comic panels and pages (mining for favorites)

The other evening I took my sketchbook and went to the graphic novel section of my bookstore and just started looking. Looking for ideas and inspirations for a comic project I have undertaken with a friend. I did a lot of rough sketches, snapped a few captures.

At the end of this evening when I took stock of what I had collected, I found a unifying theme: Everyone of them was mixed in their media and short in their words.

Guess I'm predictable that way.

Here's a brief run down:

~Totally completely in love with artist Catia Chien, subtle, simple, profound and so very sensitive. I found two of her stories (Tumble weed, and Fall) in the (seriously amazing) comic anthology Flight.
















~Quite taken with the gritty, dark, painterly work of Ashley Woods (SFW wiki article, NSFW artist blog). This image is from his work in Metal Gear Solid

~Another lucky find from that anthology Flight, was the mixed media collage Dummy Brother, a mind-tripping, surreal visual journey by Jacob Magraw-Mickelson.












~Then, going back to the gritty side, I stumbled upon the magna BioMega, by Tsutomu Nihei. (A great review here.) The silence, the stunning layouts, the crazy, painfully beautiful handling of his forms (not to mention really liked the combination of organic + mechanical)... It really had me.












Now hoping a bit of it all rubs of on me as I start laying out our panels and pages.