Now, yes, SHAG artwork is great undoubtedly - and a fantastic colorist - but if you Brian was inspired by SHAG, from who SHAG was inspired? I'm going to tell you a little secret and i'm almost 100% sure that SHAG know his work. I'm talking about an artist named Miroslav Sasek. Sasek did a series of book for children in the 1950- 60's about many cities of the world called "This is... New York or London, or Paris, Rome, etc..." which were immensely popular in the 1960's-70's. You MUST discover Sasek work as he was a GENIUS. When you will see his books you will probably think "it looks really like the 60's style" except that nobody was drawing like Sasek before him. I mean: he invented this artwork style.
The good news is that Sasek books are currently being republished and are just as popular as before. The bad news is they didn't did the scans for the reprinting rfrom the original artwork but from scans from the previously published books pages. Which means that the colors are not as good and vibrant as in the original books. Although SHAG is great i find Sasek superior to him as there is more humor in his artwork.
I always wished to be able to meet SHAG to ask him the question if he knows Sasek work as it is impossible that he don't know him, you'll see why.
Here is the link where to find the newly published books on Amazon. But if you can afford it try to buy instead the original editions which are treasures! Look at THIS ebay page, the first versions are the ones copyrighted in the 1960's, not the years 2000. If you must buy only three of them, choose "This is..." London, or New York, or Paris, or Rome, or Hong Kong, or San Francisco. But don't miss "This is London" which is great.
Also have a look HERE to see pictures from Sasek books.
Pictures: copyright Brian Rechenmacher
