Hey, there sports fans, Al here with the latest;
It's been a while since I made the last entry about artists or illustrators who have inspired me to be a good illustrator. After the previous 3W's listed as Wood, Williamson, and Wrightson, another person I find is a much different kind of illustrator than most people would find influential. But the one that I find the most interesting is still Alive and Kickin', and that is the great Filipino illustrator known as Alex Nino.
For more on the man himself, check the link (Alex Niño - Wikipedia).
Also, check out this interview both in Filipino and English https://youtu.be/VNHJqyUu_Ks.
As a young impressionable youngster, I started reading comics when my dad would take me to the barbershop to get my unruly mop top trimmed. There I picked up a comic called the Swamp Thing. That is where the transmission point corrupted me.
Nino's work started appearing in DC Comics back in the early 1970s. I believe around 1972 is his first American appearance but I need to double-check on that. However, with that being said, his style of work his attention to how the panels are designed for telling a story vastly changes the ways I look at developing boards initially. I used to look at the great Canadian illustrator, Gene Day. He was working on the Marvel title "The Master of Kung Fu" in the early 1980s. Where his artwork was concerned with setting the mood was unlike anybody in the business. Nino took that aesthetic, but which was much earlier on in the 70s for DC, on many horror tiles like Weird War Stories and House of Secrets and House of Mystery.
Back in the day when my oldest friend and I would hang out in his room and read severely dog-eared comics, there was one that had this crazy story (SPOILER ALERT!) about an android that didn't realize that it was an android. He reveals that his "father" is the last human on earth, and he leads the vampires to find him.
It was only years later that I realized that Nino had done it, and it also had a great cover done by Wrightson!
BONUS!
The comic was The House of Secrets issue 103.
It took me decades to finally track down a decent copy of this issue. And I did.
The one thing that I love about Nino's work is that, unlike American artists, which in the superhero genre is usually based on a particular character design in costume to catch and hold your attention, Nino's hook is his design for comics story and the layout. That's what makes his artwork really stand out because he's not confined to just a character for a story but the story itself. It is also what makes it cool, and that's what makes it special, and that's what makes the whole design unique.
HOWEVER (and mind you, this is my opinion here), he doesn't always turn in a stellar job. Many of his pieces of work for different companies don't quite live up to the spectacular stuff in short stories that he really shined on in the Warren magazines in the '70s and early '80s. I still find those fantastic gems of work here and there. Just recently, I found a new collection of his more current work from Bud Plant. The group is good, the colors bright, but the substance - is lacking. This isn't a major slam on Nino. Far from it. His work output is constant. But some illustrations just seem - unfinished. I would be best equated to lots of warm-up drawings in a sketchbook before jumping into a serious sketch. This makes the most sense (to me) because you can see when that switch is flipped. And then- brilliance! That image that he crafts in the surrounding background do not exist in reality; it is elsewhere. His mechanics are so asymmetrical that it could work even at dynamic angles he renders. There are times when I wish he had been able to work along and with Jack Kirby on some monumental science fiction project together.
I, to this day, am looking for more of his work because that fluidity in his layouts makes me want to fill an entire panel with something. Most of his work these days, I have found, are now more or less focusing on individual drawings and illustration rather than sequential art.
And what I see there in his latest offering is power and steady control of his medium. When I look at his work, what I see is what I imagine the subconscious seems like as a portion of the dream world begins to take a recognizable shape that we all can relate to. It feels reminiscent of the way I look at Frank Frazetta's work. A whole story was evolving from one image, and then suddenly it is gone. In your own mind's eye, that story has been "written" down.
But the impression is left with you, and you go back, looking at it to see if there was something you might have missed before. There was a cover like that that he did for Warren's "1994". I don't even know if it has a title, but I kept going back to it over and over again.
After looking I started working out my own ideas of single images that might evolve out of an illustration.
I've tried this many times to illustrate something like I am seeing but it only usually ends up being a sketch in my sketchbook. BUT when there is a new book of his out I will take a look at it and probably buy it.
I would love to see another graphic novel in his style with a compelling sci-fi story. His work would benefit I think from an adaptation of Philip K. Dick or Harlan Ellison.
Personally, I hope he keeps going and even better if I have the chance to meet him.
And with that, this kid is outta here. Got work to do.