Not artificially. Move beyond them naturally, rather than continually revisiting them.

I don't disagree with that. Every artist should be continually trying to grow. I wouldn't argue that Cooke's work doesn't have obvious influences, I would just disagree that having obvious influences is necessarily negative, in and of itself, and would disagree with your characterization of Darwynn Cooke as "lifting" or "copying elements" with "no conscience from other artists."

Who are you arguing with? 'Cause it sure ain't me.

Mike

Cut the guy some slack, all he does is argue with people, it must be hard to keep it all straight, and not run together now and again.

Not arguing at all, Mike. Total agreeance. Corporate control all the way.

Good.



And coming from an artist, that's sad.

Seriously, you can't help yourself can you. You can't just respectfully disagree with someone?

Even when arguing with yourself, you still can't keep things straight.

Mike

No, Joe is right. If an artists influences are obvious to the viewer, sometimes that just means the viewer has been exposed to a variety of artists works. Just like the well read person will be more easily able to see the influences of the authors in the books they're reading.

Patrick Nagel has a very distinct style, and yet it's obvious that he was inspired by the Art Deco look of the 20s and Japanese wood cuts.


If I read only comic books I would still be in awe of the way Alan Moore crafts his stories. But I read Alan Moore's Mr. Majestic story, "The Big Chill" and realized it was pretty much Isaac Asimov's short story "The Last Question" using DC analogues.

Grant Morrison pointed out the obvious influences in Moore's Watchmen and Miracleman because he read "Superfolks." Doesn't make Alan Moore a hack.

And sometimes (this being one of those sometimes) it means that the artist has chosen to emulate a very narrow list of other artists' works.



In the particular instance of Alan Moore refusing to cite Superfolks as an influence on What Ever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, yes, it does.