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Swipe File: Frank Cho And The Washington Post

This is the cover the the Washington Post magazine featuring Frank Cho in a recreation of his Liberty Meadows image for his Paris exhibition. It's part of a major feature on the creator both in print and on the website, with both print and video interviews – but also the making of this creation. Just to make sure everyone knows this one not done with greenscreen…

It's a good piece, it brings out the frustrations and fear of an artist, even one so accomplished as Frank. But the starring role in his interview has to be Frank's father;

He then tells a story about how he himself won an art competition as a kid. He wanted to major in art, but his parents told him he would starve, that the best job he could hope for was painting billboards or teaching high school. So he studied business instead.

Cartooning, he says, is a dead end. His son needs another job.

He holds up his hand to help count out suggestions. You could do movies, he says, unfurling one finger. Maybe stained glass?

His father is still talking, only now he is standing next to a gray glazed ceramic pot. He bends down and turns it slowly so that we can see the flowers painted on one side.

People need to paint these, too, he says. He straightens up and sees a scroll painting hanging on the wall — another potential career option.

In Swipe File we present two or more images that resemble each other to some degree. They may be homages, parodies, ironic appropriations, coincidences or works of the lightbox. We trust you, the reader, to make that judgment yourself. If you are unable to do so, please return your eyes to their maker before any further damage is done. The Swipe File doesn't judge, it's interested more in the process of creation, how work influences other work, how new work comes from old, and sometimes how the same ideas emerge simultaneously, as if their time has just come. The Swipe File was named after the advertising industry habit where writers and artist collect images and lines they admire to inspire them in their work. It was swiped from the Comic Journal who originally ran this column, as well as the now defunct Swipe Of The Week website.

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