Author: Grant Thomas

Last week, I posted the first half of a list of books that have influenced¬†my thinking. ¬†Here’s the other half of the list:

 

The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning (1980)

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud (1993)

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murikami (1997)

Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks (1998)

An Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri (1999)

White Teeth (2000)

Fast Food Nation (2001)

Heartbreak Soup by Gilbert Hernandez (2003)

Blankets by Craig Thompson (2003)

Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year  Robert Weber (2004)

Black Hole  Charles Burns (2005)

American Born Chinese by Gene Yang (2006)

King City by Brandon Graham (2007)

The Arrival by Shaun Tan (2007)

Tales From the Farm by Jeff Lemire (2008)

Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire (2008)

The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire (2009)

Sweet Tooth By Jeff Lemire (2009-2013)

Finder Library Volume 1 – Carla Speed McNeil (2011)

Habibi by Craig Thompson (2012)

Multiple Warheads by Brandon Graham (2012)

Saga (2012-Present)

 

 

Last week, I posted a list of films that have influenced me as an artist.

Here is how I introduced the list:

I was intrigued by Brainpicking’s article, David Bowie’s 75 Must-Read Books.  I’ve long assumed that as artists, much of our work reflects a bit of our artistic diet.  We ingest various forms of art and their influence is exuded in our own productions.  I’ve seen a lot of movies.  Most of them were bad. This is not a list of every movie I have ever seen, but it is a list of films that I’ve sat up and taken notice of.  Some have directly impacted my work in comics. (In other words I’ve tried to imitate as best I could.)  Some may take root and flower later.  I might even be influenced by the countless bad movies I’ve watched. (wink)

I tend to shy away from listing my favorite movies and books.  Mostly, I am paranoid that Facebook and other sites use these lists to generate advertisements and other data mining ventures.  However, since this website is – ah hem- created purely to promote my artwork, why not use my own preference to further my own artwork. (grin).  My website is mostly read by other artists and friends, so perhaps this will give you insight into my creative process and you might find one of these films useful for yourself.

This week, I am posting a list of books that have influenced my thinking and art-making. ¬†Once again, I have difficulty weighing their importance, so they are listed in chronological sequence. ¬†Stay tuned next week for a list of influential books from 1987-Present Continue reading Grant Thomas’ List of Influential Books (3rd Century-1986)