Comics that make you want to work on your own stuff

[manoopuesta]

Are there any comics that when you start reading them, they inspire you in such a way that you have put the book down and start working on your own comics?

This happens to me sometimes. I bought recently Ron Regé Jr's Against Pain, and I don't think I am gonna ever finish reading that book because I keep coming back to it, but I read a couple of pages and I need to start working on my own stuff, hahaha.

Edit: probably this better works as a more general question: is there any artwork (books, movies,music, etc.) that gives you a creative impulse to make your own stuff in general.

[awfulquiet]

For me lately it's been:

Linnea Sterte's "a frog in the fall"

Mason Dickerson's "Housecat Adventures"

And I've been reading the newest volume of the Seger Popeye Sundays and keep seeing background elements and faces I want to steal.

[cartoonysam]

Any comic with vibrant and painstakingly detailed artwork inspires me on an artistic level, especially underground/alt and small-press comics in general. On a writing composition level, humor comics inspire me including newspaper-style comic strips (i.e. Pearls Before Swine, Olivia Jaimes's Nancy run, Candorville, etc.) and autobio ones (such as Harvey Pekar, Adrine Tomine, Joe Matt, etc.).

[JerrryJames]

I'm always flipping through old undergrounds for that feeling, & anytime I see anything by any of the Zap crew I feel like I should have a pen in my hand & be drawing something. Especially Spain, his fully packed street scenes, mannnnnn... they inspire the shit out of me.

[mikesheawright]

matt brinkman and brian chippendale are the first ones that come to mind, just such raw joy for mark-making coming through onto the page.

[soodumoodu]

I really enjoy Shannon Wheeler's "Too Much Coffee Man" I think he did a great job with humor and plots but also he was really creative and cool with the different formatting and his use of negative space

[bakertoons]

Seeing some of my favorite newspaper comics definitely gave me the spark to create my own strip. Strips like "Calvin and Hobbes" by Bill Watterson, "Peanuts" by Charles M. Schulz, "FoxTrot" by Bill Amend, "Piranha Club" by Bud Grace, "Bloom County" by Berke Breathed, "Ozy and Millie" by Dana Simpson, "Arnold" by Kevin McCormick, just to name a few.

Feb 19, 2023 18:00:20 GMT awfulquiet said:

For me lately it's been:

Linnea Sterte's "a frog in the fall"

Mason Dickerson's "Housecat Adventures"

And I've been reading the newest volume of the Seger Popeye Sundays and keep seeing background elements and faces I want to steal.

I found out about "Housecat Adventures" because of you. Bought a copy at the store after flipping through the pages. It looks my jam!

Thanks for mentioning it!

[slugfizz]

Julie Doucet's "My New York Diary", Mack White's "Cindy the Tattooed Sunday School Teacher", Lilli Carre's "Nine Ways to Disappear", Adrian Tomine's "Summer Blonde" (great facial expressions) and Dan Clowes "Caricature" and "Ghost World". Also, I'm not usually one for cape comics but the Looney Tunes Batman mashup by Tom King with art by Lee Weeks is an exception. Elmer Fudd and Batman in a noir comic. So good!

[pietrykowski]

Martin Vaughn-James (The Cage and other work around that time)
Kathe Kollwitz (Print Portfolios)
Francesc Ruiz