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Underground > Comic Books >

Influence of visual art in comics

20:59 / 27.04.08

I am looking for examples of comic artists who have included adaptations, homages or plain rip-offs of visual arts works, like when in an early x-men, where the artist reproduced a Magritte painting (the Castle in the Pyrenees) to portrait Magneto`s base (in Savage Land, i believe) have any of u noticed any other artists who follow this example?
Any reference you can give will be appreciated

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:05 / 27.04.08

Off the top of my head, every single Promethea cover.

00:38 / 28.04.08

Strangers in Paradise had several covers done in the style of Alfons Mucha.

14:47 / 28.04.08

maybe too obvious but the Doom Patrol issues of the Paintings that Ate Paris
but there it's part of the storyline rather than being a reference
i'll try to think of some more

17:08 / 29.04.08

I vaguely recall a Cerebus Rembrandt riff, but might be mistaken.

And I suppose that "Li'l Endless" thing that... Rachel Pollan?... did isn't exactly right.

Matt Wagner's Grendel - the Christine Spar years (art by Pander Bros.) was a total (conscious) rip-off of Nagel.

Neil Gaiman's Books of Magic had Tim Hunter encountering living tarot cards, including, if I remember right, one that became Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase.

The Invisibles had at least one issue with speech balloons replaced by typewritten/pasted captions, in a way clearly borrowed from the Situationists.

Promethea also had a character borrowed from Little Nemo - I don't know if that counts as comics-referential.

Zot! (Scott McCloud) had a villain named Dekko modeled after... I think the Empire State Building, but could have been another Art Deco edifice. There are also architectural treats in James Robinson's Starman and in The Manhattan Guardian and other bits of Seven Soldiers.

There was a moment in the 60s, I think, when Jack Kirby started xeroxing Op Art into his Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD adventures.

17:25 / 29.04.08

The eternal and perpetual riffing on Michelangelo's Pieta.

Lichtenstein has been reappropriated by Morrison at least twice.

Somewhere, swear on a stack of Kirby comics, P. Craig Russell's used Rodin's Belle Heaulmiere as a reference for a figure.

Greg Land homages or swipes. A lot. From adverts, movies, et cet. I consider an ad for cologne as valid visual art, good or otherwise.

And am I the only one bothered by the suggestion that comics aren't visual art in the phrasing of the initial post? It's probably just me.

17:44 / 29.04.08

The first to spring to mind is the Gericault reference in Asterix, as documented here.

I'm sure there's others in the Asterix books, I just can't think of them off the top of my head.

It goes the other way too, of course, Roy Liechtenstein being the prime example.
And I noticed the influence of Dave McKean everywhere a couple of years ago.