Returning from a relaxing weekend, perhaps it’s my mellow frame of mind that makes this Matt Fraction post so intriguing:
almost this time of year, two years back, i was asked to speak at a design conference in memphis.
the event’s keynote was a guy named marc english and he gave a lecture– really more of a multimedia explosion with gutiar solos, alienated russians, pocket glitter and slides– called THE WAY OF THE DESIGN SHAMAN. What he did, basically, was present a narrative around the visual catalog of his life– illustrations from books he owned as a kid, first album covers, etc., reflected in the work he does now as a, well, design shaman. The legend (map legend, i mean, although the legend-legend meaning is maybe just as descriptive) of Marc’s life was all there– starbelly sneeches from his fifth year of life echoing out intp packaging he’d done for Criterion the week before and on and on.
It was a revelation to me then. The heavy water in my head had been putrifying and meeting marc set it slowly to a boil. the idea of doing some kind of personal archeology led me to reignite and reconnect with Where You Get Your Ideas. As such, this time of year, I start to try and dig up all that stuff and revist it, even if it’s just for a moment. Soak up the source a little bit and spin it off into the new year. It’s become an important part of my process, or at least the winter.
So the other day instead of writing i had very important stacking and arranging to do in my office. You know how i do. And so on the shelf nearest to me (well, not nearest-nearest, as that’s full of lincoln and civil war books, but nevermind) I figured I’d put the books most responsible for me wanting to make comics. Not necessarily my favorite books, or the only books I loved, but the books that, for whatever reason, made me ache to make the goddamn things.
Fraction goes onto list the books on his shelf, illustrating both his good taste – my shelf would include things much less cool, like Steve Englehart’s West Coast Avengers, if it existed – and my need to find out where he lives so that I can go to his house and ask why Eddie Campbell’s Alec isn’t anywhere on his list. I mean, dude. Seriously. Other creators are invited to list what would be on their list, so keep checking back to see who’s posted recently.
