In the Studio
In the Studio: Visits with Contemporary Cartoonists by Todd Hignite. Yale UP, 2006.
For some reason, when I first heard of this book, I thought it was just a collection of interviews. While it is a book of interviews, they aren’t of the regular old question and answer type. What this book really collects is the nine comic artists (Crumb, Spiegelman, Panter, Burns, Hernandez, Clowes, Seth, Ware, Brunetti) talking about their work and other people’s work.
Each chapter begins with a brief introduction by Hignite. What follows are pages of high quality images with accompanying commentary by the subject of the chapter. A page from one of the subject’s works is accompanied by their comments on that work (or even that specific page). A page from another artist is accompanied by the chapter’s subject talking about that artist and what they think of the work or how it influenced them.
The books ends up elucidating not just the artist’s thoughts on their own works but also on the artists that inspire them. A big part of comics culture is uncovering the great gems of the past, and we see this in action as the nine subjects of the book showcase some of their gems.
I’m not a big fan of some of the artists included here. The Jaime Hernandez chapter was my favorite (the artist I hold with the highest regard in this book or in comics in general), but each chapter had something new to discover or re-discover.
Tags: comics-artists, comics-history, interviews
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