Franklin Booth – Scott A. Story

I’m reading

I’m reading Franklin Booth, Silent Symphony from Fleske Publications. At 50$ US, this is an expensive book. But, its worth it, because most books about Booth clock in at over 200$ US on the secondary market, and there is not a lot of available material out there.

I first became aware of Booth’s work through artists like Frank Cho, a self-professed Booth disciple. Booth is probably the finest ink ever, and while I know that is a loaded claim on my part, studying his work bears that out for me. He was heavily influenced by Gustave Dore, a world-class illustrator whose work in the Vulgate Bible and Dante’s Inferno was widely available at the time. Dore’s exquisite work was made in woodcuts, but young Franklin Booth learned his own version of this style in pen-and-ink.

I’m an old hand at pen-and-ink, and I’ve probably made more illustrations in this medium than any other I’ve done in my own career. I’m a complete novice when compared with Booth’s stylings, but I know enough to recognize superhuman brilliance when I see it.

Franklin was a local lad. He was born about about fifteen miles from where I live, he grew up in Carmel Indiana, and he’s buried in the Old Carmel Cemetery. We often pass the Westfield Friend’s Church that he attended as a young man. One of his earliest employers was the Indianapolis Star. He was friends with, and did illustrations for, both Booth Tarkington and James Whitcomb Riley.

So, Franklin became a superstar in New York, where all the work was to be had, but he never lost his love for Indiana. He came back yearly, usually spending time in a studio he kept on his parents’ farm.

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Scott Story

Scott Story is a freelance illustrator and cartoonist who lives in the Midwestern USA. He has been involved in the comic industry since 1992, and webcomics since 2004. He has drawn comics for dozens of publishers including Image, Amp, Arrow, Digital Webbing, Arcana, Spinner Rack Comics, and many others.

Scott is known for the rich detail, clever storytelling, and organic quality to his art. As a cartoonist, Scott is an all-purpose creator– he writes, pencils, inks, colors, letters and designs. Scott Story has also done advertising art; covers for books, CDs and tabletop games; movie, event and concert posters; interior art for tabletop games; logos and website graphics; and a wide range of other media. Scott was trained in traditional media, such as acrylics and water colors, but now he divides his time between the traditional and digital art worlds. He is in demand for his digital painting skills, used on covers, posters and prints.

As the creative director of Story Studios LLC., he has published two graphic novels, Johnny Saturn: Synns of the Father, and Johnny Saturn: Homeland Insecurity, with two more in the process of being completed. Story Studios has also published seventeen comics, a sketchbook, and a pinup book. He has written articles for Blueline Pro’s Sketch Magazine, and prose stories for print anthologies and the web. His webcomic, Johnny Saturn, is a past winner of the Webcomics Readers Choice Awards, and Scott was a speaker at the prestigious Graphic Engagement academic conference hosted by the Purdue University Comparative Literature Program.

Scott is a member of the Indy Webcomic Group, and he was the creator and a founding member of the highly successful Collective of Heroes, a juried collective of indie superhero webcomics.