Thread by @Nate_Powell_Art

Here's a wintertime thread of the most influential comics (& some illustrations) for me personally-- the stuff that shaped my art & stories before my 30s, and helped me see stories our world in a different way.

(1/56 or so-- thank you for the indulgence!)

1. Early Atari 2600 packaging illustrations, most importantly the Haunted House art.

2. In '82/83, the Wonder Woman run by Dan Mishkin & Gene Colan was the first series I collected monthly. Lots of trippy and dark stuff resting in those pages, at least for a 4 year old.

3. 1984-- G.I.Joe #21 by Larry Hama, inked by Steve Leialoha. This issue is easily one of the most influential comics for cartoonists my age. As a wordless narrative, it forced me to intently pay attention to comics storytelling for the first time. I still look at it regularly.

1984-- Lots of Bill Sienkiewicz cover illustrations had caught my attention by age 6, but this Starriors cover is one of my all time favorites, and I was captivated by its design-heavy focus. (Also so similar to Judas Priest "Screaming For Vengeance"!)

5. 1986, maybe? Calvin & Hobbes is clearly a touchstone, a masterpiece. But the week where Calvin finds a dying raccoon was life-changing. I was so moved to be able to read it with my kid, 30 years later. <3

6. The 'Nam #1, art & colors by Michael Golden. The 1st comics art I identified as being above and beyond its peers. I'd never seen color applied like this in comics, or focus on repetition, passage of time, real-world considerations. Changed/opened my relationship w/ my dad too.

7. My comics shop in Alabama somehow had these UK Marvel titles in '86-'87. UK Transformers #113 (w/ Death's Head!) drawn by Geoff Senior-- I'm still awed by its geometric forms, its sense of motion, its good use of blacking out forms.

8. I lucked out and that same comics shop carried pre-cartoon TMNT comics, so I caught those in late '86. The "Return To New York" arc in '88 (I think just Eastman/Laird) was immensely important to me: I'd never seen b&w comics that literally looked dirty, truly underground.

9. The illustrations accompanying the NES game Dragon Warrior in 1989, just like the Haunted House game art when I was 4, became *what I saw* when I played the blocky, clunky game. Illustration as lens-- the art was inseparable from the imagined realm.

10 (last one for today). John Romita, Jr.'s run on Daredevil was beautiful, but #270 was a self-contained favorite that sought to weave its own mythology though other cultural touchstones. The blockiness and boldness of JRJR's linework remains singular and underappreciated.

(continuing this thread of early comics influences on my work:)

11. Barry Windsor-Smith's work on Uncanny X-Men #205 (colors, too!). Paired perfectly with Claremont's occasional poetry interludes. Those distant lights through the snow and wind were impactful.

12. Bill Sienkiewicz on Elektra: Assassin-- Wildly inventive multimedia approach smashed through fairly standard comics storytelling while remaining totally readable, carving out panel borders and forms using negative space, jumping straight into expressive abstract forms.

13. Longshot, written by Annie Nocenti, art by Arthur Adams, my all-time favorite. As a 7th grader immersed in superhero comics, this was the closest approximation I'd seen to a personal, creator-driven narrative at the time, watching Adams' style blossom with each issue.

14. As I started drawing comics in jr. high, Claremont & Arthur Adams' work on X-Men Annual 10 (and 9, and New Mutants SE) was proof of concept that one could throw all kinds of absurd ingredients into the pot-- even silliness, which seemed a bit too '90s for the time. Have fun.

15. My most important influence was my best friend & collaborator, Mike Lierly. He'd been making comics for a few years before me and helped establish the drive to make our visions come true, starting in 1990. I owe him everything. This page is from our 1st series, DOA (1992-93).

16. Yoshitaka Amano's concept art for Final Fantasy was exactly what I needed to see at exactly the right time, just as thrash metal, drawing comics, and fantasy narratives were becoming central to my young adolescence. I'm still awestruck by his touch.

17. Michael Golden's work on Dr. Strange #55 is all glorious, but I think the gesture, motion, and linework in that smoke still influences me to this day. And I *love* drawing smoke.

18. Highly significant-- as I started drawing comics in 1990, I found myself much more interested in the strange, personal, intimate John Bolton backup stories in Classic X-Men reprints. In Mike's and my 1st comics project I immediately started making similar 8-page backups.

19. John J Muth & Kent Williams' work on Meltdown blew the doors wide open for my young mind-- these pages are relatively standard compared to some of the incredible multimedia work and experimentation throughout. I had *no* idea how to make art like this, but seeds were planted.

20 (last one for now; my kid's home sick). Avengers Annual #10-- Michael Golden's work in this issue is still a bit awkward in spots, but this issue made me aware of a continuum of creator-influence. This made me pay attention to style-- and what I wanted to make w/ my own work.

(This week's early comics-influence thread, cont'd-- thanks for tuning in!):

21. The fine balance between experimentalism and accessibility in Sienkewicz' New Mutants run was one of my most powerful insipirations, in particular the opening splash page in #18. It guides me still.

22. This Rogue origin double-page sequence from a Classic X-Men backup story (written by Annie Nocenti, art by Kieron Dwyer & Hillary Barta) presented a kind of composition I'd never even conceived of as a super-young cartoonist.

23. This is probably my all-time favorite superhero comic cover. Steranko!

24. In pre-internet Arkansas, I was exposed to anime & manga thanks to a single video store w/ an anime VHS rack-- Masamune Shirow and Hideaki Anno were revolutionary glimpses into modes of storytelling outside US comics, as we finished work on our 1st published comic in 1992.

25. Otomo followed close behind, and little needs to be said about Akira's power and influence-- what isn't discussed much, though, is the wonderful use of negative space and huge voids of content amidst so much detail in his work.

26. John Romita, Jr's work on Daredevil: The Man Without Fear in 1994 was a perfect execution of Frank Miller's page organization, and this may have been my first exposure to solid black gutters and margins-- I knew this was something I wanted to use in my work as well.

27. I got into punk in 1991, & started self-publishing comics in '92, equally inspired by other young punks across the country (and in my local scene) making their own zines, tapes, records-- Cometbus was, and remains, the torchbearer, and illuminated copy-machine possibilities.

28. In the Little Rock punk scene, the comics of Ben Nichols (now of the band Lucero, & brother of director Jeff Nichols) helped show the exit from superhero narratives, exposed me to the Hernandez brothers, and influenced me w/ a blending of personal/family and punk fiction.

29. So much of FAERIES by Brian Froud & Alan Lee inspired me, but it's all about that damn Jenny Greenteeth illustration.

30. Yes, Dave Sim sucks-- but in '95-'96 my cartooning eyes were opened to the beauty of repetition, slow-burn storytelling, and the contrast in touch between Sim & Gerhardt's approaches to the page. The Cerberus Guide To Self-Publishing was really crucial at this time too.

31. (last one for today!) Katsuhiro Otomo's DOMU: A CHILD'S DREAM remains one in my all-time favorite GN's, siezes upon my love of stories set in a limited, confined space, and planted seeds that would come to fruition a decade later with Swallow Me Whole.