Stylistic Differences and Their Effect on a Comic Book

Today I was thinking about stylistic differences. In fact I was talking with my brother about that very thing. I had mentioned to him my need to refine my art style, and he commented that for the last book I illustrated the art was perfectly fitting for the content.

   
Greasers in Greece is after all a comedy and my style tend toward the cartoonish and silly. Its not that I can't do other styles, but this is the one that really fit the content. If you check out the image to the right you can see that this is the style that encompasses the Greasers and their universe.


One of the final things my brother had said was "imagine if the Greasers were drawn by anybody else?" after a paused he added, "Or more specifically what if it was done by someone like Rob Liefeld?" Its that final comment that got me thinking. Its true that style can totally change the feel of a story. And as is often the case, when a muse seizes you you can do nothing but obey.


For those that are not familiar with Rob Liefeld's style it is very different from my own. His characters are often tall have rippling muscles and more often than not have grim serious expressions on their face. He is at times ridiculed but he became popular and well regarded in the industry so quickly that his style became iconic. Liefeld changing his own style would be Jennifer Grey getting a nosejob all over again. Her look was iconic and changing it made her unrecognizable.

Understanding that detail I took my cartoonish style and replaced it with a more Liefeldian image. It completely changes the effect and the mood of the book.

Style can be intrinsic in creating the right pairing between art and writing. I had to be wary of this for the horror book called The Only Choice by Indie Comics Tracker. I used heavy contrast to set a dark and haunting tone to the book.

Next project you work on keep these concepts in mind so you might have great success!


Sir Thomas J. Gryphon is an artist and plebeian playing at making the next great comic, books like WOW Signal and others at GRYPHON KNIGHTS COMICS.