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Underground > Comic Books >

Unsung Heroes

Haus of Mystery

10:49 / 25.01.05

Okay, first up:

Guy Davis
When I first encountered his work on 'Sandman: Mystery Theatre' I was unimpressed - too scratchy and undefined. But in subsequent years his work is some of the best comic art in mainstream comics, IMHO. Fluid, adaptable; solid yet cartoony. His current work on B.P.R.D. is amazing, capturing the Lovecraftian tone of the book, whilst depicting the 50's science fiction feel of the Bureau's HQ. Previous work on The Nevermen lifted that story to new levels, again brilliantly capturing the retro-future weirdness of the script.
His own title The Marquis is also surprisingly well written, and very original - set in a parallel earth, in a recognisably renaissance period, it details a possibly delusional demon-hunter working for a pseudo-Catholic Church, and contains some of the most ugly and terrifying monsters ever created in comics.
He makes it all look effortless, which makes it all the more impressive. I strongly recommend trying out one of the above books if you want something different.

Next!

11:40 / 25.01.05

I really like Dougie (or Douglas) Braithwaite. I met him years ago when Marvel UK were doing tours, and chatted to him for ages about illustrating and comics (at least it seemed ages for me as a grumpy schooling teen) and drawing collosus. Really liked him and his style - then much later saw some of his work on Punisher War Games (or whatever that long story where a building collapses on Frank that ran through all his books was) and liked his style again. He has a wonderful, simple, workman like quality, that doesn't clutter, but doesn't look rushed. Kind of like really early Seinczwicz stuff from Moon Knight.

Not sure what he is doing now as I don't read as many as I used to, but I saw his name on a fairly big book recently, so he still gets the Marvel work.

13:56 / 25.01.05

And what about jim woodring?

He did these really wonderful comcis called "Jim" and "Frank", especially the last one was so wonderful, all those colours and these weird creatures, amazing.

But see for yourselves:

http://www.jimwoodring.com/

19:10 / 26.01.05

Andi Watson. I just picked up Love Fights in TPB and both the writing and the art is fantastic. The art especially has a fluid look that is somehow japanese in its tone.

Haus of Mystery

19:18 / 26.01.05

Yeah.. I've always wanted to check his stuff out, but never really known where to start. 'Love Fights' is a good place? Have you read 'Geisha'?

20:04 / 26.01.05

Paul Tobin, who teamed up with Philip Hester back 'round '91 or so to make "the fringe," which was infinitely amusing. This series was never finished.

Doug Gray, the writer/artist of "The Eye of Mongombo," a fanciful tale of a dashing and adventurous archaeologist who gets turned into a duck. This series was also never finished.

Philip Hester, both as artist and as the writer on the excellent "The Coffin."

Phil Foglio, for his Buck Godot stories, especially "The Gallimaufry," and his current project, "Girl Genius."

Haus of Mystery

20:23 / 26.01.05

Philip Hester, both as artist and as the writer on the excellent "The Coffin."

OK, another one I've been tempted by - why is it good?

21:35 / 26.01.05

If you take the story down to its bones you have your basic revenge-and-redemption comic, but the way in which it's told is so nice. The main character is scum. The antagonist is worse. The art is lucious. I believe someone brought up the pithing scene already, and you cant beat a good pithing...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

00:13 / 27.01.05

Seconding the Guy Davis... Baker Street ruled, too.

00:22 / 27.01.05

Dylan Horrocks. HICKSVILLE's an amazing comic that I really am surprised isn't widely acknowledged as a classic of the medium. Maybe it's because he hasn't done anything since -- I think he put out the first issue of what was meant to be a new series, ATLAS, sometime in 2000 or 2001 and there's been nothing since then. I should go check his website, I haven't in several months...

09:40 / 27.01.05

MacGyver: Most of Andi Watson's stuff is self contained and available in TPB so it doesn't really matter where you start. "Breakfast in the Afternoon" is good, and I've heard good things about "Slow News Day" and "Geisha".
Guy Davis does some quality work. I really liked his work on "Unstable Molecules" and his stuff on "B.P.R.D" is fantastic.

Haus of Mystery

10:23 / 27.01.05

I've heard 'Unstable molecules' rated as one of the best and most under-rated Marvel books of recent years. I'll check it. Or at least add it to the ever-growing list...

13:52 / 27.01.05

UNSTABLE MOLECULES is quite good, I bought it this summer and enjoyed it a lot. Don't expect anything world-shaking, but it's a clever idea done well.

01:37 / 28.01.05

I first read "Dumped" single by Andi Watson (was five dollars I think) and really enjoyed it. Feel good romance comix.

I haven't been impressed since. Bought Complete Geisha, Slow News Day and the first two issues of Love Fights. Geisha was probably not my thing but it felt like a comic written for my six year old niece who likes Kim Possible. 'course it wasn't but it felt like girly comix. Nothing wrong with that but I felt cheated by a review or two. If Slow News Day were a film it would be that pack of cliches starring Jennifer Aniston and Clive Owen (or some other english actor trying to make it big in Hollywood). Love Fights was prolly not my cup of tea. Didn't interest me.

But I personally think you should check out Dumped, it's a tiny gem.

01:46 / 28.01.05

Hicksville was incredible. A universe with miniature continuity, genuine affection for comic books and creators. Atlas was an enjoyable companion and he got work at DC writing Names of Magic, Batgirl and a Legends of the Dark Knight twoparter. I read the LOTDK story which isn't worth a look.

His short in 9/11 Artists Respond Vol 1 is the only good thing in it besides Alan Moore's astonishing and touching "This is Information."

My Unsung heroes? Top of my list...

Paul Hornschemeier. His Mother, Come Home (collects Forlorn Funnies 2-4) is what Jimmy Corrigan should have been. An emotionally shattering tale about loss and the inabliity to cope with it. Forlorn Funnies 5 was a pretty little package with equal shots of Forlorn and Funny with one side giving you short hilarious strips, the other short downbeat sad short stories. Some of his earlier work is online on his website but I recommend everyone look at "Ex Falso Quodlibet" which appeared in Sequential 7 and came out in the new sequential hardcover.

http://www.margomitchell.com/efq/exfalsoarchive.htm

Does Jason Lutes qualify as an unsung hero?

XXII:X:II = XXX

06:54 / 29.01.05

Lekvar: Phil Foglio, for his Buck Godot stories, especially "The Gallimaufry," and his current project, "Girl Genius."

Leave us not forget his inspired perversion in XXXenophile. I picked that up when I was 16 and it had an indelible effect on my turn-ons. Just sayin'.

Perhaps my favorite indie series is Finder by Carla Speed McNeill. She's just so awesome (and, apparently, a descendent of Abraham Lincoln's purported gay lover). A very clean yet detailed style with selective use of crosshatching, with plots in a fully-fleshed out fantasy world that's somewhere between a romanticized past and a tech-savvy future, starring characters you care about with understandable motivations. Plus she footnotes all her compilations with these anthropological explanations for some of the details and turns of phrases that could be pedantic but instead make it oh so much more wonderful.

Also, not nearly enough people know about Tim Kreider's The Pain, When Will It End? Admittedly, the past couple years his focus has almost completely turned to politics, which tends to limit both the appeal and shelf life of his toons, but nevertheless, he has a vicious sense of humor and a distorted aesthetic that's directly handed down from the great B. Kliban. Go look at his site at thepaincomics.com.

And God, why doesn't anyone talk about Bryan Talbot anymore? Luther Arkwright is godly, and someone ought to petition DC to collect and reprint The Nazz. Moorcockian sex-warrior messiahs always get my vote.

/+,

09:05 / 29.01.05

I thought The Nazz was shite when I first read it. May have to go back and read it as a "grown-up". Bryan hasn't been doing much recently, has he?
Anyway, I would like to plug Nabiel Kanan, whose The Drowners and Birtday Riots are brilliantly understated. Think a more miserable Andi Watson and you're there (Skeleton Key is still my favourite Watson).
Donna Barr is patchy but often brilliant. Ian Carney and Woodrow Phoenix are a pairing of true comedy genius ("Pie pie pie?" "Yes, it's a pie in a pie in a pie." "MMmmmmm.")

13:36 / 29.01.05

Talbot is currently working on Alice in Sunderland a 300 page comic that will be serialised around this time next year, probably ahead of being collected. Talbot has finished the script and has completed around 170 of its 300 pages... samples can be viewed on the website above...

As for unsung heroes.... Well I'm always shouting the praises of Paul Grist and Jason Lutes, but when it comes to largely forgotten, or at least disregarded comic creators I always think of Raymond Briggs whose comics narratives predate Eisner's 'first' graphic novel. From the warm humour of the Father Christmas books and Fungus the Bogeyman and the The Snowman, (on which the well-known animation was based), Briggs switched gears to produce the devastating landmark work, When the Wind Blows. The book is a chilling dramatisation of the effects of a possible nuclear attack. It's difficult to describe the raw, visceral sense of horror this book still evokes as it portrays the slow lingering deaths of an elderly couple as they are killed by the fallout of weapons they cannot comprehend as a result of a far away war that they do not understand...

When the Wind Blows was followed by the non-to-subtle satire on the Falklands War, The Tin-pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman. In recent years Briggs most notable work has been his comic strip biography Ethel and Ernest, a touching portrait of his own parents.

I'd urge people to seek out any of the above books but especially When the Wind Blows. Its a reminder to how powerful comics can be...

Haus of Mystery

18:10 / 29.01.05

The single most terrifying thing I have ever read.

Jake, Colossus of Clout

22:49 / 31.01.05

Craig Thompson's Blankets is one of the best comics I've ever read. He's one of the best writers in comics today, and one of the best artists, too.

I was always a fan of Killian Plunkett's pencils. The Aliens miniseries he did in the early-mid-90's was top-notch.

23:51 / 31.01.05

I'm rather fond of Nick Abadzis, who did Hugo Tate and Mr Pleeeebus for Deadline ages ago. Very surreal, quite an imagination and wonderful simple cartooning. He did some kids' comic books more recently featuring Mr Pleebus. His site's here.

Also want to mention Greg Rucka's Queen and Country, which will appeal more to Le Carré readers than Fleming fans, and is a slow burning and excellent procedural book about the British secret service. It rotates a series of very good indie illustrators and I think it's ace. Never read anything else by Rucka except the very dull Whiteout, but Q&C gets my vote.

Haus of Mystery

16:19 / 01.02.05

Mmmm Nick Abadzis. Fond hazy memories of being a teenager and thinking Deadline was the single coolest comic on the planet. Shit d'you remember 'Fireball' the other Hewlett strip - the Wacky Races with swearing and violence one? II wish someone would collect some of that stuff! And 'Cheeky Wee Budgie Boy' featuring some of the best Philip Bond artwork ever. Or Planet Swerve with Glyn Dillon. 'Fatal Charm' with D'israeli (who deserves his own unsung post - a truly underrated artist and a nice guy, to boot). Fuck, the lost goes on...

20:58 / 01.02.05

There were some interesting newsstand anthology comics back then in the UK - as well as Deadline, Tundra's "Blast!", which I dimly recall featured Mr Ellis' Lazarus Churchyard among others, "Toxic!" which was basically the Pat Mills show. Deadline was pretty good, even though they fucked it up by trying to turn it into a (very shitty) music mag with comics in it. Yeah, There were some great strips in it, MacGyver! I got all teary when you mentioned some of em. Even Marvel UK was doing an original anthology comic. "Overkill", was it? It was crap.

Later on, I got to know some of the later Deadline contributors like Ed "Ilya" Hillyer who started serialising his amazing "End of the Century" strip there before Deadline folded and rudely interrupted him. Also Dom Morris, who did the frankly eyepopping "SADIST!" Again prematurely curtailed when Deadline bit the dust. I still have the unpublished final chapter of the Sadist! story that was being serialised when Deadline folded, as Dom kindly offered to let me publish it in an abortive web thing I was planning back then.

my name is miss k.
i am a nerd.

Haus of Mystery

21:03 / 01.02.05

Not nerd Miss K. Don't worry.

I heard that Deadline folded due to them sinking loads of cash into merchandising for the abortive (and fucking awful) Tank Girl Movie. It managed a repactable run, as it started in 88-89. What are the chances of a similar project lasting in todays climate? (Mebbe a new 'Deadline' thread Miss K? I can't be arsed right now, as I'm at work, but you hum it an' I'll join in later)

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

21:40 / 01.02.05

Man, I loved Deadline. It was the only thing I had growing up that I actually had to hunt down. Whenever I found an import of it I cherished it. It's what got me into that whole Hewlett/Bond/Landridge style. The best.

As far as unsung, hmmmm. Say a prayer for Ambush Bug and The Heckler, wherever they are.

22:11 / 01.02.05

Gotta continue the the Deadline love-in - although I'd have to disagree on the 'bad music mag' thing - it would have to have been a lot worse than a dozen tank girl movies to reach the depths of Q.

Yes, the Early 90s saw the the rise and fall of many interesting comic anthologies in the UK. On the plus side many of these series were collected and/or concluded in the last decade or so - Slab o'Concrete was responsible for much of this but publishers like Richard Starkings Active Images are still publishing some great comics from the early 90s - Strange Embrace a disorientating comic that is well worth picking up if you haven't already - for me, it evokes that sense of confusion akin to tuning in half way through a bizarre film that is being shown late on channel 4...

I also defy anyone to read more than 5 pages of Glen Dakin's Temptation without feeling an uncontrollable urge to carry on reading just one more page...

End of the Century Club was completed and released in a collected form and a sequal volume (timewarp) was also published.

Oh and Roger Langridge really does deserve his own unsung hero entry check out his website. his stuff is sooooo good. I actually find his Fred the clown stuff painful to read it is so emotionally fraught.

10:26 / 02.02.05

Going to start a new Deadline and UK anthologies thread as suggested by MacGyver. Join me!

18:10 / 02.02.05

More forgotten/underappreciated heros:

I second Donna Barr's nomination. Motion carried, Lifetime Coolness Award to be shipped. The Desert Peach is one of the few comics to make me laugh out loud on a regular basis. And gorgeous art! Bonus points for gratuitous use of German.

Ted Mckeever, for being Donna Barr's polar opposite. "Eddy Current" and "Metropol" are dark and brooding and terrific. This man doesn't produce nearly enough comics.

Haus of Mystery

18:24 / 02.02.05

I think the problem with McKeever is that his work since Metropol has been extremely dodgy. 'Junk Culture' was pretty lame, and 'Faith' ,the sequel to Metropol, lost my interest after issue 1. 'Metropol' blew me awy when I first read it (although I read it out of sequence and was tripping at the time, which had a considerable effect on my view of it). But storytelling aside his art, for me, simply isn't as good nowadays. The art on 'Metropol, is beautiful - strong, surreal and nightamarish - and I don't think anyone's depicted an Urban hell so spectacularly, but lately it seems like he's had to compromise his style. I bought the first couple of issues of 'Enginehead', but Joe Kelly's incomprehensible scripting aside, the art was pretty weak. The colourist seemed to have decided that McKeever's art needed '3-D' effects, which was a big mistake, but even so..the magic was gone. Shame really, as like I said, I have a real soft spot for 'Metropol' & 'Eddy Current'.

23:12 / 02.02.05

What's Eddy Current about?

I see it listed in the previews text.

Ethan Van Sciver

00:23 / 03.02.05

I was thinking about how much I loved Greg Hyland earlier today. I'm not sure if anyone here knows his LETHARGIC comic series, but he's been doing quite amusing parody comics (which orinarily I hate) since before the Image boom. I used to talk to him at conventions all the time, and wanted to work with him, but it never happened. Anyhow, he's got a website www.lethargiclad.com where he still does the strip as a webcomic. He also did one of the most devastating and funny interviews with Rob Liefeld back in a 1994 issue of HERO ILLUSTRATED.

I wish he was a millionaire.

XXII:X:II = XXX

05:31 / 03.02.05

Say a prayer for Ambush Bug and The Heckler, wherever they are.

I think they both show up in Patton Oswalt's excellent JLA PF Welcome to the Work Week when Plastic Man throws a kegger onboard the Watchtower to flush out Poison Ivy. Did Giffen create both characters? Makes one wonder what ever became of Trencher.

Another artist who deserves a shout-out is Sophie Crumb. Why would someone with a pedigree like Sophie's need any additional support? I think it's precisely because of that pedigree that she needs it. It's very easy to say, "Feh, she's Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky's daughter and that's the only reason why she got a comic." Well, maybe that's why she got a comic with Fantagraphics, okay, but it's not undeserved. Her first two issues of her own anthology Belly Button Comics are good, solid stuff, and you can see her style evolve over the last few years. Obviously there are traces of her parents' styles and themes in her work; why wouldn't there be? But I also think she's starting to take it into terrain into which her parents' famous neuroses mightn't allow them to, and she's rediscovering American life as an adult after spending much of her formative years in France. Check dat shit out, homies.

/+,

20:36 / 03.02.05

I LOVE AMBUSH BUG. Giffen was in top form whenever he did work involving the Bug.

Never read The Heckler, though...