Ten’s Designer Cookbook #1 – Early to Mid 20th Century

Summary: Clarence Matthew Baker was one of the first successful African-American comic book artists and designed many pages and covers for comics. He was famous for his “Good Girl” art style which consisted of traditionally beautiful women not wearing too much clothing. In 1945 he drew the first African-American superhero, Voodha, in Crown Comics #3.

In 1947, Baker began to work on one of his most famous projects, Phantom Lady. In the 50s, he worked on more romantic comics and his art began to emphasize realism and drama to his primarily female audiences. In 2009, Baker was added to the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

Below are 3 famous examples of his covers:

My Art Style: I chose Clarence Matthew Baker because I’ve always had a fascination for comic books and their detailed art-styles. They always looked so awesome and colorful to me, especially superhero comics like Marvel. My art-style is more simple and cartoon-like, but I can also design original characters that have a more gothic-aesthetic, I can draw stylistically sometimes too. This doesn’t really tie to Baker’s art-style, but it inspires me to at least try to draw my characters more realistically like Baker does.

Source:

1. Fragie, Tyler. “Clarence Matthew Baker (1921-1959).” BlackPast, 2018. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/baker-clarence-matthew-1921-1959/