JOHNNY QUEST- Just fun adventure, and influence on my Newton Polo comic.
60s DOCTOR WHO- Patrick Troughton is my favourite Doctor and his acting has influenced the way I depict my professors, like mad uncles.
MIKE MIGNOLA- I love the inking on Mignola's work, the stark contrast of the black and white is so bold.
ROD SERLING- Creator of the Twilight Zone and Night Gallery. The stories were always odd and inventive and taught me a lot about storytelling. I love this spectral figure of him, almost omnipresent.
JULES VERNE- My first recognisable author. I love this kind of science fiction: exploration.
50s SCI-FI- There are so many classics that emerged from this era and the designs have stuck with us since. Flying saucers, bug-eyed aliens and the military that can't shoot for crap!
MILTON CANIFF- Creator and artist of Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon. Some of his panels had no pencils just directly inked. The action is fantastic.
JEFF SMITH- First of all, I love his artwork, but it was the fluidity of his panel-to-panel action that I fell in love with. Check out BONE.
RAY HARRYHAUSEN- I remember being a six year old, eyes glued to the television, mesmerised by actors fighting skeletons, in a flawless fight scene. It began my interest in the behind-the-scenes of films.
DARWYN COOKE- What's great about Cooke's works that it is cartoony, but it doesn't hold back on the drama. His career is nothing more than a love letter to the golden/ silver age. Heroes are heroes.
INDIANA JONES- The ultimate adventurer. He was one of my childhood heroes and got me interested in exploration and archaeological adventures.
MONSTER MOVIES- Just as a whole classic monster movies, with their classic make-up, conventions and sets.
HERGE- What else can I say. Something just struck a chord the minute I opened Destination Moon as a kid. The Black Island is my favourite.
HITCHCOCK- The master of suspense. Just studying how Hitchcock creates suspense or the way he positions the camera is fascinating. My favourite was Hitchcock's favourite too, Shadow of a Doubt with Joseph Cotten.
OLD MAKE-UP- Old film effects in general really. What better way to illustrate that than 1969s Planet of the Apes, a film where everyone's jaw drops. People criticize old effects, but I am far more aware of those effects, because it is really there.
H.P. LOVECRAFT- The master of the bizarre. When I first read Lovecraft I wanted to write like him, but I couldn't. However it taught me about creating my own universe. At the Mountains of Madness cemented my love of arctic horrors.
BERNIE WRIGHTSON- My introduction to Wrightson was his Frankenstein work. The detail and line work is sublime.
BATMAN:TAS- I like to think of The Animated Series as my era. The cartoons when I was younger weren't as condescending as the shows nowadays (granted there are exceptions). It was dark, edgy and incorporated every incarnation of Batman history, the detective angle of the Golden Age, the campyness of the silver age and the gritty edge of the bronze age. It is my favourite Batman period and when we read the comics, it's these voices we hear.
QUATERMASS- This spot is really saved for all of those classic serials, Flash Gordon, Radar Men from the Moon but out of all of them, the Quatermass serials (and films) are my favourites . the character of Bernard Quatermass is one of my favourites and the writing of Nigel Kneale is so intelligent. You don't believe me. When first released, people actually left the pubs to watch it.
of course there are others, Looney Tunes, John Carpenter, Hayao Miyazaki, Holst, Mussorgsky, but it's a tight space and I had to cover a lot. I suggest you try it out.
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