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I haven’t been the most productive of artists for a while. There’re a variety of reasons why, mostly work related. Rather than dwell on that I thought I would write about artists who got me into drawing.
While growing up I was turned off by fine arts mostly because of Pollock. I couldn’t get into his whole deconstructing art thing. I couldn’t understand why if someone could make beautiful pictures they would choose not to. This, and my brother led me into comics. Since I predated the comic shop I was at the mercy of the local grocery store and what they would carry from month to month.
The earliest comics I remember buying with my own money were copies of a Star Wars comic drawn by Ron Frenz. It had a painted cover by Tom Palmer which was what hooked me.
The other book was Uncanny X-Men. I believe the title was “Kitty’s Fairy Tale”. It was drawn by the late Dave Cockrum. Colossus’ sister Ilyana wanted a bed time story which Kitty provided. It was populated by fairy tale versions of everyone.
I remember really liking the Star Wars issue but Cockrum’s X-Men just grabbed me and didn’t let go. Many a day was passed with my tracing characters from the world he created.
After that I found my first local comic shop and was able to choose from a much wider selection. I was fortunate enough to get into comics with Simonson on Thor and Byrne on the Fantastic Four. I also learned to appreciate and love the fine arts, once I realized that it wasn’t all like Pollock.