Back when I was kid growing up in England in the 1970s, Star Wars was all the rage and like most of my friends, I collected all the comics. The main reason for doing so was not to look at the drawings (which I always thought were somewhat rubbish :redface
and read the stories, but rather to look at the posters of the film characters and see the adverts for cool merchandising. By comic #150 or so, I stopped buying them and took to buying cigarettes with my pocket money instead :tongue:.
Recently, I'd watched the last couple of Batman movies and played an X Box game, all of which touched on the genesis of the various characters in the Batman comics over the years. I became a little curious to know more and wondered whether or not I might enjoy looking at some of this cult art work, now that I am older and more aware of the factors which make 'good pictures' (since adopting photography as a hobby a couple of years ago).
So, I bought myself a copy of "The Killing Joke" (also the name of a band who I idolised in the 1980s :smile, which deals with an early encounter between Batman and The Joker, to see if it was worth all the hype surrounding it. I was shocked - this was ... art !
The first two pages of the book are without text - just 16 or so frames of animation per page. You know what? Each one would have made a killer photograph in its own right, but seen together, they really tell so much more than just a few words could :smile:!
Then it hit me. Being able to draw that well really is a logical extension of the photographer's art. Of course, one will never replace the other, but I could instantly see all of the compositional tricks, which we photographers use to give our pictures the impact that we want them to have, represented in these simple ink drawings. But, being so simple, they had even more impact. Reading through the book and looking at each new frame (some of which were works of art in their own right), I was left with this thought:
Budding photographers should probably read more comic books.
I could see so many examples of dramatic use of perspective, the rule of thirds, light and colour contrast (obviously) and other things which would translate easily into photography, that I felt immediately inspired :smile:. Nothing else has done that to me for a long time.
That's it! Just wanted to get that out there in the open :wink:.
and read the stories, but rather to look at the posters of the film characters and see the adverts for cool merchandising. By comic #150 or so, I stopped buying them and took to buying cigarettes with my pocket money instead :tongue:.Recently, I'd watched the last couple of Batman movies and played an X Box game, all of which touched on the genesis of the various characters in the Batman comics over the years. I became a little curious to know more and wondered whether or not I might enjoy looking at some of this cult art work, now that I am older and more aware of the factors which make 'good pictures' (since adopting photography as a hobby a couple of years ago).
So, I bought myself a copy of "The Killing Joke" (also the name of a band who I idolised in the 1980s :smile
, which deals with an early encounter between Batman and The Joker, to see if it was worth all the hype surrounding it. I was shocked - this was ... art !The first two pages of the book are without text - just 16 or so frames of animation per page. You know what? Each one would have made a killer photograph in its own right, but seen together, they really tell so much more than just a few words could :smile:!
Then it hit me. Being able to draw that well really is a logical extension of the photographer's art. Of course, one will never replace the other, but I could instantly see all of the compositional tricks, which we photographers use to give our pictures the impact that we want them to have, represented in these simple ink drawings. But, being so simple, they had even more impact. Reading through the book and looking at each new frame (some of which were works of art in their own right), I was left with this thought:
Budding photographers should probably read more comic books
.I could see so many examples of dramatic use of perspective, the rule of thirds, light and colour contrast (obviously) and other things which would translate easily into photography, that I felt immediately inspired :smile:. Nothing else has done that to me for a long time.
That's it! Just wanted to get that out there in the open :wink:.
