Katie Skelly’s Top 5 Comic Influences
Comics Artist/Illustrator discusses artists who impacted her most
Perhaps you’ve browsed the main floor feminist table and caught site of her floral-covered Bad Drawings by Bad Women, or maybe you’ve stopped and flipped through a copy of her graphic novel Nurse Nurse, on the second floor. However you’ve encountered Katie Skelly’s quirky illustrations and panels, you’ve likely been intrigued by her unique style and sense of storytelling. But how did she come to create the way she does? Strand asked Katie for her top 5 artistic influences, and she shared her favorite work by each artist.
1. Ayako by Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka tucks national corruption and political glad-handing inside the tale of a perverse family who keeps the titular character locked away from her life and resistant to language, social mores, and clothing.
2. The Complete Crepax: Dracula, Frankenstein, And Other Horror Stories by Guido Crepax
This obscenely gorgeous compendium collects the horror stories of Italian art comics stalwart, Guido Crepax. Psychedelic rock bands, blood suckers, underwater spirits, and more meet with dreamy panache.
3. Cat Eyed Boy, Vol. 1 & 2, Kazuo Umezu
A nuisance ghoul haunts the attic of an unwitting family in this grotesque shōnen manga series.
4. Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle by Vladimir Nabokov
This is Nabokov’s haziest, sexiest novel about the illicit obsession between brother and sister and the ultimately futile exercise of collecting.
5. Kate Moss by Mario Testino
Mario Testino’s tribute to his greatest muse is my go-to reference for artistic and everyday inspiration.
BONUS: My Pretty Vampire by Katie Skelly
A shut-in vampire with an escape plot makes for an adventurous and sensual journey for Clover, the protagonist of Katie Skelly’s latest graphic novel. See Katie in conversation with fellow cartoonist, Gary Panter, author of Songy of Paradise 7/27! They’ll discuss growing into and out of their biggest influences with the Paris Review’s Nicole Rudick.
Click here to purchase your tickets!
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