Inspiration...

One person I cite constantly as an inspiration to my work is the famed artist, Edward Gorey.


Gorey, an American born artist, was well known for his macabre style of cartooning. His works are collected in the Amphigorey (his most commonly known work) but he is the talent behind a numerous amount of fiction, novels, advertisements and short animations.

Much of Tim Burton's work is obviously influenced by Gorey's distinctive whimsical (yet morbid) subjects. For example, The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories written by Burton displays many similar characteristics to Gorey's work.

My first acknowledgment of the artist came at the age of 6. When I used to stay up to watch the PBS show Mystery! hosted by Vincent Price. I was a fan of Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes mysteries, but I think I was most excited by Gorey's animated opening for the Mystery! show.

Years later, as I sat down to start the designs of the book's characters and set about a general direction for the story, the first artist who came into mind was Gorey. I felt his creepy, spooky and sketchy style was something that would lend itself to Flagler's Few PERFECTLY! I set about collecting as much as I could on the artist and tried as best as possible to assimilate (but not copy) his distinctive pen and ink style.

Any dumby in the field of art will tell you inspiration is one of the key driving forces to a successful artist. It's how you get the masterpieces you see today, from Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" to Picasso's "Guernica". Fascinating enough, Gorey himself mentioned in an interview late in his life that inspiration for one of his final works came from the show Batman the Animated Series.

If that isn't a sign comic books inspire all forms of art...I don't know what is!