The Artist Within
For 15 years Preston has been photographing cartoonists in their natural habitats, the studios in which they work. Revealing the faces behind the familiar drawings, Preston aims his lenses at artists engaged in virtually every realm of cartooning, including superhero comics (Alex Ross, Todd McFarlane); newspaper strips (Cathy Guisewite, Berke Breathed); alternative and underground comics (R. Crumb, the Hernandez brothers); and animation (Chuck Jones, Joseph Barbera). The best portraits capture the spirit of the subjects' work. Mad mainstay Sergio Aragones is surrounded by toy figurines. Loopy caricaturist Arnold Roth's mug sports a wacky grin. Art Spiegelman, known for his formal mastery of the comics medium, looks dead serious. The studio of gritty urban realist Frank Miller looks out on a brick wall. Most welcome are valedictory portraits of titans in the comics field who have passed on since Preston photographed them, including Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, and Carl Barks. Fans of cartooning and of photographic portraiture should enjoy Preston's evocative images of these often-reclusive figures in their working sanctums. Flagg, Gordon