I felt like drawing another LEGION character… and I thought it might be fun to draw MON-EL for this week’s first post since I’ve never drawn him before. Over my career, there have been times when my work has been described as either BEING manga or having manga influences. I think that a lot of people who claim my work is ‘manga’ influenced (and many of them are using the term as a pejorative) are equating the cartoony nature of my drawing with that of Japanese artists. I’ve always felt that my influences were more European than Japanese. Even the blurb on the back of the recent MODERN MASTERS volume spotlighting my career speaks to my work having a blend of manga and classic Silver Age influence– though they weren’t highlighting that as a negative.

There are times when I think of pushing my work in a more manga direction. I’m a fan of some manga… so it’s something that’s always interested me in exploring. I think of lengthening the figure, sharpening the faces and simplifying my drawing even more than usual. I know that I can never get away from my natural instincts when it comes to drawing– and I covered that in last Monday’s post. There are, however, things that I can do to tweak it here and there– and so that’s what I was thinking and playing with in today’s MON-EL sketch. I’m not saying that I’ll actually GO this direction– but that’s one of the things I like most about this blog. It’s the online equivalent of a journal, where I can work stuff out in my head– and hopefully offer a little amusement to anyone who likes to watch along the way.

OK… back to work for me.

This is Entry 371.

Mike