Ellen Forney Quotes

For a long time I wanted to be a comic strip artist but when I started doing them in my teens they were getting really elaborate with tons of poses and a lot of information.

Comic art is just different. It's art on its own terms.

I'm always interested in using comics in different ways.

My first influences were superhero artists.

But to me what seems to be missing in a lot of portfolios is Cartooning.

Graphic novels are such a visually creative world - it's really interesting what they can do in one sketch. Now I'm hooked.

I don't think of myself as an illustrator. I think of myself as a cartoonist. I write the story with pictures - I don't illustrate the story with the pictures.

It's not movies and it's not "fine art." The beauty of a comic is that it's clear, direct communication. My work is getting simpler and more cartoony because I'm much more interested in communication now than in any illustrative value.

Fortunately, cartooning is not a job. It's something like eating or sleeping.

Comics is all about making it believable and helping people to get completely lost in a fictional world.

You know, comics were created at the same time as the cinema. And the cinema very quickly became a major art. Cartooning didn't become a major art. There's a reason for that. People don't know how to deal with drawings.

I just really respond to comics. I find it a really exciting medium.

Autobiographical comics, I love them. I love them.

All the pictures I could never do, I'll do it in comics. All the comics I do are the pictures I could never do.

Cartooning is an honorable thing.

For me, who loves to draw and who loves to write and cannot choose between one or the other, the comic is the best form.

The wonderful thing about the cartoon form is it's a combination of words and pictures. You don't have to choose, and the contribution of the two often winds up being greater than the sum of its parts.

Comics have always been storyboards.

Cartooning is for people who can't quite draw and can't quite write. You combine the two half-talents and come up with a career.

I love the interplay between words and pictures. I love the fact that in comics, your pictures are acting like words, presenting themselves to be read.

Comics, in a sense, the style, the images - it's almost like music. They say music is a universal language, but when the eyes behold something, a figure, somebody moving; it's real, and it cannot be denied.

I've always said that what cartoonists do is create friends for readers.

There are a lot of really great cartoonists out there. It's nice to be thought of as one of them.

As a fan and collector of 'MAD' magazines as a kid, I am well aware that my art is unworthy. I remain in absolute awe of 'MAD' artist Mort Drucker and loved Wally Wood and Harvey Kurtzman and Al Jaffee and Don Martin and Angelo Torres and Peter Kuper and Sergio Aragones.

Comics are words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.