‘GROOVES’ FEATURING STYLES MELVIN COMIC STRIPS

When I was a student of Will Eisners at the School of Visual Arts, I had spent a number of years messing around with different concepts for a comic strip. Westerns, Sci Fi…You name it. For some reason it took me a while to create something that was true to who I was.
Miles Davis had just come out of retirement with a new band of young musicians once again redefining himself. I was always fascinated by Miles..very mysterious, dangerous, stylish, intimidating. I could imagine how that might feel to a young musician almost my age playing along side of him.
So I created a strip featuring a band of young jazz musicians and their leader,…a lovable, super cool, older trumpeter with a short fuse named, ‘Styles Melvin’.
Will Eisner told me ‘I think you’ve finally found it, Williams!’ after reading them.
He was right. 20 years later these strips are timeless. The humor is not too ‘inside’, and if any of my art truly represents who I am…It’s this strip. Each of the characters are loosely based on other people…But there’s alot of me in all of them. I hope you enjoy ‘Grooves featuring Styles Melvin’ as much as I still do!

 

1983 Grooves ft. Styles Melvin holiday strip digitally colorized in 2014