iFanboy Upstarts: John Kantz

What if there was an artist who wasn’t stuck in one type of work? Imagine someone who could work on both Scott Pilgrim and say, The Avengers, seamlessly. Well, as it turns out, there is.

Seattle-based artist John Kantz  might not be someone the general comics-buying public knows, but among comics heavyweights like Bryan O’Malley he’s been a trusted hand at getting the job done. You see, Kantz worked with O’Malley in 2009 and 2010 as his assistant on Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6, doing backgrounds and screentones. Prior to that, Kantz was a tenured employee at american manga publisher Antarctic Press, acting as an in-house artist as well as drawing a video game fantasy series Legends of Darkwood. Currently, Kantz works at the game developer Playdom, drawing away at the sprawling Marvel: Avengers Alliance game on Facebook for a living. In his spare time Kantz is still chipping away at comics, drawing his character Inkmo in a variety of predicaments including a hand-made comic done in his tiny sketchbook. Kantz is generally associated with the Seattle independent comics scene with the likes of Brandon Graham and Moritat (whom he inked in an issue of DC’s The Spirit).

Kantz’ style to me is succinctly described as a mash-up between Guy Davis and Bryan O’Malley, but there’s more to it than that. Take a look at his art and tell us what you think!


 

Comments

  1. Very nice stuff.

  2. I really liked the page where the kid ( Arthur? ) is straining to pull the sword from the stone and falls. Excellent movement.
    I see a slight hint of Moebius in Kantz work. Maybe, its the positioning of the body and the resulting motion.

  3. Good stuff, and always good to see some anime/manga influence.

  4. Nice. that sword in the stone one had me hooked. Where can I find that? As Treeofthestoneage says, something of the Moebius about it, while having a bit more of an Eastern feel.

    Stylish and cool.

  5. Pretty damn good.