Greetings DCM staff, I'd like to make a suggestion for a new category on the forum called "Golden Age Art School". This could be a place where artists and new students of the Platinum and Golden age styles can exchange educational references, old-school trade tools, techniques and resources to develop their craft. I have been studying for a few years the old classical methods of illustration and have discovered a few great resources that have helped me that I'd like to share. It's also a great opportunity to learn from others who want to bring the organic feel and invigorating vibrancy of those great comics back to life. In my opinion, current comic books have greatly departed from what they once were and can now be considered a dying medium racing to the grave. It is this way because they exist solely to turn a profit and do not much care what their customers want. Point simple is that main-stream comic conglomerates treat their customers more like hostages, and dictate agenda-driven content to them which is causing an unforeseen blowback for them.
I was reading many on-line comic reader's accounts of how they love the medium but hate the modern content which is a confusing morass of cookie-cutter stories, with heavily imposed corporatized standards, unimpressive, uniform art which seems to want to deliver minimal content at high prices. These readers are disgusted at this situation and greatly desire a better product at a fair price with great value and impactful content. One comic fan I noted in particular stated" I have the money in my pocket to spend and nothing to spend it on in the comic store". I know that they are not alone, as I too have this same experience when browsing the fare at the local comic book store. DCM and Comic Book Plus have been immeasurably phenomenal in hosting these legendary classics, and without them we would have no other place to find genuine comic books. Without them, I could never experience and better my techniques with artistic teachers such as Reed Crandall, Lou Fine, Mac Raboy and others.
Siegel and Schuster got their start wanting something better, and galvanized their talents to deliver something fantastically new in the world. This came from the simple seed of an idea, which germinated in the fertile soil of their limitless imagination. It took root through the brilliance of their energy and established a legendary new world. They were driven to bring bring forth an iconic hero that challenged and fought all the things they felt powerless to change. Where is that heroic ideal today? Where is the man or woman who lives by an immutable code who rights the world's wrongs to bring light into the world and people's lives?
We don't have to accept this and have the ability to turn this around. There's a starving audience waiting for thrilling, memorable comics that move them and that they will support. I can tell you that with some grit, commitment and hard work, a bold new, exciting era can be launched. If we want better, we have to have to muster and deliver the will to change this around. I for one am studying illustration hard to accomplish this dream, and it is hard, lonely work that requires a strict discipline.
I can't be the only one and if we can collaborate on resources to bring this about, we can be the change we want to see. We don't have to wait on a profit-obsessed corporate kitchen to feed us whatever they want, we can feed ourselves and perhaps make the world a little bit better. WE... can be this change!
