My ALASKA VACATION, 2011, Part 2

JUNE 22, 2011, Part 2

Around 11:30 AM, Cousin Janet arrived. She asked what I was doing later. She wanted to introduce me to Angie, 17-year-old adopted daughter of Julia, one of Janet’s best friends. Angie’s goal is to be a Manga artist, and Janet wanted me to take a look at her work. Julia and Angie lived near-ish by, so Janet and I arrived around noon.

Julia was tall, thin, white haired (women in Alaska don’t seem to feel the need that Los Angelina’s have to dye their hair as middle age sets in), bobbed short. Angie is a pretty, slightly pudgy, Raven-haired girl. Julia asked for advice on how Angie could best apply for art schools. (I confessed to having not a clue.) Angie showed some recent work, a manga inspired 6 page comicbook sequence drawn in a spiral bound sketchbook. She had fairly good drawing chops for a teen-ager, and I told her so.

On the drive over, Janet warned me that Angie was head-strong, arrogant, too sure of herself. “She does most of that talking, isn’t inclined to listen. I didn’t find this to be the case, though Janet later told me that Angie had been on her best behavior. Angie accepted with good grace my lack of interest in Manga; to me Manga was just another style. I came up with a list of American cartoonist I recommended she investigate. She pulled out an iPad and did so as I wrote, looking up Alex Toth, Russ Heath, etc. I told here she needed to work on, well, everything. If she wanted to do what I do, she would have to be able to draw anything, from any angle, doing anything, at any time of day, in any weather condition. This skill could be applied to drawing Manga or anything the hell else she wanted to draw.