Contemplate the raw unfettered beauty of Mandy Amano(that pepsi girl) whilst I disappear into turkey dinners for the next few days.
WIZARD: Did your dad have comics all over the place when you were growing up?AMANO: Absolutely. We had artwork on the walls from artists like Frank Frazetta and characters like Wolverine, the Shadow, Rocketeer and Batman. And my dad had boxes and boxes of comics around the house and there were the weekend trips to the comic book store. Because it was such a part of me growing up, it didn’t register that is was something different. I would really only notice it when I would go to my other friends’ houses and they’d have Georgia O’Keefe and Thomas Kincaid art up and then they’d come to my house and scream, “Whoa, Wolverine!”
WIZARD:Other than the influence of your dad, what else kept you interested in comics?
AMANO: Aside from growing up reading and hearing about comics, I grew up on fairy tales, too. I was instilled with a deep appreciation and love for fantasy. And my dad is such a storyteller and a romantic person in the way he looks at the world. And that whole alternate reality of it where everything’s heightened and stakes are so high and it’s colorful. I think, too, the thing that’s really appealing about comic books is that just like Chekhov and Shakespeare, it’s telling really human stories, but it’s telling it in such a timeless way because it’s not preaching to you. It’s coming in a package that’s fun. And it’s interesting in the sense that there are such moral, human issues being addressed in these stories, but most of these characters aren’t human, so it’s a parable of sorts. So I always felt like it was interesting to learn about the human condition, but in a kickass, fun way.
