Steven Grant looks to Bob Dylan for guidance for new creators:
New artists (and writers, but successfully emulating other writers is a trickier business and takes a whole different skill set altogether) try to enter the field every day, many of them drawn in by - and emulating - a specific artist whose work grabbed them. You can do traces easily enough if you know where to look; the original Image group is a case in point… The survivors of the “post-Image” movement were those who brought something else to the table. Otherwise it’s really just a degeneration of comics art: part of the appeal of comics art for budding artists is that not only is formal training not required, the absence of formal training is often held up as a badge of honor. Stories of aspiring comics artists teaching themselves by mimicking the work of their favorite artists are legion, and the easiest aspects of art to imitate are the surface elements. But, as in Dylan’s rockabilly-big band example, you don’t get to be Jim Lee by paying attention only to Jim Lee’s work. Jim Lee, all the Image guys, were looking at all kinds of things. To understand their work, you have to understand their influences as well.
Alternatively, don’t follow leaders, watch the parking meters.
