Portraits of the artists as young scribblers

July 6, 2007 4:57 PM

Now Then is an exhibit of 25 comic artists showing a comparison of their drawing style now and when they were just kids. Also, check out 50 artists riffing on the theme of Duck! Fun stuff from the Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art.
posted by madamjujujive (7 comments total)

Heh. The problem with screwing around on the internet all the time is that I know that I've seen this before, and thought that this exhibit had been up for a while (the Now and Then bit, anyway). But the upside is that it's still cool to look at.
posted by klangklangston at 5:00 PM on July 6, 2007

This is great, although it's a little disheartening to see how much my "now" stuff looks like their "then" stuff.
posted by arcticwoman at 6:25 PM on July 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

It's also disheartening that I think of myself as a relatively hip and/or with-it person but I only recognize a single artist (Roz Chast).
posted by DU at 6:49 PM on July 6, 2007

Who'd've thought Ron Regé, Jr was a fan of Slipknot

...in 1986?
posted by Reggie Digest at 7:46 PM on July 6, 2007

Fascinating - especially the way that one or two had developed elements of their adult style as little kids, or have stuck to an aesthetic all their lives, only improving in terms of technique.

Also interesting that some were doing derivative drawings as kids, and still are as adults. I might be completely wrong about that, though, not being into comics at all - is it fair to say that Charles Burns read a lot of horror comics as a kid, and now is not unfamiliar with the work of the Hernandez brothers?

I'd love to see a show like this done with the juvenilia of artists, instead of illustrators and comic artists [NOT COMICSIST].
posted by jack_mo at 3:44 AM on July 7, 2007

jack_mo: is it fair to say that Charles Burns read a lot of horror comics as a kid, and now is not unfamiliar with the work of the Hernandez brothers?

Wow, that one is pretty Love & Rockets-y! It probably is pretty fair to assume Burns is familiar with the Hernandez bros. (I should hope that anyone making a living in comics would be), but a direct comparison of their respective ouvres would dispel any suspicion of rip-offery. Really, they're very, very different.

And besides, they're contemporaries. It's probably fair to assume Charles Burns has known the Hernandez brothers personally for up to 20 years.
posted by Reggie Digest at 1:18 PM on July 7, 2007

but a direct comparison of their respective ouvres would dispel any suspicion of rip-offery.

Cool. The only reason it jumped out at me so much is that Love & Rockets is probably the only comic I've seen more than one issue of.
posted by jack_mo at 1:43 PM on July 7, 2007