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Description
During the early days of graffiti, not only certain styles became trendy, so did characters.

Because many of the old school New York writers focused only on letters, they often felt that characters were just add-on garnish to spice a piece up.

And, because of this, many simply copied characters from comic books - but more importantly from "Underground" comics, whose own subculture is just as amazing as graffiti's.

And because the two cultures shared many of the same social ideals, many of the graffiti characters used in illegal pieces were from underground comic book artists that showcased their counterculture beliefs.

Vaugn Bode is one of the most notable ones, but others like Garry Trudeau, who scribed Doonesbury and many others that were often featured in Ralph Bakshi's 1970's adult-animated films like Heavy Traffic and Coonskin, were also often used by graffiti artists across the nation.

However, in Chicago the one style that DOMINATED for decades, and to some degree STILL does -was that "sort of blocky" style, which underwent a bit of evolution of its own, as it adjusted more and more to graffiti writers.

Still, this style of characters was NOT original, and in fact was probably the very first widespread style of characters - differing from doing bode figures, as with Bode figures they copied the characters themselves, while in using these "blocky style" figures, they simply copied the STYLE not ever realizing to which artists that style had actually came from.

As a test, I showed these figures on paper and on the walls to normal people, and I always got the same response, they liked the characters, but they ALL thought it came from the SAME person, proving the style was trendy. You can do this test yourself and see for yourself.

Funny thing is, I had seen artists in the past fight over this, many thinking they invented it!

That style today was bit off of by "The Boondocks" cartoon" and others - which is a full circle event, since that style originally was bitten off underground comic artists, then later it was bit off of graffiti artists, to be featured in shows like the Boondocks and many others.

Talk about ironic...

As for me and others knowing this early on - artists like me, Jonski, Gnome, Fess, and a host of other Chicago character guys, consciously refused to adopt this style!

Which was sort of a hard thing to do during those early times, because writers from all over the city were doing them, and when we did figures NOT like them, they weren't viewed as good as them.

Now personally, I really, really like this style a lot - because it basically showcased the quintessential
"Graffiti Character".

However, as an artist that got known for my own style, like others, we realized that sometimes originality is the better choice, rather than adopting an already established style.

The reality is, doing original characters is like making original graffiti styles, it requires time, but eventually after a long evolution, you WILL invent your OWN characters, which will be proven when people can tell that YOU are the one who did them simply by looking at them.

Lastly, I am NOT saying people that use this style are doing wrong - on the contrary, they often look BETTER than those doing original characters.

However, because of their popularity, I have seen artists with original characters start to draw some more like them, in order to appease the graffiti crowd - this I think personally is a mistake.

But hey - that's just my opinion.

As is, most writers reading this, out of either embarrassment or resentment for me bringing this character issue to light, will hate me for it - and will argue against it.

But for me, as a graffiti historian that likes to address things REALISTICALLY - this is normal.

-- Dark Riddle

Description
During the early days of graffiti, not only certain styles became trendy, so did characters.

Because many of the old school New York writers focused only on letters, they often felt that characters were just add-on garnish to spice a piece up.

And, because of this, many simply copied characters from comic books - but more importantly from "Underground" comics, whose own subculture is just as amazing as graffiti's.

And because the two cultures shared many of the same social ideals, many of the graffiti characters used in illegal pieces were from underground comic book artists that showcased their counterculture beliefs.

Vaugn Bode is one of the most notable ones, but others like Garry Trudeau, who scribed Doonesbury and many others that were often featured in Ralph Bakshi's 1970's adult-animated films like Heavy Traffic and Coonskin, were also often used by graffiti artists across the nation.

However, in Chicago the one style that DOMINATED for decades, and to some degree STILL does -was that "sort of blocky" style, which underwent a bit of evolution of its own, as it adjusted more and more to graffiti writers.

Still, this style of characters was NOT original, and in fact was probably the very first widespread style of characters - differing from doing bode figures, as with Bode figures they copied the characters themselves, while in using these "blocky style" figures, they simply copied the STYLE not ever realizing to which artists that style had actually came from.

As a test, I showed these figures on paper and on the walls to normal people, and I always got the same response, they liked the characters, but they ALL thought it came from the SAME person, proving the style was trendy. You can do this test yourself and see for yourself.

Funny thing is, I had seen artists in the past fight over this, many thinking they invented it!

That style today was bit off of by "The Boondocks" cartoon" and others - which is a full circle event, since that style originally was bitten off underground comic artists, then later it was bit off of graffiti artists, to be featured in shows like the Boondocks and many others.

Talk about ironic...

As for me and others knowing this early on - artists like me, Jonski, Gnome, Fess, and a host of other Chicago character guys, consciously refused to adopt this style!

Which was sort of a hard thing to do during those early times, because writers from all over the city were doing them, and when we did figures NOT like them, they weren't viewed as good as them.

Now personally, I really, really like this style a lot - because it basically showcased the quintessential
"Graffiti Character".

However, as an artist that got known for my own style, like others, we realized that sometimes originality is the better choice, rather than adopting an already established style.

The reality is, doing original characters is like making original graffiti styles, it requires time, but eventually after a long evolution, you WILL invent your OWN characters, which will be proven when people can tell that YOU are the one who did them simply by looking at them.

Lastly, I am NOT saying people that use this style are doing wrong - on the contrary, they often look BETTER than those doing original characters.

However, because of their popularity, I have seen artists with original characters start to draw some more like them, in order to appease the graffiti crowd - this I think personally is a mistake.

But hey - that's just my opinion.

As is, most writers reading this, out of either embarrassment or resentment for me bringing this character issue to light, will hate me for it - and will argue against it.

But for me, as a graffiti historian that likes to address things REALISTICALLY - this is normal.

-- Dark Riddle