#i have print copies of rice boy AND all of vattu i'm a huge huge evan dahm fan

[venusmage]

Ask time! What era/type of art would you say you draw the most inspiration from?

oh god this is really hard. Mostly because my inspirations are all over the place! One is 2010's webcomics! A very broad category, I know, but I was really into reading comics when I was in highschool, and a lot of amazing ones were coming out around that time. The Meek (Der-shing Helmer), HINABN (Tess Stone), Lackadaisy (Tracy Butler), and anything by Evan Dahm (the artist behind Riceboy/Vattu/etc). I somehow avoided Homestuck, but Prequel Adventure (Kazerad) rewired my little Oblivion-Obsessed brain.

Speaking of Oblivion - the concept art for all three mainline games in the Elder Scrolls series did SO much for my imagination. Adam Adamowicz is one of my all time favorite artists, and I think his work on Oblivion was overlooked because of his (also stellar) work in Skyrim. There's an entire flickr album of his concept art for TES IV, though, and I recommend it! What that man could do with art markers bewilders me even now. I think this might be the single most impactful art influence I have.

The close runner-up would be the aforementioned Evan Dahm's work. I think he's still, years later, criminally underrated in terms of public appreciation and discussion. For me, Rice Boy blew open so many doors regarding art style, presentation, and character design. Vattu then stunned with just how much of an epic it was and it's fantastic titular main character. Now 3rd Voice is perhaps his most technically beautiful comic yet, and seems to meld the weirdness of Rice Boy with Vattu's super gripping character arcs and worldbuilding.

The way his comics are paced (both in story and the literal pacing of how he organizes his panels/the art in them) is my favorite...ever. Even though they're simple, he just gets the framing down so perfectly it's crazy. The fact he can make such alien characters so human in how they act and how we view them astounds me. I really do - no hyperbole or empty flattery intended - think he's a modern day comics master and I need more people to discuss his body of work.

Also all of his comics are FREE to read on his website rice-boy[dot]com! They're also on webtoon if you're already dedicated to that platform, and the blog @riceboycomic was basically a republishing of Rice Boy with added artist commentary. If you're not ready to dive into the behemoth that is Vattu yet (its over 1000 pages, though it's so worth it), 3rd Voice is his newest work and you can catch up to the current page (288) within an hour. Rice Boy is also pretty short, under 500 pages. Please do yourself a favor and get lost in one of the quiet, uncanny, heartfelt worlds he's created (and then talk to me about it pleaaaseee).