Sometimes you discover artists in the most random places. For example, my wife used to regularly use the app for FFFFOUND! to look at art and occasionally nerdy things, and while she was doing that, she came across some comic like art. It was a Batman and Robin piece.
“Oh! That’s Darwyn Cooke, I think. He’s a really amazing artist,” I said to her.
“Says here it’s Michael Cho,” she responded.
That led to me googling Cho and finding an artist with a lot of classic influences but a keen eye for design and a host of unique aspects that make his art his own. One of my favorites is how great he is at rendering cityscapes, a characteristic you don’t see with every artist, but with Cho he gives you the details to make them feel very lived in (as you can see in his book “Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes” that takes you on a tour of Toronto through Cho’s art). His character work is also fantastic, as he gives the people in his work a sense of weight and reality without making them feel harsh or uninviting (unless they’re meant to be).
Much of his art is colored in varying two color palettes, and it’s another element that is frequently unique to him that makes his work stand on its own amongst his peers.
There hasn’t been that much sequential work from him so far, as his most notable work to-date in terms of in-comic sequential art was from a story in “Batman: Black and White” #1 with writer Chip Kidd. This September, though, Cho unveils his first graphic novel, “Shoplifter”, and as you’ll see in my review in an hour, it’s a stunning debut. Regardless of his level of sequential work, he’s an absurdly talented artist, and if you haven’t seen his work before, get a taste below.
Terry Gilliam from Occidental College illustrations
Escape from New York (this piece is actually penciled by Andy Belanger and inked by Michael Cho)
