Everyone that sees my work always make the similarity to Archie comics...and rightfully so. I definitely wanted to channel Dan Decarlo's style in some fashion. I don't want to be Decarlo though; there are a few other great comic artist that influenced me, though admittedly most of them are from an era past. And I will definitely get to them in the future, to be sure. But the main reason I decided to draw the way I do is definitely intentional...even though older manga storytelling is what greatly influenced me when I was younger, I want what I do to be particularly American. An older, more mature, yet timeless America. And nothing screamed more American than Archie. But I also want to reflect the America that I live in too--one that isn't just inhabited by WASP's. So I guess I wanted my work to be a spin on that style... minorities, gays, the working class: they get a voice too. Maybe not the one that they want to have, but they would get one. Ooooohhh...subversive! How deep!
Of course, I wasn't the only one that thought of this:
Larry Welz created Cherry Poptart in 1984, and he and his wife (god bless her) started self publishing it to contribute to the underground comix community. He wanted to have fun--sexy, awesome fun--and he did it as an homage of the style that he grew up and loved, . Obviously he got a lot of flack from Archie Comics, but fuck 'em if they can't take a joke. Or don't have sex.
Now, anyone that knows me knows that this was like a double whammy to me--Sex, or better put eroticism, is what I live and die for. I stumble upon Cherry about a decade ago, and I was hooked. It wasn't the art so much, or even the sex--it was the wholehearted lightheartedness of it. Welz realized sometimes jokes aren't funny when they're too long to tell, or orgies aren't much fun when you painstakingly plan every detail. Sometimes it's gotta just...happen.
Woohoo!
