Thanks, guys. The map idea was actually influenced by Mr. Plasma's influence non-map suggestion. I thought, 'instead of a non-map, why not an ACTUAL map?' I figured it'd allow me to get a wider variety of influences in (though obviously it was still not enough). Looking at it now, I wish I'd added a couple sea serpents and a "Here Be Dragons".
![](http://heromorph.com/heromorph2/uploads/smil460ff829dbd03.gif)
A few comments/explanations (warning, this will get extremely wordy).
North America is film and television.
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Doctor Who is The Greatest Thing Ever and my biggest fandom. I've watched/read massive amounts of it, and also read widely on the background and history and storytelling techniques involved. It's probably taught me more about writing than anything else, ever.
- I grew up on
Indiana Jones and
Star Wars, and the love they gave me for classic genre adventure stories has never faded.
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Buffy and
The X-Files were my big 90's fandoms and the main reasons I enjoy paranormal fiction. They also taught me much about characterisation, dialogue and suspense.
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The Godfather and
Pulp Fiction were my gateways into crime fiction, and showed me that it could handle both 'epic' and 'cool'. It's still a very interesting (and alien) world for me. One of my vague writerly dreams has always been to do a gangster's eye view of a superhero universe...
South America is Japanese animation. I'm a fan of the medium in general, but the four representatives here are the ones that made me a fan. I got some (at least) of my humour and love for surreal weirdness from
Rumiko Takahashi (represented by Ranma 1/2, the first anime I really got into).
Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke) started my broader interest in Japanese culture and mythology. And
Bubblegum Crisis and
Ghost in the Shell helped get me into Cyberpunk.
Australia and Oceania is classical artists. There's dozens more who should be there, but alas, it's a small continent. My greatest influences are there:
Rembrandt (The Night Watch) for his shadows,
J. M. W. Turner (The Slave Ship) for his light, and
Vincent Van Gogh (Self Portrait and a bit of Starry Night) for his overall style.
Finally, Eurasia and Africa are comics (mostly artists in the former and writers in the latter).
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Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and Roger Stern (Spider-Man). Spidey is and always will be my favourite Marvel here, and it was back issues of Stern's Hobgoblin saga and reprints of the Lee-Ditko classics that converted me.
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Chris Claremont and John Byrne (X-Men) and Bill Sienkiewicz (New Mutants). I was an X-Kid too, and that was down to Messrs. Claremont and Byrne. Sienkiewicz was the first comics artist I can remember who made me go "WOW". And he's of Polish descent to boot!
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Albert Uderzo and Ren? Goscinny (Ast?rix). I grew up on continental European comics as well. I also read Tintin and several Polish series, but it was the little Gaul that has most stuck with me.
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Wendy and Richard Pini (ElfQuest) and
Dave Sim (Cerebus). I fell off the comic-buying wagon a bit in the early-mid 90's, but these two independent series kept my interest in the medium alive and showed me there was more to it than Marvel and DC. (Shame about Sim's insane-o misogyny...)
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Bruce Timm (Batman: The Animated Series). The reason I'm a Batfan, and the reason I figured out that noir can work in a comics universe.
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Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (Sandman). The best comic book ever and the reason I became a mainstream fan again in the late 90s. Alongside
Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan) and
Alan Moore (Watchmen), they showed me that there was more to the mainstream than long underwear.
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George Perez (Wonder Woman) and
Peter A. David (Supergirl), who taught me that girl superheroes can also kick plenty of ass. Probably part of the reason my writing ideas (the ones I never get around to writing) tend towards female protagonists.
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Bryan Q. Miller and Dustin Nguyen (Batgirl), and
J. H. Williams III (Batwoman), who gave me the urge to create again for the first time in years.