Lancaster's Influence Map

I must thank Fox-Orian – [link] – a lot by this meme. It was a good idea to refresh my mind and rescue what artists were really influent for myself. It's not just a matter of influence itself – it's basically a rescue of an entire life of readings and emotional impacts from artists on my life.
Let's rock:
– I must begin with two works: John Byrne Fantastic Four and Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns. Two different works. Byrne's FF was bright, more sci-fi-tuned than really supers at tone; He was strongly influenced by Golden Age of science fiction, with hints which lead us to Bradbury and Larry Niven. Dark Knight Returns was a punch on my stomach. Tense, nervous, realistic, highly politically subtoned (should I say overtoned?) – I used to repeat catch phrases from the series. Byrne was more academic, classic; Miller was more expressive, sketchy. Both made me crazy.
– A Brazilian Guitarrist called Andre Christovam said during an interview on radio: If you admire too much some musician, try to patch his influences – "those who made him". I think it was a great idea and searched for Kirby (Byrne) and Will Eisner's Spirit and Lone Wolf and Cub (Miller). I was sixteen, I think.
– I was really impressed by the spirit, which I searched in used book stores (I love old book stores). And Lone Wolf and Cub changed my way of reading comics forever: I learned to "think storytellingly" and I really became interested to read more manga. So, Akira was released on Brazil.
– It was the opposite of Lone Wolf. Both are cinematic, in a different way. One was classic, authoral – Ozu, Leone, Kurosawa, with perfect scene cuts panel by panel. Immersive. Akira was frenetic, video-clip-like, fast, furious, energetic. Hypnotical.
– I must talk a bit about Spirit and Kirby: I love the chiaroscuro feeling of Eisner works from this time, and I really tend to prefer his Spirit than his "Mature Graphic Novels". I'm sorry, I know they're important and I really like his "Life in Another Planet". But they never impacted me so much as Denny Colt jumping among shadows. Even nowadays, I like to use strong areas of black in my works when possible. Kirby, in another instance, show me the value of composition. It's more important to looking graphic than looking real. Drawing is a graphic process. And his creativity for graphic sci-fi machines is pure gold.
– But my interest by manga was growing and growing. And I must thank Ryoichi Ikegami for all. I found a midterm among my desire for a great art and a strong storytelling – and into this midterm, I found a way myself. His "Mai: The Psychic Girl" gave more attention from myself than "Crying Freeman". My learning about manga was achieved on flipped left-to-right manga, how they used to be, and even nowadays I think: left-to-right manga is better to catch storytelling tips for us, occidental artists. Manga is just right to left because it's the japanese people reading sense. Okay, okay, I was young, I was a boy, and I secretly dreamed about have a girlfriend like Mai someday. Everybody grows up – take it easy, guys. ^_^
– The Biggest pic here is from Venus Wars, from Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. I was thinking about to post a battle scene, but I decided to post just some character turning moviment – and even if I couldn't say "yasuhiko" is my biggest influence (although he has some influence, I think), I should say his work is a synthesis of the elements who driven me to manga – the love for sci-fi adventure for my early teen years, a classic vibe, strong color paintings, energy, an attitude which has been lacking from anime nowadays.
– By the way, I love how Haruhiko Mikimoto Paintings used to be. The original Macross works always will be a reference in this sense.
– At some point, I understood: I've been drawing almost-manga by osmosis already. I decided to assume it and study about its storytelling. Rurouni Kenshin was important for me because it finally tuned me on Jump side of the force. His action-packing sense of storytelling and force was very instructive for me. Even nowadays, Nobuhiro Watsuki seems to have an enviable sense of fastness and strenght in his storytelling and composition. I enjoy his work a lot.
– Porco Rosso. Miyazaki. It says it all.
Well, it's here. It was important – I stopped to notice who was really important during my growing as an artist. Okay, okay, there a lot of good artists as Oh! Great and storytellers as Mitsuru Adachi who deserved my attention. But the "basic" Lancaster grew thanks by these guys. And this map show me what I really want to achieve on my work – and I was losing my focus.
I must thank for Matt M. Laskowski. He created the Influence map pattern. And his template is here. [link]
Have fun.