It was a real inspiration to see Mike Mignola speak last night, for a man who's worked on iconic characters like Alien and Batman and taken his ideas to Hollywood he seemed like a normal nice guy who just uses illustration to make sense of the world he's found himself in, like the rest of us here.
As my work this year especially has been influenced by a conscious move away from formulaic and mainstream comics that have driven my work in the past, it was great to see an example of someone who was inspired by comics but decided to put a different spin on that world rather than trying to fit into it. This is an attitude that's really thought provoking for me, as he repeatedly spoke of how he didn't think his work on Batman or Alien were his best, as he was restricted by the rules of pre-existing characters and audiences, and found it much more refreshing just scrapping that and having a go at his own weird ideas. That's an idea that I've been aiming for especially this year, trying to be more confident in my own ideas and stories, rather than depending on what I know can work.
Overall the talk was very interesting and unexpectedly relatable and it's helped to give me a boost by showing a real life example of someone who's let his work develop and change according to his own ideas and influences, which is reassuring for me in terms of having more faith in my own ideas and work.
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