The 10 Cartoonists Who Influenced Katie Cook
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Katie Cook is a comic artist, illustrator, and a writer. She created the webcomics Gronk (2010-2015) and started a weekly comic called Nothing Special in 2017 that is still going string. You can read a new comic each Tuesday over at Webtoon. Nothing Special has also been printed in three volumes (I, II, III) by Penguin Random House.
Over the years she’s worked on licensed properties including Marvel, Star Wars, Disney, and Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock. She was tapped to write a multi-year run of My Little Pony starting in 2012. Publisher’s Weekly reported her My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #1 sold “an astonishing 90,100 in pre-orders last fall,” and helped boost the popularity of kids comics.
If that wasn’t enough, she’s also illustrated two children’s books: ABC-3PO and OBI-123 to help kids to learn the alphabet and count for Disney.
Katie was included in Bleeding Cool’s Top 100 Power List of people in the comic book industry in 2013. But if you’re still not familiar with her work, here is a sample of her work from Nothing Special.
And now, here are…
The 10 artists who influenced Katie Cook
Bill Watterson
“Who amongst us in the cult of cartooning don’t have this man as an influence?
“Growing up, I was a latchkey kid. Every morning while my parents got ready for work, I was at the kitchen table with the comics section of the Detroit Free Press. I would read every comic but Calvin and Hobbes was already my favorite because of 1) Hobbes being the cutest voice of reason of all time and 2) The magnetic pull of Calvin and the worlds he lives in. I remember being so excited to see the Sunday strip because I loved the way the title was drawn into the strip or I KNEW I was in for some dinosaur art.
“But going back to being a kid at the kitchen table with the comics… if there was one I thought was really good I’d cut it out and take it with me to school where I would Rob Lichtenstein it onto a new piece of paper. Hobbes was a pretty prominent subject for me.
“I guess it’s kind of a Love At First Sight story. I was connected to that kid with the spiky hair and his pet tiger and I still am. It’s one of the first things that make me think “this is what I want out of my life. I want to make THIS.”
“I help a lot of Girl Scout troops get their comic book badges and my little slideshow always has a Calvin and Hobbes example as the perfect way to tell a whole narrative in 4 panels. The man was, and still is somewhere out there, a master craftsman.
“I actually had this massive career/life moment seeing some of the originals of the strip at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Art Museum last summer. Like full lightning strike through your body second…. This comic that I love. That I see as the most perfect example of what I do…. Was covered in whiteout, eraser marks and more flaws. THAT was my “not everything has to be perfect” teachable moment that has made my life slightly less anxious.
“…but still super anxious. Do not get me wrong, I’m a hot mess.”
Charles Schulz
“Slipping right in after Watterson because Peanuts was one that I was chopping up from the newspaper right along with Calvin and Hobbes, Charles Schulz. Peanuts was such a prominent part of my childhood not only because the comic strip was utterly charming… but because the Peanuts gang was so…. Accessible back then. I was born in ’81 and my childhood was FULL of Peanuts comics, Peanuts books, Peanuts merchandise, Peanuts TV specials, etc.
“And instant recognition of the characters by basically everyone at every age. It was common ground for EVERYONE. Once it got out that I could draw Snoopy to the other kids in my class? OH THE SWEET VALIDATION OF EGO for an 8 year old.
“When I got older and really took the time to LOOK at his linear and see it go from a cleaner stroke to that still beautiful wibble-wobble that came after his health issues that just ADDED to the whimsy and charm of it all?
“I also wasn’t a popular kid so on some levels I had a Charlie Brown Complex of just that feeling of never winning. Good ol’ Charlie Brown, he and I could be losers TOGETHER.”
Maurice Noble
“Here’s one that some people won’t know by name but the SECOND you realize who it is…. you’ll see it. Think of the background art from Bugs Bunny in What’s Opera, Doc? Think the colorful, whackadoo shapes in the background of MOST of the classic era Looney Tunes. His interior of Witch Hazel house is my favorite, along with how he drew all the trees in Robin Hood Daffy.
“He also did all the background stuff for the original How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cat in the Hat cartoons, which hold iconic places of nostalgia in my heart.
“I have straight up stolen how this man draws a rock.”
Dr. Seuss
“I always think this is the easiest one to spot in my work. Who’s a better influence than the guy who made all the books on your shelf when you were a literal baby? Just like the newspaper comic strips, I would teach myself to draw out of the books on my shelves. Everything he draws, even if it’s representing something is a brutal shape… is squishy-squashy. Everything is a melting candle, a saggy beanbag, a dollop of whipped cream in shape instead of harsh lines, 90 degree angles and severe edges.
“There is such a unique whimsy to his work that is so entirely his.
“You can see the simple art of a Truffula Tree and know it’s him by that jagged birch detailing on the trunk. You can spot something as his from a mile away by the way the face of ANY person, animal or creature is drawn.
“I think he’s an amazing example of, to be a good cartoonist, you have to be a good draftsman. Not, like, architectural drawings and perfect perspective… I’m talking about knowing how objects/people/etc sit in a space… the gist of the perspective? You have to know how to draw things right before you can draw them wrong. If you look at Seuss’ later personal work that has a lot of his wacky building shaped…. None of those buildings are necessarily correctly drawn, but he makes them work in that space by giving us the gist. Looking at his work gives me a jump to just draw things and trust my gut rather than spending an hour laying out a perspective grid.
“In the words of my 15 year old son, ‘The dude was just vibin’, you know?’
“Yes indeed, Teddy was just vibin’ and with that his work, his characters, his style became iconic… and not JUST iconic… BELOVED and iconic.”
Sergio Aragones
“I’ve met Sergio a couple times and if you ever want to see an old lady forget everything she was about to say, buckle up.
“But really Sergio is one that I didn’t even know the guys name until I was smart enough to see that Mad Magazine had credits in them. I’ve tried to explain to my kids I grew up without the internet and had to either look something up or live in blissful ignorance.
“But my dad ALWAYS picked up a new Mad Magazine and my older brother and I would rip into each other over who got to read them next. After that they always lived in the downstairs bathroom for further perusing. Some of the more adult stuff was always over my head but the cartoons in the margins? OH MY. They were always my favorite part. So cute, tiny and funny all at the same time. I got in trouble during school for YEARS for drawing little cartoons just like them on my school work. I loved to fill the margins and gutters in with anything I could think of.
“If someone has ever met me at a comic con and gotten one of my tiny watercolor paintings, those are pretty inspired by Sergio and his lightning fast drawing hand.
“I’m told that if you eat a hair from Sergio’s mustache, you gain some of his powers.
Jeff Smith
I grew up in an era with pretty limited comic book options. Whatever Borders or Waldenbooks carried was IT… and that meant some superhero stuff and Archie (I was a HUGE Archie fan. Every week I got whatever was new via my mom’s wallet)… but when I was older and my parents let me wander around town by myself more… I found a comic shop. If you’re an Ann Arbor native from back in the day, above Pinball Pete’s was a comic shop. It’s there that I discovered BONE.
I think it was my first real smack to the head that not all comics were superheroes or Betty vs. Veronica.
Bone was cute but beautiful. The story was lush and layered all with this adorable little guy front and center. What an eye-opener. I grew up LOVING fantasy books and fairy tales and that’s what Bone was for me, a beautiful fairy tale… but a comic. A fully illustrated narrative instead of little vignettes in picture books and WAY more than what Archie was. When you see the trope of a little kid opening a book and the world shines out of it and blows them away?
Bone.
It’s still a gold standard for me. I gift it to a lot of the kids in my life. My copy of the huge black and white collected edition is worn to pieces because I’ve pulled it out to just see HOW Jeff Smith approached something to see if I can come up with something half as lovely.
Don Bluth
I didn’t see the real hints of Bluth creeping into my work until I was an adult… which is funny because I used to pause Secret of Nimh on the ol’ VCR and draw the characters from the screen. The way that fabric flows and drapes on the characters is like fluffy icing or dripping wax depending on the energy he was going for just SCREAMS knowing what you’re doing.
As a kid I would have told you Disney was my go-to animation inspiration but looking back on it… the complexity, the motion and layering in Bluth is what I walked away with for the long-term. I always thought some of his designs were a little Too Much but now? Nah. Bring on the bits and pieces that make the art yours.
AlL I have to do now is show someone the crow from Secret of Nimh covered in knots of yarn and they will say “oh, yeah. That’s where you get that.” Hints in the way I draw sleeves I can see on Fievel. Did I love everything he made? No. Do I appreciate how unapologetically HIM his work is? As Ducky in Land Before Time would say, yep yep yep.
Jim Henson
Don’t give me that look.
One, he was a cartoonist. So there.
But aren’t the Muppets, at their heart, basically a cartoon? The Muppet Show and the early Muppet movies taught me what was funny. Comedic pacing. Inside Jokes. Facial expressions that could flip with a hand gesture. Body language…. Heck, even how much the different silhouette of a character can distinguish them.
And while I think The Muppet Show and Fragile Rock Henson and Co’s comic book, his movies were his graphic novels. The Muppet movies have a hysterical depth to them that people STILL connect with. And Dark Crystal and Labyrinth have been and always will be my example of what kids can handle.
I’ve worked on a lot of kids licensing and when there’s pushback of “this reads too old, too intense” etc, I always state that Henson believed that kids can handle and process more than we give them credit for. I remember every emotional up and down from watching The Dark Crystal for the time. The fear that gripped me for characters on the screen and the bone deep need to continue watching to know how they come out on top. Labyrinth gave me a story right out of a picture book of a girl who is flawed and just TRYING all while staying charming and steady. You can argue that any movie or tv show can teach you how to pace a comic book… but Henson is a comic book on a screen for me.
I should also note I think Fraggle Rock is peak children’s entertainment. The early episode of Boomer and Red trapped in a cave and solemnly talking about their lives and regrets because they think they’re going to DIE? The way the deeper stories of the Fraggles that could certainly spell doom for them are sprinkled with enough sugar on top to disguise the dark into something nonsensical and present kids with the lesson in a way that’s understandable but not traumatizing? chef’s kiss.
Gary Larson
The Far Side was a favorite newspaper comic of mine when I was kid. I always marveled at how he could tell a joke in ONE panel instead of the 3-4 panels of all the comics around him.
Those drawings are so deliberate in their imagery to make sure that you have a sip of knowledge about that’s to come and then BAM, the caption underneath is perfect and funny. He’s an incredibly smart guy to make this work as much as he does.
Milt Kahl
Milt Kahl is PEAK Disney art, for those of you who don’t know. He’s fine of THE Nine Old Men. His energy in his style and animations are an immediate snap to attention moment. If you look at his entire filmography you realize he was essentially there from Disney’s Start all the way to his end. Milt’s work helped define what we think of as early Disney… which was my JAM as a kid. Sword in the Stone was one of my favorite childhood movies and the scene where he animated Mad Madam Mim? OMG. The energy. The squash and pull of the characters as they move around the scene. Perfection. And in The Rescuers he animated Medusa. The image of her unique body movements and jutting joints is something I think of almost every DAY as I gesture out poses for my own work.
His character designs are full of subtle bits of posture, expressive faces and expressive BODIES. HE’s basically the first lesson some of us got in drawing insane body shapes but still make them WORK.
He didn’t just draw the insane characters, he animated Alice (Alice in Wonderland), Tramp (Lady and the Tramp), Prince Phillip (Sleeping Beauty), TIGGER. The. List is too huge to cover here. But OH. He did animate Roger, Anita, Pongo and Perdita in 101 Dalmations. Roger was my first animated man crush.
And speaking of Roger in 101 Dalmations… think of that opening scene while he’s playing the piano. The Posture, the movement, the expressive moment of a guy lost in himself. He treats that piano like he were a dance partner. Later in the park when the humans fall in the pond, the wet hat is basically treated as it’s own character for a bit and it creates a charm and a new layer to the scene. IT’s not just a wet hat.. it’s a wet, blinding, floppy, drenched wad of inconvenience. It’s now an essential part of that scene all because HOW wet that hat is is funny to them and to us.
It’s a really teachable moment of how anything can make the visual that mush better if you just nudge the dial up and even the most mundane part of the scene can have character and charm.
Apparently he was also a temperamental perfectionist so, you know. Solidarity.
Katie’s list of 3 contemporary cartoonists whose work she admires
Raina Telgemeier
Raina Telgemeier changed the landscape of the comic book industry. I think there was a lack of care when it came to YA books for a very long time and the success of Raina’s books were the start of a lot of people opening their eyes. Comics for so long really did feel like a boys club…. Comic books were made by boy and made FOR boys. Unless it’s Archie… That’s what I was sold when I was growing up.
Now comic shops and publishers alike have entire sections devoted to the YA graphic novel… with a lot of that scale leaning towards female targeted.
I do NOT think I’d be where I am with my current projects if Raina hadn’t walked the path before me.
Skottie Young
Skottie is a craftsman. Can you describe line work as vibrant?
But his work practically bubbles off the page. I Hate Fairyland always has a beautiful sense of weight while still bouncing all over the place. He’s another one that really understands posture and expression. And besides being a living legend he’s a talented and funny writer.
Andy Price
And here’s the one no one expected.
My friend Andy Price. He and I had known each other as a “friend you see at cons and say ‘hi’ to” for a while and then… magic. Friendship is Magic to be precise. He and I were charged with bring the new My Little Pony iteration to life in comics. All of a sudden we were in each other’s pocket. Andy is one of the most knowledgable people I know when it comes to American comic art artists that are from the old people times.
Andy will be showing me something he drew and then gesture to some block of black and say “isn’t that so GobbleDeeGoober?” And then I have to say “Oh yeah. Totes.” And then go look up who Mr. GobbleDeeGoober is. He’s the reason I know anything about Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Bob Kane… you know. The ones everyone already knew about and not the kid that went into art school knowing who Dan DeCarlo and the staff of Mad Magazine were but had another kid ask me about what I thought of Jim Lee and I said “who?” (It was, like, 2001).
For over a decade he’s been a sounding board, a punching bag, a travel buddy and pastel pony enthusiast for me. I’ve learned a ton from knowing him.
Anyway, he can draw anything. He can tell you Amethyst’s costume without looking up reference. He drew the Quantum Leap comic. He’s my bestest best buddy and his life is worse for it.
Thank you, Katie, for sharing with us your list of your influences and those you admire. You can follow Katie on all the socials (Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook) and her website.
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