures. For me, there is a Corben texture. I can't, but my finger on it, but the textures and surfaces he creates are indeed his own. Third, I love his monsters. Like the rest of his work, Corben's monsters are uniquely his. Be they hulking masses, an abomination or horror, or festering undead, I love all of his creations.

I will be honest, I have not ready as much of Richard Corben's work as I would like or that I should have. I know his covers and featured works much more. In a way, he is still giving me new work because I am continually discovering works I am wholly unknown to me. Take the cover of Marvel's Epic #2. I have known of Epic since the early 1980s, but I had never held a copy in my hands. I was too young for it at the time and never made an effort to hunt it down later. That is until a month ago when I was able to purchase the first eleven issues. And the cover of issue two? That would be a self-portrait of Corben doing battle against a pack of large lizard monsters. The painting is forty years old and is brand new to me. As if it was painted this year. 

Richard Corben worked on some mainstream comics when I was very much into comics, and those are the works that resonate loudest with me. He illustrated two limited series for Marvel, one for Hulk and one for Luke Cage, and I can not speak highly enough of them. As mentioned before, his mark-making to create the Corben forms and textures are on point in these books, and even if they were so well written, I would still encourage people to own them for the art alone. Corben's work on Hellboy is also top-notch, and his visual storytelling can't be beaten. That said, there is one comic work that I love more than all others. No, not Den, for I was too young to read it, and I have yet to go back and discover it. I am talking of the DC Solo issue that featured Corben's art and stories. DC produced a short series of comics that allowed the giants of the time to tell and illustrate their stories. I have bought Corben's issue multiple times over the years to ensure I always have a copy. The issue is a collection of short, self-contained stories, and they all leaving you wanting more. In this collection is one of my favorite stories, being both Corben's and all comics in general. It is about a cyclops. It is short. It is to the point. And I love it.

Sadly, we lost a giant this month. He is gone but certainly not forgotten, and I eagerly look forward to discovering more of his work. If you have some favorites that I should read, add them in the comments! I would like to hear what should be on my reading list.

That's all for another exciting Monday on the blog. See you back here on Wednesday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Early Influences - Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire

 

Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire 

(or Cossacks of Saporog Are Drafting a Manifesto) - Ilya Repin

I have no memory of when or where I first encountered Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, but I feel as if it has haunted me my entire life. This is one of those works of art that reminds me that no matter how much work I create, how much time I spend honing my skill sets, no matter how far I push myself, there will always be this painting. A painting that feels lightyears out of my reach. This is not a bad thing, okay, maybe at an earlier time in my life, but now, it offers strange security. No matter how content I may feel, I can push further, I can do better, and it is entirely possible to reach a higher goal with my work. 

Why this particular painting? If simply looking at it does not answer your question, then focus on the unique and glorious personalities that each individual has. I can stare at these men for hours and continue to see something new. In this frozen moment, I feel as if I can know everything there is to know about each man. To me, that is the hand of a powerful storyteller and artist. The scene is beautifully composed with figures overlapping, bunching, looking into and out of the frame. I LOVE the foremost man reclining on the barrel looking into the frame with you. He looks on with you. He is your companion in viewing this scene. If you know my work, you know that I like detail, accessories, and stuff. I love STUFF in my work, and with Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, each man has his gear, his weapons, his personal belongings, and the painting is full of them. Even with all of the stuff, and figures, and background, and tents, and smoke, and everything (I feel at least) you can still flow through the image, seeing the faces, and finally focus on the scribe writing the letter. 

I will be honest; I did not know the story behind this painting for a very long time. That said, I don't feel that I was missing much. There is so much storytelling happening within this painting that the historical context can be an afterthought. When I look at these battle-hardened warriors, they are crafting a letter with great delight that will undoubtedly be received by the recipient, and this recipient will be none too happy about it. You are welcome to read more about this painting and where its place in history. It is indeed an eye-opener and shows how well Repin visually conveyed the narrative.

Uncompleted version two of the painting that was meant to be more historically accurate.

Until I was doing some research in preparation for writing this post, I was utterly oblivious that Repin began a second, more historically accurate, version of this painting while working on the original. It remains unfinished, but it shines a light on his process and what these men possibly actually looked like. That said, the original remains the only version to me. There are some improvements with the expressions of some of the figures, but I feel that many of the stars of the original have been lost. For me, most notably, the reclining man on the barrel in the foreground. The composition is a bit stronger in the second version, and the scribe definitely is more of a focal point. While unfinished, it is not fair to compare the two. If anything, they can be seen as two different photographs taken of the same event.

I want to touch again on the faces of the men. For me, they will always be the stars of this painting. They are expressive, they are exaggerated, they are monstrous, and I love them. We are, and likely will always be, small pack primates that focus on faces and hands. That is in our DNA and in our chemical soup in our brains. So we naturally look to faces to communicate, and the faces that Repin painted in this one each speak volumes. I hope that each monster I create can have a tenth of the character and personality that these men exude. That is the challenge of working with nonhumans, but that is the path I chose. It takes nothing away from my enjoyment of looking at this painting and creating a backstory for each man. Maybe that is why this piece is so compelling to me, what it holds my attention after all these years, it leaves me wanting more. I want to know these men, to read of their adventures, to learn if they fall in battle or win the day. An image that leaves you wanting more (in the right way) is something I have strived for throughout my career, and it likely originates with the Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire.

 

Religious Procession in Kursk Province  - Ilya Repin

While discussing Repin, I would be remiss in not also mentioning Religious Procession in Kursk Province. It is another sprawling painting with so many figures, personalities, and storytelling. I came to know this one much later that Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, but it is a powerful image.

That's all for another exciting week on the blog. See you back here on Monday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Early Influences - Earl Norem

GI Joe Operation: Disappearance - Earl Norem

For some time now, I have been reflecting on the artists and works that were touchstone influences in my childhood. At the time, I was unaware of the artist, and frankly, some of those artists remained a mystery to me into adulthood, but it was their work that had a profound effect on me. It may have only been a cover, or an issue, or a series of spot art pieces, but there are artists out there whose work came to me at just the right time to have a life long influence on my work, and the work I gravitate towards. To start things off, I wanted to share a book by Earl Norem that took hold of my nine-year-old mind and never let go. While I have talked at length about the effect that Star Wars, Dungeons & Dragons, and Kaiju movies had on my love of monsters, it was, in fact, the art created for GI Joe that had a sizable impact on how I look at art. There was a time that GI Joe ruled my childhood, and Star Wars and D&D were in the back seat. During this time, a GI Joe storybook entered my life, and I would never be the same.

I will be honest; it was a long time before I ever knew that Earl Norem was responsible for the art in this book. There was a list of names in the front, and I never imagined that the artist would be last. In time I learned who Earl was and the length and breadth of this work and how much of his work I already knew. Let's start with the cover. POW! RED. YELLOW. And look at that directional composition. I love everything about it. I simply adore bold color elements, be they skies, background colors, etc. Everything is pointing at the impending doom of the hoard of Cobra Troopers quickly advancing on the heroes. Areas of the background lose detail and simply become color so that the action and silhouettes of the main characters are prominent. Also, note the overlap and clumping of the figures—Scarlet in the extreme foreground and the mob of troopers in the background. This cover has stayed with me since 1983. While this copy is not the one I had as a child, I was able to find a new copy that is dear to me.

I can't tell you how long I stared at this list of names, wondering who the artist was. In time a simple Google search cleared it all up. Granted, Earl did sign the cover, Norem is right under Hawk's boot, but as a kid, I never noticed it.

Look at this action! Figures moving though the image with strong lines directing the eye through the composition. I am a sucker for underwater images, and I stared at these panels imagining the pitched undersea battle. The atmospheric perspective was not lost on me as a child. Even then, having spent so much of my own time underwater, I knew that objects and colors dissipated as depth and distance increased. Looking at these images only made me understand it more and that it could be imitated. 

To be clear, I had no clue at the age of nine how any of these images were made. It was all magic and witchcraft. The materials, techniques, and skillsets needed to make any of these images felt like they were lightyears from me. Even now, I look at them, and they seem like impossible works to equal. Though looking at them now, I see the subtle simplicity to them. That dynamic pose of Cobra Commander standing above Breaker and Scarlet, but the shading on his mask looks almost to be one color and one brush stroke. Masterful! That is so much not how I work, and I love it anymore for that. There feels to be so much happening in each image. So much done with what feels like the greatest of ease.

In school, I did a book report on this book. We needed to make a diorama and a repost on a book. I recreated the above left page as a diorama using my action figures. Sadly there are no photos of it, but I built a section of this underwater Cobra lair and a dais that Cobra Commander held Scarlet as a shield. I rigged up a zipline of sorts and had Flash sliding down to distract Cobra Commander. To this day, my Scarlet figure has a bit of black paint on its leg from an accidental splatter while working on it. Note the figures in the bottom left and how they are knocked back. This was not lost on me, though it would be many years until I truly understood how, why, and when.

Look at those colored light sources, directional lighting, and rim lighting all on one beautiful spread of pages. All you need to know about a lot of my work can be summed up by the right page with Cobra Commander being lit from two different directions, in and off-canvas, with intense rim light. It is strange to see something that is so clearly the beginning of how you approach and think about art. On top of the lighting, Cobra Commander is dominant, up close, and spilling out of the frame. I am guilty on all accounts and completely unapologetic. We can not help being influenced artistically, especially as children, and it is pleases me to be able to point directly to something as the sourse. It is not like I have been copying Earl's work for the past two decade with my work. Far from it, but this work, these paintings, opened my eyes and help me begin to see and understand visual storytelling. It would take decades of work and learning to put those pieces together, but the journey started on these pages.

The above left page is significant. As a child, I understood what was happening, there was a very bright, very intense light source and that was color-shifting everything in the image. At the time, I thought it was magic to be able to create such an image. I could not process how you knew to do this, how you went about making it, and it fascinated me. I stared at that page for far too long, wondering about it. I could feel this image, I could even hear this image, and I longed to know how to create such things. The right page is just a beautiful composition and I love that splash of yellow in the background with the figured shifting purple. So good!

Again, we have an image, that to me, feels effortless. Like the paint just fell on the page and made the image. There is just enough to make Scarlet's face, and the brain fills in the rest. Hawk's expression is gold. I remember as a kid feeling like I knew the man, as if he was real, from this one image.

Sadly, I will never be able to say these words to Earl Norem. He has been gone for five years now. Now that I am at a point that I can reflect on my early influences and understand how and why they made such as impact, I am learning that those artists are all dead. This book is thirty-seven years old, even if the artist was a young man at the time, he would be an old man now. If some young person is profoundly affected by my work and it takes them thirty-seven years from now to figure that out, I will be in my eighties. I wonder if we are not meant to know who, if anyone, we touch or influence. It is just that the work is out there, and it will find those that need to see it.

That's all for another exciting week on the blog, see you back here on Monday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com