Artistically David Mack is one of my biggest influences. In fact he’s such an influence that my first foray years ago into actually colouring my work using water colours can be landed squarely on his lap. The man escapes the boundaries of traditional art and elevates everything he does to a level few can ever see, and even fewer can ever reach. What I find amazing is the lack of recognition this man deserves in the real of both contemporary artwork and graphic design. Oh sure he’s got loads of fans from all regions of the world and all coming from different backgrounds, some design, some traditional art, some comic book art, but I still think he deserves much more.

And not to be completely cliched about the whole thing the guy is an exceptionally nice person as well. I’ve had several e-mail correspondences with the man and bought several books and what not off him in the past. I was even contemplating saving up to buy a piece of his artwork. It was going to cost me an arm and a leg, at $1500 but I was seriously thinking about it; luckily he didn’t actually have the particular piece I wanted as he’d already sold it. Luckily simply because I really couldn’t afford it even though I wanted it more than anything. Throughout our conversations he was such an approachable guy, which made me even more of a fan of the man as he earned my respect. It’s more than can be said of a lot of creators that let things go to their heads.

Every Thursday used to be a religious journey to get my weekly fix of my favorite books. I’ve since stopped doing that and rather like going into the store and waiting for things to jump at me. This week I was pleasantly surprised by the fifth installment of Mack’s fantastic Reflections series, which effectively is his collection of artwork that never saw print, sketches and other Mack related goodies. It’s not the most powerful one in the series, however Mack on a bad hair day is better than 90% of the ‘artists’ out there working in a professional environment.

I can acknowledge that his stuff might not appeal to everyone, but if it doesn’t then it’s that person’s loss. I’ll be writing about his epic series Kabuki in the coming months as it’s a series that deserves to be read by everyone who’s even mildly interested in a good story, in ANY medium.