Dreams of a Warrior

Now available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/TurnerMarkJacobs

Sketchbook page from 'Down by the River'

A sketchbook page which ended up getting cut from the final version of the book. The grey tones were made using diluted washes of india ink.

Red Death-complete 8 page story (updated 4/25/14)

Use of Mechanical Elements in Storytelling

Thus far, this blog, having claimed to feature theoretical scribblings, has failed to deliver much on that last point. So, without further ado, let us start with an examination of the use of mechanical elements in the work of two very different artists, namely Alex Toth, and Jean-Giraud 'Moebius'. 
Toth and Moebius, the very names provide a thrilling study in contrasts. The Former, hard edged and angular, tough, american. The latter, flowing off the tongue, French, poetic, and sublime in its connotations (the Moebius strip, representing infinity, and paradox). However, this "essay" is not an attempt to explore in detail the visionary elements present in the work of the latter artist, however much they may spring to the fore, commanding the attention of the reader/viewer. No, let's lets focus on something more mundane, yet still essential to the overall storytelling effect of the work two artists in question. The world of mechanical objects. The car, and by extension, the rocket ship, the helicopter, the submarine, the WWII era aircraft, the robot, the weapon, the hyperdrive, the control panel of the alien spacecraft (the educated comics reader may object to the absence of the names Kirby and Wood from this discussion but bear with me).
Alex Toth's approach to the world of machines was common sensical, though you could see that he had a love of all things mechanical that transcended the mere need to portray these elements in his comics and advertising work. Toth, the artistic descendent of the great american comics and advertising industry, modelled himself on one of the great talents of that field, namely the illustrator Noel Sickles. When it came to draftsmanship, Sickles' philosophy was seek first to understand, only then to draw. Understand the skeleton of the horse, then draw the horse. Understand the mechanics of the automobile or the aircraft, then draw it.
It was this commitment to research, and ultimately, getting the details right, that led to Sickles' commissions from the US army during WWII, as well as numerous ads for mechanical products from Madison Ave (Spark Plugs, etc). Toth, in awe of Sickles' considerable talent (and success) sought to adopt this philosophy in his own work. Later in his career, when younger artists started coming to Toth for advice, he never hesitated to hammer home the importance of research in depicting any mechanical object in comics or illustration. One only has to google the now infamous critique he gave to Steve Rude (a talented figurative artist in his own right, but with a tendency towards 'invention' of mechanical objects, which Toth felt was unforgivably lazy). 

Ultimately, as an artist, however talented, Toth was earthbound and attracted to mechanical objects that could be researched (his favorites being vintage aircraft from the WWII era and, of course, Hot Rods). In the 1970's, in fact, Toth worked for a California based publisher of Hot Rod fanzines, and though i have never seen these magazines in full, only the collection of Toth cartoons taken from them, I imagine they were full of technical articles for the home mechanic as well as stories about drag racing. Toth's work for this publisher never fails to fully utilize all mechanical elements to full storytelling potential. Here was an artist that could draw funny cars, scary cars, cars to exact specifications, etc.

Let us now take the work of Moebius, specifically the comic album 'upon a star' which, in fact, started out as a commission from the french car company, Citroen. No doubt Citroen was attracted to the young french artist, in part because of his skill in rendering mechanical elements. However, what started out as a story about a vintage automobile quickly grew into an unforgettable science fiction epic of 6 full european length albums. Broad in scope,the series addressed issues such as, is it possible for man to progress further up the evolutionary ladder without the use of machines, and the psychic nature of a human mechanic who can intuitively comprehend any alien technology. 

Here, obviously there are some other elements in play besides the need to correctly depict the engine of a hot rod, for example. For one, the vintage mechanical object of Earth origin is contrasted with examples of various alien industrial designs and technologies, a study in visual contrasts of which Toth no doubt would have approved, on the merits of comic storytelling. Also there is the element of the visionary. Unlike Toth, whose speciality was the Fokker aircraft, the souped up Hot Rod, Moebius is not content to simply illustrate what exists here on earth. Sure, he can do a good job of it, he can draw a vintage Citroen very well, but he can also imagine, visualize and then draw, for example, the control panel of an alien spacecraft, so that the reader/viewer feels the character and 'personality' of this spacecraft, whether it is a benign spacecraft, a malevolent spacecraft, an absurd, comical spacecraft et cetera. 

One final note about Moebius as a visionary is that he was an artist who only later in his life specialized in inventing alien worlds and technologies.He started as an illustrator of westerns. Much like Toth, he was attracted to the depiction of vintage mechanical objects. Somewhere online there is a video clip in which he talks about how much he loved the design and mechanics of winchester rifles, colt pistols etc. in a way that borders on the obsessive.