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Michael Cho talks Jack Kirby, Darwyn Cooke, and the power of two tone coloring

Michael Cho pulls back the curtain on his art style, who he looks up to, and how he explains his job to his kids

Michael Cho
Image credit: Michael Cho

To the average person trying to create a picture full of action and emotion and fluidity, the use of flat color – let alone only two flat colors – seems counter-intuitive. After all, don’t we need a full spectrum to create anything resembling what emotions truly feel like? When it comes to artists like Michael Cho, it’s clear that the average person simply hasn’t reached deep enough to see just how powerful two-tone art can be, and how contemporary the past can feel when you’re willing to pour yourself into it.

Popverse sat down on a tired Sunday afternoon with Cho at Fan Expo Portland to discuss his beginnings as a contemporary painter, emotion through lighting, and whether or not his kid thinks him doing work for the New Yorker is cool.

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Chloe Maveal avatar
Chloe Maveal: Chloe Maveal is the Editor-In-Chief of the guerilla website The Gutter Review, and is a freelance essayist who specializes in British comics, pop culture history, and the subversive qualities of “trashy” media. Their work has been featured all over the internet with bylines in 2000 AD, The Treasury of British Comics, Publishers Weekly, Polygon, Comics Beat, and many others.
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