Art - Clint Langley’s Carnival

In Italy, Spain and France comic book design is highly considered amongst highly discerning people. In the UK it is usually thought to be, at best, a sub-art. Which is why it is fascinating to see the work of Clint Langley being exhibited in the Star Gallery. Framed, well-lit, on white walls, up there for careful consideration. Like… Well, like art. I meet Clint in his studio in Lewes a few days before his opening. “People have to get across two barriers when they are considering my work,” he says. “The first is that it is printed in comic books, the second is that it is computer generated. I wonder what they are thinking. I mean you still need to move your hand. You still need… vision.” Clint works for the long-running sci-fi magazine 2000AD. Most of the works in the exhibition are from the story Slaine, written by Pat Mills, largely set in Dark Ages Ireland.

Langley has many influences, from Don Lawrence, creator of the Trigan Empire series in Look and Learn Magazine, to Francisco Goya. One of the pictures in the exhibition looks uncannily like Millais’ Ophelia. “I love the Pre-Raphaelites,” he says. His work shows the same attention to detail that Waterhouse, Millais and Rosetti displayed in the Victorian era. It creates a mood, it makes you stop and think. It takes you back to another world. But is it art? We urge you to pop into this exhibition and judge for yourselves. AL