Peculiar Parables Part 1

Air Raid Robertson on Feb. 25, 2011

I wanted to sneak in the beginning of a new storyline before the month was out. I stated this earlier, but I'd like to reiterate that I actually drew this page while I was still working on the previous arc. Working out of sequence usually derails my creative efforts, but I really just needed to get this page down as soon as I thought of it.

There are several sources for the artistic and storytelling direction of this arc. The foremost inspiration is the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko run on Dr. Strange. That particular run of comics is, in my opinion, the crown jewel of 1960's Marvel. I never get tired of looking at the imaginative imagery and design that Steve Ditko dreamed up while he was working on Dr. Strange.

Some of Steve Ditko's cited influences on his Dr. Strange work included Salvador Dali and M.C. Escher. These two artists will also inform my thinking while I'm putting this together. Another person coloring my thought process for this story will be Jack Kirby. I want the images in this yarn to be big, bold, and dynamic in a very Kirbified way.

Another influence is going to be wildstyle. With that said, I freely admit that I'm a suburban whiteboy who is a total outsider to hip hop culture. Still, I want to incorporate some modern art touches to my comics. And, I'm a big fan of guys like Jim Mahfood and Damian Scott. They were able to make graffiti-styled art work in a comic book format. I'm not going to go as far as they do, but you'll be seeing a bit of it in the captions for this story.

Finally, another key point in the inception of this arc is the film Yellow Submarine. This is one of my favorite movies and it's pretty much what got me into the Beatles. I've been wanting to do a riff on Yellow Submarine in my comic book work for ages. And, since I was planning a sort of psychadelic storyline for Air Raid Robertson, I thought that I should throw some Yellow Submarine in here too.