Star: I'm flattered you were looking forward to this, and glad you liked it!

Paul: Yeah, Indy rules! Back in the 80s-90s, before the push towards The Phantom Plot started, I was actually far more into Indy than I was Star Wars, for whatever reason. Raiders of the Lost Ark is still one of my favourtie movies of all time.

Pij: Glad you like the dragons. I was looking at this again and thought the margins looked a bit empty. And what did old mapmakers do in such circumstances? They drew in weird monsters! I love that Pinis-Sim story. Hilarious! Remind me to start calling you Frank, just to confuse people. Glad you approve of my choices. They're all just the tip of the iceberg, really. I could easily do an anime map or a tv/film map. Hell, I could probably do a Doctor Who map (I'm that big a fan).

Hey... I like the new ocean beasties! Very cool!

What a way to take the "map" concept seriously! Cool to see you include Star Wars & Indiana Jones since Indy often gets overlooked compared to the larger juggernaut of Lucas' empire.

Okay, a little more about your choices... nearly all of the image maps had choices that made me wince over not having picked them myself and congrats, yours has the most... VanGogh, Timm, Sienkiewicz, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean... it pains me that I didn't pick them... ARRRGH... that is to say, extaordinarily outstanding choices all!

Godfather and Pulp Fiction would rate high on my movie map and the Lucas series' exerted a fair influence over me as well.

You're preaching to the choir when it comes to Miyazaki! I loved the Ghost in the Shell series, perhaps my all time favorite anime TV series.

X-Files really was a great show! I've always enjoyed the Dr. Who series (what I've seen of it) although I am only the most casual of fan.

I really loved that you picked Pini's and SIm! Elf Quest and Cerebus were both great books that I used to follow and their self publishing was most inspiring to me. I had a chance to meet both many years ago at one of the 1st conventions I ever went to... I had a million questions to ask them (and they were side by side at that convention), I was carefully formulating them in my head, when Sim jumped out of his chair and greated me most cheerfully "Frank! Great to see you! I didn't know you were going to be here! Rich, Wendy... look, Frank's here!" Then both the Pini's cheerfully saying "Hey Frank!"... unfortunately my name is not Frank, mistaken identity. I told them about the million questions for them but I was drawing a total blank after the startling greeting. We all got a little chuckle out of that.

beleive it or not. this was one of the maps i was most looking forward. i have always been a closet fan of yours B and have wondered just where your inspiration comes from. love the map concept. asn't sure how to read it at first until i realized it was just symbolic. a lot of great choices ta boot. well done!

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".

A few comments/explanations (warning, this will get extremely wordy).

North America is film and television.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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...)
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.

Outstanding work here, B.

I had to look at it a few times to get all the references but it's worth it. Amazing job and good to see we share a few of influences.

First off, I must say I love your world view. Damn, B, when you step up to a challenge, you REALLY step up! Your influence choices are excellent and your design exceptional! I like that you showed comics and movies and books and classical painters even! Lots of amazing choice in so many different directions.. placing them "all over the map" was an inspired choice. Cheers sir, on an outstanding job!

thats taking a map seriously lol