THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 24

I have been working on my broth of influences my whole life. The idea is to have a vast array of flavor that just hits you. There are so many different elements that make up this thing, it’s difficult if not impossible to figure them all out. But I’m working with illustrators for new projects & so, I have to try. So I worked up a brief description of art aims & have elaborated on it for you. The Würstreich is the equivalent of late renaissance in technology, there are aspects of early 80s UK street subculture in there too. I love both of these things & I feel that they are both linked, hence my early devotion to Medieval Punk. When in doubt look at Robert Crumb, he’s probably the best drawer in the last… it’s hard to say. I like to reference the old weirdo art of Wolverton, the morbid & stiff Weird Tales art of Matt Fox, early MAD magazine (especially Will Elder & Wally Wood), the undergrounds (especially Rick Griffin, Spain & Robert Williams) & early TMNT (Eastman & Laird plus the couple that Bodē did & Eric Talbot). Vaughn Bodē is great, there is a funky flavor & swagger to his work, a natural sense of belonging. Middle White Dwarf is great, Gary Chalk is great, Ian Miller & John Blanche for flavor & old Citadel catalogs are great too. I learned to draw a lot things by copying those, some occasional Jack Kirby heavy blacks & crackle for space & magic. Sergio Aragones is great, look at Groo. He’s a perfect cartoonist, perfect form. Everything he draws looks like it fits within his stylistic world. Hideshi Hino is great, I love his design sensibility, use of blacks & sense of alleyway morbidity & decay. There should be a sense of design to it, but not overt, in the background, hidden, it is not the point, but it’s a useful & necessary tool. There are huge homages to Hieronymous Bosch & Pieter Brueghel always. Both of their works are visual dictionaries of old world aphorisms, but they are penned in an almost lost language so that they just feel insane. John O' Brien is a children’s illustrator that introduced me to so much of the Bosch & Bruegel weirdness before seeing their work. Mercer Mayer’s monster series presents the funk, comfort & weirdness. He is a 70s flavored Maurice Sendack who is another key player. Everything should be exaggerated & messed up looking unless otherwise noted. There at least three times more of this list I can expand on, but this is good for now.