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Sergio Toppi
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Sergio Toppi is the maestro, the master
of Italian comic art.
He's an inspiration for designers and artists everywhere. He's influenced the work of Brad Holland,Frank Miller, Walter Simonson, Bill Sienkiewicz and Howard Chaykin to name a few.
He's been creating art and Fumetti (Italian word for comics: literally"little puffs of smoke"in reference to word balloons) for over fifty years. He's been published in newspapers, magazines and books worldwide.
After starting out in animation and advertising he began doing comics in the 60's. Within a few years he took the basic rules of sequential narration and stretched them out like silly putty. He dumped the borders, panels and grids and started using the whole page.That switch made an impact.
His compositions move around and bounce your eyes from place to place. Frames appear, then disappear behind images, graphic elements pop over panel margins and jump out of frames, it's a lot to take in. It's exaggerated but never overdone, it's busy but never too cluttered, he just knows how to balance everything and make it flow, he truly is the maestro.
He's worked on several historical and religious books so his art is filled with gladiators,soldiers, warriors and samurai. He has an eye for gesture and facial expressions and many times I've just stopped and stared at the person looking back at me on the page.
Toppi is now in his 70's and in an interview I saw a few years back, he seemed very content to just be doodling at his drawing table.
Amen to that Sergio. Get out your pen, grab some paper, and please... just keep doodling.
He's an inspiration for designers and artists everywhere. He's influenced the work of Brad Holland,Frank Miller, Walter Simonson, Bill Sienkiewicz and Howard Chaykin to name a few.
He's been creating art and Fumetti (Italian word for comics: literally"little puffs of smoke"in reference to word balloons) for over fifty years. He's been published in newspapers, magazines and books worldwide.
After starting out in animation and advertising he began doing comics in the 60's. Within a few years he took the basic rules of sequential narration and stretched them out like silly putty. He dumped the borders, panels and grids and started using the whole page.That switch made an impact.
His compositions move around and bounce your eyes from place to place. Frames appear, then disappear behind images, graphic elements pop over panel margins and jump out of frames, it's a lot to take in. It's exaggerated but never overdone, it's busy but never too cluttered, he just knows how to balance everything and make it flow, he truly is the maestro.
He's worked on several historical and religious books so his art is filled with gladiators,soldiers, warriors and samurai. He has an eye for gesture and facial expressions and many times I've just stopped and stared at the person looking back at me on the page.
Toppi is now in his 70's and in an interview I saw a few years back, he seemed very content to just be doodling at his drawing table.
Amen to that Sergio. Get out your pen, grab some paper, and please... just keep doodling.
125 photos
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items are from between 10 Mar 2006 & 28 Nov 2010.
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