Henderson Oracle

Issue date: 3/30/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Jamie Melton Sign Here - David Mack greets students and signs books in Huie Library March 12. Mack's "Kabuki" made the number eight spot on the New York Time's first ever Top Ten best selling graphic novel list.

Internationally acclaimed artist, creator and author David Mack visited Henderson on Thursday, March 12. His day started early as he lectured throughout the morning in various art and design classes. At 6 p.m., he set up a table filled with his books and artwork for sale. It was the first opportunity for his fans to meet and speak personally with the artist, and many took advantage of this opportunity, spending time conversing with Mack, who was eager to talk between sips of his sweet tea.

Erica Ash, sophomore psychology major, was one of the loyal fans who were able to chat with Mack. Ash got her first taste of Mack's art at a convention in San Francisco. "He's very interesting," said Ash. "I'm definitely going to read Kabuki, it's unlike anything else."

After an hour of selling, talking, taking pictures and eating, Mack was escorted upstairs, where he was scheduled answer questions from his fans and share insight on his terrific work.

Mack is a creator and artist, as well as author. He is widely recognized as the creator of "Kabuki," a Japanese-based comic published by Marvel. He also created the Daredevil comic, which he proudly stated was one of the top 10 selling comics in the United States. His talents stretch far beyond just comics, as he also paints beautiful canvases and writes children books.

His fascination with art began at an early age. "I've been drawing for as long as I can remember," said Mack. "My mom was a first grade teacher, and she always used crafts and visual aids to teach her class. So there were always pieces of paper, crayons, scissors - just about everything you could think of that a little boy would want to play with. So that's where I got my start, just playing with my mom's leftover materials."

Mack said he has no set preference on how he does artwork. "It gives me the opportunity to be more creative."

This creativity is what makes him so unique, but it also requires dedication and a clever strategy to prevent forgetting inspiration when the creative mood strikes. "I usually plan everything out," said Mack, discussing his method. "And whenever I find something I can use, I write it down and put it in a file. And when I'm ready to start working on a project, I pull out that file and things I may have forgotten that I wrote down years ago (are) there, and I'm able to use (them)."

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