Before I dive into the who, what & why's of this I want to mention a few of the omissions. First and foremost my parents and teachers are obvious nods, but I seriously doubt any of you would recognize them! So here are the one's that just missed the cut:
Musically: Iron Maiden, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Hans Zimmer, Beethoven, Clifford Brown, TOOL, Bela Fleck
Comics: Dark Knight Returns, Hellboy, Quantum & Woody, JLI and way too many creators to mention
Movies: Dark Knight, Lord of the Rings, Good Fellas, Harry Potter
TV Shows: Justice League Unlimited, G.I. Joe & Transformers cartoons, Seinfeld, Lost, Arrested Development, My Name is Earl
I'm sure I'm leaving some off of that list too!
top left corner: left to right:
- Indiana Jones: this one is a double dipper. Last Crusade is one of my all time favorite movies and the soundtrack by John Williams is on my desert island list.
- Calvin & Hobbes - pretty much THE comic strip from my childhood. So good I bought all the collection books as they came out so I could re-read them endlessly!
- Darth Vader/Star Wars - this one is a triple whammy - movie/character/music - the Empire Strikes Back was where Vader earned his reputation. Truly one of the greatest movie villains of all time (I deny the existence of the prequels!)
- Michelangelo - a huge influence on my art style. My parents had a monster art book of his work and I would redraw everything while sitting ion the floor. We even had a mini bust of David that now sits on my mantle!
- Jim Lee - bball players wanna be like Mike, I grew up wanting to be like Jim Lee.
- G.I. Joe #21: Silent Interlude - words can't do this masterpiece justice (pun intended).
- Albrecht Durer - Another double dipper - a master influence from my art major days at ASU and a symbol of my faith.
- Amazing Spider-Man - up until recently my hands down favorite character and title (thanks a lot OMD!)
- The Andy Griffith Show - one of the first shows I remember watching, helped shape my morality. Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you kinda thing.
- Philo Beddoe from the Clint & Clyde movies - a bare knuckle brawler with a heart of gold! My brother and I have watched these movie countless times and I'm sure we'll keep watching them!
- Humphrey Bogart - the man. I grew up watching his movies with my Grandfather and still count Casablanca as my all-time favorite movie. Just about everything he did was gold.
- Walt Simonson's Thor - one of my all time favorite comic book runs by one of the all-time greats!
- John Byrne's Fantastic Four - How awesome was that run? Galactus (pictured) Dr Doom, the Inhumans...in my opinion the best the FF have ever been.
- Steve Vai - from my guitar playing days, nothing inspired me quite like Passion & Warfare. I still count Steve Vai as one of my favorites and listen to him whenever I need a good spark of creativity.
- The Three Stooges - another childhood favorite that I still cling to today!
- Batman the Animated Series - hands down my favorite cartoon ever. It spawned a run of cartoon dominance at DC that no one has come anywhere near. Oh and the music was pretty outrageous too!
- Planetary - Shown here is the cover to #26 (one of my favorite covers). The book that knocked Amazing Spider-Man off its pedestal for the title of my favorite comic ever!
- Darwyn Cooke - That guy is magic. Hard to determine which he's better at writing or drawing, may as well just call him a master storyteller and be done with it!
- George Perez - One of the industry's legends and what makes George so special: he's a better person than he is an artist. A tall order I know, but seek him out at a show and you'll see what I mean. I was fortunate enough to take a seminar he gave at Heroes Con back in the mid-late 80's. I was too young to really make the most of it, but it has stuck with me as one of the coolest things I've ever done.
- Arthur Adams - One of the few veteran artists who've stayed at the top of their game, Art Adams can turn a cocktail napkin into a masterpiece! I wish he was faster, but not at the expense of his craft, so I'm good just looking at his yearly sketchbooks!
- And last but not least, Dream Theater. Another all-time favorite, I use DT to inspire me artistically, push me musically and drive me when I'm working at the office or at the gym.
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