Frozen
06-05-2001, 08:54 AM
First, please forgive the length and apparent self-indulgence of this post...
I've recently been lucky enough to get a job as a concept artist in a computer game studio, and in a moment of quiet reflection, I thought back to the time I picked up my first Batman Animated comic...
It'd been a while since I'd bought a Batman comic (too many titles, too many cross-overs...), but I'd seen the cartoon, so I gave the comic a shot. The first thing that struck me was the absolutely wonderful art - by Mike Parobeck. I was about 20, and for a few years I'd been developing my own style - pretty simple, pretty clean, very Hernandez Bros. - but every comic I opened had this god awful Image style hatch overload, grimacing faces, bulging muscles and breasts - the complete antithesis of the style I was developing...
As a young man aspiring to be a professional artist, it was intimidating to see nothing that matched my style. The pressure to change, to draw like Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee and the like seemed tremendous - but then I discovered Mike Parobeck and his lovely clean work, with his open lines, simple yet perfect anatomical accuracy, and fantastically expressive faces - and I was hooked. Inspired by his work, I worked harder, driven on by the fact I could see just how good that style of work can be...
I never met Mike Parobeck, and now, sadly, I never will. It was mid 1996 when he died, way too young, and I remember being destroyed. I'd never have the chance to simply say 'Thank you', to simply say how much of an inspiration he was to me...
Now I have a good job, and a job I love. I get up every morning and I look forward to coming to work, to drawing. And I owe so much of that feeling - so much of the desire to draw - to Mike.
I'm genuinely sorry if I've bored anybody reading this, I'm sorry if this seems an irrelevance. But I can't think of a better place to finally say 'Thank you, Mike. You're sadly missed.'
Mathew David Spaull
5/6/2001
I've recently been lucky enough to get a job as a concept artist in a computer game studio, and in a moment of quiet reflection, I thought back to the time I picked up my first Batman Animated comic...
It'd been a while since I'd bought a Batman comic (too many titles, too many cross-overs...), but I'd seen the cartoon, so I gave the comic a shot. The first thing that struck me was the absolutely wonderful art - by Mike Parobeck. I was about 20, and for a few years I'd been developing my own style - pretty simple, pretty clean, very Hernandez Bros. - but every comic I opened had this god awful Image style hatch overload, grimacing faces, bulging muscles and breasts - the complete antithesis of the style I was developing...
As a young man aspiring to be a professional artist, it was intimidating to see nothing that matched my style. The pressure to change, to draw like Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee and the like seemed tremendous - but then I discovered Mike Parobeck and his lovely clean work, with his open lines, simple yet perfect anatomical accuracy, and fantastically expressive faces - and I was hooked. Inspired by his work, I worked harder, driven on by the fact I could see just how good that style of work can be...
I never met Mike Parobeck, and now, sadly, I never will. It was mid 1996 when he died, way too young, and I remember being destroyed. I'd never have the chance to simply say 'Thank you', to simply say how much of an inspiration he was to me...
Now I have a good job, and a job I love. I get up every morning and I look forward to coming to work, to drawing. And I owe so much of that feeling - so much of the desire to draw - to Mike.
I'm genuinely sorry if I've bored anybody reading this, I'm sorry if this seems an irrelevance. But I can't think of a better place to finally say 'Thank you, Mike. You're sadly missed.'
Mathew David Spaull
5/6/2001