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09/26/2007
The first graphic Novels?
I've been going back in time recently.
It all started after reading the Frank Miller graphic novel "Martha Washington Saves The World".
Dave Gibbons has done the artwork, but what really threw me was the guy who coloured it. Angus McKie.
That's what took me back in time. Angus.
Cardiff, 1979/1980 ish. There used to be a book store somewhere opposite where David Morgans used to be. Now I think DM's been turned into flats. It was the sort of bookstore Spoils is. Full of new books but at discount prices. The sort of shop as a kid I found all sorts of weird and wonderful art books for however much pocket money I'd managed to save.
Examples like, The Tolkien Bestiary by David Day. The Edgar Rice Burroughs bestiary, again by Day. The Alien illustrated story, bundled with the art of Alien and the Photostory of Alien for £1.
It was the sort of place that had those huge books on sci-fi travel with Chriss Foss covers, where the idea was you either looked at supposed holidays in space or gazed at chronicles of shipwrecks in space.
It was the Tolkien bestiary that got a lot of it started. I'd seen some pictures of it in a Sunday Times magazine at the next door neighbours house. They were the most fantastically intricate pictures I'd ever seen, and a style that would dominate my future in art class and college.
They were Ian Millers work. I bought the Bestiary again recently, I dont know where my original had gone, possibly lost like so many other comics and books in the 4 house moves I've done in recent years. Ian is'nt the only artist featured in the book, but he may as well be, as I'm sorry to say, the rest just faded in comparison to his vision of Tolkiens world.
By farawaypictures
I later found another book of his in the shop. Green Dog Trumpet. As I remember, there were no words. It was just panel after panel in the style of a comic of his pen and ink genius. I remember trying to copy the style in my bedroom with a rotary pen and a ruler. I did OK getting my 'O' and 'A' levels in art, but it was nowhere near his standard. I forgot about Ian for a long time, until he surfaced again in Games Workshop material, but I only recently remembered the first images of his I'd seen.
By farawaypictures
There were other books too, some I'd completely forgotten about until I saw Angus's name recently.
So Beautiful and So Dangerous. Possibly the most breathtaking full colour painted 'comic' I'd ever seen at that time. I call it a comic, as it had panels and speech bubbles, but really it was more an art book, showcasing Angus's incredible talent. Such a big talent that leads me to wonder how on earth he's colouring other peoples work now? Agreed, it's Dave Gibbons, one of comics's giants, but still, Angus is a genius in his own right.
By farawaypictures
Lastly, the only other artist that has surfaced again in my memory is Phillipe Druillet and his Lone Slone/Delirius book.
My biggest memory of this has to be the binding, and how quickly the book fell apart! but it was another example of what a graphic novel could be, at a time when the genre did'nt really exist in the UK. The artwork was top notch, the design was incredible. I remember a sort of art nouveau meets Mike McMahon.
Anyway, I've been busy on Amazon looking up these books, seeing even more I'd forgotten, like Ian Miller's Secret Art, and Druillet's Yragael/ Urm which i always planned to buy, but never did. They've all managed to find there way into my book wishlist, now 2 pages long, and hopefully will make it to the bookshelf soon.
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