|
|
Post by robindh on May 26, 2023 23:55:43 GMT
This is for something I've been wanting to write, trying to gather examples of cartoonists who quickly and radically changed the kind of comics they were making (stylistically or genre-wise). The most obvious example is David Mazzucchelli; going from Year One to Rubber Blanket in the space of a couple years. Also would be nice if you could provide their reasons for the switch-up (e.g. Mazzucchelli not taking to drawing violence and struggling with deadlines, according to TCJ interview) and whether or not they returned to that initial style.
Here are the example's I've got so far:
- Fabrice Neaud going from meticulously rendered, sophisticated autobio/drama with Journal and Alex et la vie d'après to heady, looser sci-fi with Nu-men and Labyrinthus. To my understanding the change-up was to do with controversies on depiction in Journal and a desire to branch out as a creator. Returning this year with a new Journal installment.
- Connor Willumsen with a similar trajectory to Mazz, went from great mainstream work to even better independent work. Stopped because of incessant editing (the wolverine anal thing and making him redraw his six-panel grids) and feeling restricted.
- Federico Del Barrio, one of the great Spanish cartoonists of the 80s generation, started with overground genre shorts in the mold of Heavy Metal cartooning (Moebius, Druillet, Caza, Claveloux etc) but decidedly restless and with a killer design sense. His work flourished after joining the ranks of the fantastic arts council-funded art comics magazine Madriz, stylistically skewing simpler and simpler and with a focus on negative space. Changed again in the late ninety's when he started making newspaper strips under the pseudonym Silvestre, even more stripped back. Initially stopped because he felt restricted within the confines of the European over-ground's house style.
As you can see this is a pretty modest list, so suggestions are appreciated!
|
|
|
|
Post by bakertoons on May 27, 2023 18:47:04 GMT
I can think of plenty from Japan that has done this. On top of my head, Osamu Tezuka did multiple genres in different styles (especially in the 1970s, when he dabbled in gekiga). Jiro Tsunoda spent much of the 1960s doing comedy gag manga, but is probably best known for horror manga like "Ushiro no Hyakutarō".
|
|
|
|
Post by robindh on May 28, 2023 0:13:10 GMT
Tezuka's a good one, didn't he do Shoujo at one point? I'm not familiar with Tsunoda but that's interesting, I'll look into his work. Thanks for the suggestions!
|
|
|
|
Post by bakertoons on May 28, 2023 4:12:59 GMT
Oh yeah, a lot of famous manga artists from the era started out in Shojo (at the time they were dominated by male cartoonists).
Fujio Akatsuka got his start doing shojo manga (one of which, "Himitsu no Akko Chan", became an anime multiple times). But he's much more famous for comedic gag manga such as "Osomatsu kun" and "Tensai Bakabon".
|
|
|
|
Post by maxhuffman on May 28, 2023 6:11:21 GMT
i know it's less abrupt than my conception of it, but Steve Weissman's lane change from Yikes to Barack Hussein Obama has always struck me
|
|
|
|
Post by BubblesZine on May 28, 2023 14:15:28 GMT
Dash Shaw? From Bottomless Bellybutton to New School to Discipline, his style has always kinda been changing up his style. I'm sure there's some writing on it in that new book about him but I haven't gotten time to dig in yet. |
|
|
|
Post by mikesheawright on May 28, 2023 14:49:44 GMT
not a huge fan myself but Frank Miller has shifted a bunch. dark knight and the first sin city book are an interesting leap.
also not a cartooning shift but the chasm between chris ware's sketchbook drawings and his comic work is a wide one.
|
|
|
|
Post by robindh on May 28, 2023 16:39:51 GMT
Ronin is where the big leap is, I think, discovering Kojima was a big thing for him.
|
|
|
|
Post by robindh on May 28, 2023 16:53:51 GMT
Dash Shaw? From Bottomless Bellybutton to New School to Discipline, his style has always kinda been changing up his style. I'm sure there's some writing on it in that new book about him but I haven't gotten time to dig in yet. His style up to and including bodyworld (BBB, the Mome Shorts and early work like the Mother's Mouth) is more angular and C.F. influenced, then in New Jobs and Body World it's more doodly and rounder. Also I really need to get my hands on that book. |
|
|
|
Post by BubblesZine on May 28, 2023 17:07:08 GMT
Dash Shaw? From Bottomless Bellybutton to New School to Discipline, his style has always kinda been changing up his style. I'm sure there's some writing on it in that new book about him but I haven't gotten time to dig in yet. His style up to and including bodyworld (BBB, the Mome Shorts and early work like the Mother's Mouth) is more angular and C.F. influenced, then in New Jobs and Body World it's more doodly and rounder. Also I really need to get my hands on that book. I always thought it was a natural progression. Gilbert Hernandez is another artists who didn't exactly change his style up, but it's changed it cool ways. I love his most recent stuff a lot. The drawings feel to just pour out of him these days. |
|
|
|
Post by junkflower on May 28, 2023 17:15:11 GMT
Ronin is where the big leap is, I think, discovering Kojima was a big thing for him. I think there's a second jump into Sin City- a very intense, cracked, expressionist chiaroscuro thing kinda coming in from Pratt. The element of that era of work that sometimes leads people to say he was rippin' off Munoz (not really true at all IMO, outside very immediate surfacey concerns) He kinda refines it towards That Yellow Bastard and the loose magic of it dissolves a bit |
|
|
|
Post by robindh on May 29, 2023 11:13:24 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by robindh on May 29, 2023 11:17:18 GMT
His style up to and including bodyworld (BBB, the Mome Shorts and early work like the Mother's Mouth) is more angular and C.F. influenced, then in New Jobs and Body World it's more doodly and rounder. Also I really need to get my hands on that book. I always thought it was a natural progression. Gilbert Hernandez is another artists who didn't exactly change his style up, but it's changed it cool ways. I love his most recent stuff a lot. The drawings feel to just pour out of him these days. I think both of the Bros have refined their styles over the years, Beto's kind of distilled and purified his style while Xaime's moved away from naturalistic drawing in favor of nowaday's very composed drawing, but his stories got more grounded at the same time. Only place I can think of to really demarcate the place it changed is before and after the L&R break.
|
|
nate
New Member
Posts: 21
|
Post by nate on May 30, 2023 2:30:30 GMT
The one that comes to mind immediately is Giffen, who had his own Munoz phase, and then switched styles several times (notably on Trencher in 90s).
And there’s Bill Sienkiewicz, who went pretty quickly from Neal Adams to Ralph Steadman in the 80s.
Sam Hiti is another, but he changed his name to Kickliy to accompany the shift.
|
|
