thehumansarecoming

A friend recently asked me what got me into comic books and graphic novels. The obvious answer, is simply being a geek (which she pointed out btw but was shocking revelation for me!) but I guess it also started with graffiti and how people use pictures to tell their stories.

If you watched the walls long enough, sometimes you might just get to see a story emerge out of the scrawl. That discovery grew into a fascination. These weren’t stories in the traditional sense mind you, the one you’d see in the actual piece. These were the stories about the connections between artist, piece, wall and neighbourhood…

I think (hope!) thesde videos help illustrate my point. This first on was filmed in Jo’burg and features Faith47, who actually happens to the artist that first sparked this fascination…

The stories are not only about the underlying connections behind the piece but also about the how those connections evolve and grow over time.

This incredible piece by BLU! shows that connection perfectly, but with a twist that blurs the lines between graffiti art and animation.

Spotted this last one over at the Wooster Collective. Photographer Martha Cooper, talks about her experiences stumbling across and capturing the New York graffiti scene when it was still in it’s infancy.

The story of how it all started!