The great thing about wikipedia is that you can look up something (let's say toothpaste) and end up following links to something totally new and different that you weren't even aware of before (let's say Paul Pope). Now, I doubt I have ever spent any amount of time searching for info about toothpaste, but I am sure when I stumbled across Paul Pope's name it was a glorious accident. Being that I am an unabashed "true believer" what first drew me to Pope's work was the way he seemed to ape Jack Kirby and at the same time turn that style into something very fresh. Then I read 100%. Wow!!! I have never read anything so intellectually and visually stimulating. Here was a comic that was exciting to look at, tightly plotted, and exceptionally moving. I never expected to find an artist, whose worked looked this great, that could also write so well. I am, to be perfectly honest, rather jealous of Mr. Pope.
Yesterday I picked up Pulphope, Mr. Pope's new art book. After reading his essays I have learned that the only thing about Paul Pope that I have any right to be jealous of is his rigorous work ethic. Hard work, it seems, continues to be essential to great art.
Do yourself a favor and pick up this book. The art is, of course, beautiful, and the essays are some of the most insightful pieces of writing I have read in quite some time.
Oh, and read anything by Paul Pope you can get your hands on.