#MangaSucksAss
What the hell were we thinking?
Was it just time for a change?
Well, I say it’s time to change back!
I have been a lover of the visual arts since I was a kid. I drew copies of work by Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, Ed Martin, Sergio Valentez. I still remember their names to this day without looking them up. I also copied comic artists who penned for Daredevil, Silver Surfer, Star Wars, Richie Rich, The Lil’ Devil, Spiderman and so on. And by the time I reached late teens I was grabbing at anything drawn by Michaelangelo or da Vinci in charcoal or sepia, respectively.
Just recently, “Manga” comes along…
What is that? It’s a style of comic drawing that comes to us from Japan.
Now, like a lot of us–I wasn’t paying attention. The sound of the word, “mong-a” and the fact that it was a new style of art never seen before had Me nodding My head right along with everyone else, muttering “Cool.”
No. It’s actually not cool.
Now to be fair, not all manga artists are the same. The images you see here are examples of My perspective on the genre. However there are manga artists who I have learned from and what I learn from them is technique. Some of them are quite proficient with different software. But I would never make what they make. Well, most of them anyway.
Lollipop heads, large eyes, a dot for a nose–highly detailed clothing and always dressed to the nine’s–an expression on the face that always veers from shock to melancholy and back–women who are either voluptuous or flat-chested prepubescent teens….In other words: Kiddie Porn!
Okay, maybe it’s not kiddie porn. But some of the work is awfully consistent…I don’t know about some of you….
So to set the record straight, before our youth are led astray, I felt obligated to share a little about My affinity for the visual arts something that I Am still moved by to this day–I even spend a lot of time thinking about the nibs on pens and have done this since I was a child as well. That’s why one of the worst inventions of all time is the digital brush. The digital brush has innumerable permutations and feels when drawing with one in an application like Photoshop and I’ve spent 8-10 hours in a single session just trying and shopping digital brushes.
Without any further adieu, let Me give you a few examples that you can appreciate. Maybe see our American artists with new eyes if you haven’t already.
Walt Disney. You want to see cartooning magic? Are you kidding Me? This is the man responsible for creating a very photogenic and original form of caricaturing common animals familar to us all. He made them palatable, funny and lovable. Countless movies have been made utilizing his style of rendering.
Some will say it’s impossible to pick The Best Comic Artist of All Time but the man who has My vote is the extraordinary David Finch. He is a master at using light contrasted against blacks and creating depth, interest, quality, style and work that’s worth paying for.
To see your favorite Marvel and DC characters rendered with a little more realism, look no further than Alex Ross. Ross actually paints his work in watercolors or acrylics and his work has earned him renown internationally.
Are you getting it?! THIS is art–the kind of stuff I grew up on and you did as well–and it was high-grade, high quality work. Why are we looking at lollipop heads with amazing clothing and eyes large enough for an alien with a flying saucer? I don’t know either.
If you like to marvel at classic pen and ink work, check out the great Bernie Wrightson. He’s the illustrator behind Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and he’s done his share of pop art for comics, too.
If you’re not looking for it you may not notice it but one of the challenges for a pen and ink artist is that they have to depict numerous different surfaces using the pen. Metal, cloth, wood, skin, fur, hair, rubber, liquids–you name it and they have to suspend your disbelief–you can’t notice it or it will ruin the effect. A really seamless work, like all works in the arts transports you to someplace.
When you are congruent, you take the audience with you. When you are not, they are still back there on Earth in the theater heckling you while you portray yourself walking on the moon.
As you might guess, there are too many artists to mention as worthy of your time. There are also other genres to consider beyond pop art–more on that in a sec. Other names worth checking out are Jim Lee, Alan Mann, Adam Kubert and the list just goes on and on. However, I do argue that the true world-class pop artists is a list of less than 100 people.
Now then, we come to a little point in the show that I have been salivating to get to. And that’s because I don’t get to talk about this artist very much. In fact, if you were not an art person, I wouldn’t even bother to mention his name or show you anything by him because it’s a waste on an amateur, right? You don’t pull a bottle of Pomerol 2010 red wine out for people who don’t drink wine, do you? Of course not. They’ll say something like, “It’s pretty good.” And you’ll be in the bathroom cutting your wrists when they leave.
NO thank you.
But today I give you the best painter I’ve ever seen. I think he is extraordinary. Not just in execution but in subject, iirreverence, a style that conveys “pricey” or quality, work that is glamorous and work that is original.
His stuff is hard to find if you don’t have an internet connection.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the incomparable Glenn Brown…
Lucky is the man or woman who can afford to have his work in their homes or offices. For to look at his work, in My view, is to have something that is just gorgeous and opulent and irreverent in your mind’s eye. And hopefully to stay.
I found this man looking at the Wall Street Journal back in Phoenix. At the time, I was being written into the newspaper every day for about six years and three months. I was on the cover, believe it or not. Well, the ads for Me to read what it had to say about My situation was anyway.
But so were numerous other magazines and newspapers. I Am always flattered and flabbergasted at the volume of work and time and thought put into those publications over the years. I followed many of them for about 10 of the 21 years (and counting) that Operation Birddog was running.
Are you not moved to search for this man and to make a pilgrimage to his studio and demand that he takes you on as an apprentice? That you will not leave until you have his consent to stay with him and learn everything this genius has to offer such unworthy folk such as you and I???
If you do not feel something, this is not going to work out. You and I are done. I’ve been wanting to see other people for some time now, anyway.
I hope that youu have enjoyed this little diversionary trip taken here at Sovrumano to patronize the arts. Who’s to say that we can’t have a Life & Leisure section at our agency, huh? No one, of course.
As a lifelong lover of the visual arts and a weekend warrior in the discipline from time to time, I thought it time to redirect people to the people who have set high standards that are emulated all over the world lest we forget who we are and what we do.
-Sovrumano
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