80's Indy Comic Art Thread 1 1

[furthur]

13 minutes ago, DJRome said:

Loving this thread!

I'll second anyone who said Cerebus, American Flagg, the Rocketeer, and Judge Dredd. But you can't get more indy than the dreadnought of chicanery: the Flaming Carrot!

 Just saw Bob last weekend and bought a sketch. His current motto "Make America Goofy Again" is certainly in line with the times!

[Nexus]

2 hours ago, delekkerste said:

I re-read the entire series within the past couple of years.  The art in the earlier issues is really fantastic and underrated/overlooked.  But, at some point (I don't remember where the demarcation is; think somewhere during year 2 or 3 at the latest), it's obvious that Grell is struggling to keep up the quality of the art, especially since those First Comics issues were 28 or 32 pages long IIRC (more than the usual 22 offered by Marvel and DC) and he was writing as well as drawing.  As such, you see the art become very noticeably looser, and you see him draw things that are clearly designed to take up a lot of space and speed up his output.  

True for almost all of the great indies, but most especially true for First Comics. More than any other indy publisher, they were strict about monthly deadlines. Artists had the pedal to the metal for a couple of years before that monthly schedule just wrecked their output. AMERICAN FLAGG! is another prime example of this.

[PhilipB2k17]

Anyone else a fan of Crossfire by Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle? I loved reading Evanier's essays in the back of the book. And Dave Stevens did a phenomenal Marilyn Monroe cover for one issue.

[Nexus]

9 minutes ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

Anyone else a fan of Crossfire by Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle? I loved reading Evanier's essays in the back of the book. And Dave Stevens did a phenomenal Marilyn Monroe cover for one issue.

Very fun book! Much preferred it to Evanier's DNAGENTS. I liked Spiegle's art and felt he was a fine fit for the material, but thought Alex Toth would have been perfect and could have elevated this to a classic. Turns out, Toth was a fan himself, so I may have underestimated Speigle's art:

https://www.newsfromme.com/2017/01/30/dan-spiegle-r-p/

That Stevens cover is fantastic. I admired it on my friend's wall for many years; he may have since sold it. One of Stevens' best covers from that period.

[PhilipB2k17]

1 minute ago, Nexus said:

Very fun book! Much preferred it to Evanier's DNAGENTS. I liked Spiegle's art and felt he was a fine fit for the material, but thought Alex Toth would have been perfect and could have elevated this to a classic. Turns out, Toth was a fan himself, so I may have underestimated Speigle's art:

https://www.newsfromme.com/2017/01/30/dan-spiegle-r-p/

That Stevens cover is fantastic. I admired it on my friend's wall for many years; he may have since sold it. One of Stevens' best covers from that period.

Is there a scan of the OA for that cover anywhere?

[Nexus]

9 minutes ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

Is there a scan of the OA for that cover anywhere?

Not that I'm aware of, at least not publicly. Sorry!

[Bronty]

Oh man.   Yeah that is an all time classic I would have loved to see the OA!

[dem1138]

On 3/14/2018 at 12:46 PM, Nexus said:

Oh man...some of my absolute favorite stuff. Not sure how much of a comics fan I would have become if it weren't for '80s indies.

 

Highlights of the thread so far!  Not sure if Hari has any scans but he has some great indie OA including an incredible SAMURAI cover that is one of my favorite pieces in his entire collection (and is probably the least valuable of all of his pieces!).

[THB]

Not the greatest pic but my fave Indy OA....

[comiconxion]

One of my favorite independent comics of the 80's was Stig's Inferno - the book that launched Ty Templeton's career.  If you've never read it, it's hilarious!  I won't ruin it for you, but the Visine gag just cracked me up every time I re-read it.

Anyway, for the first issue, Vortex got Paul Rivoche (of Mr. X fame) to draw the cover.  Outside of the memories, what I found interesting when I got the art were the hand-drawn color separations that were created for each printing color.  Talk about old school... this sums it up!  Four pieces of original comic art all in one!

[F For Fake]

So much terrific stuff in here, so many memories. I don't own any copper indie art, but my absolute favorite 80's indie is Grendel. Any 80's Wagner Grendel piece would be a grail, and I wouldn't mind some Pander Bros stuff either. Anybody have any of either to share?

[BookofStrange]

I also support Grimjack as a great.  Other titles (late 80s) I really liked were Baker Street (Guy Davis) and Poe (Jason Asala)

[Panelfan1]

not sure if anyone cared for the series Silent Invasion -but the cover for 5 just showed up at koch comic art for $800.  not sure if that is a fair price or not - the original price is still written in pencil at the top corner.

 

[ESeffinga]

16 hours ago, BookofStrange said:

I also support Grimjack as a great.  Other titles (late 80s) I really liked were Baker Street (Guy Davis) and Poe (Jason Asala)

 

 

Baker Street sort of qualifies as the first issues were originally published in late 89, but I don't think I saw any of it stateside until 1990ish. I've always thought of it as an early 90s book anyway, since that's when the bulk of it came out.

Poe on the other hand was 100% a 90s book. And for what it's worth, I was the guy that bought that page (and 4 or 5 others, and a commission) from Asala at Small Press Expo in probably 1996-97ish. Asala brought the first ashcans of the book, and then in subsequent years, the issues as they came out. I remember getting some fun stuff from SPX back in the 90s.  Good times.

This thread is such a nostalgia trip for me. My younger brother was actually big into Mage for a while. I used to have a couple really fun Flaming Carrot pieces from Burden, and remember the first time I met him in Atlanta. He struck me as being as much fun as his book. Tons of funny memories. And seeing these pieces is making even more bubble up. Stuff I haven't thought of in years. I used to cast a much wider net for art back when it was cheap and I picked up pieces just for the fun of it (as opposed to the LOVE of each).

That Baker street piece is a damn fine example by the way! I adore Guy Davis' artwork.

And if I was a more of a m=nostalgia collector I'd certainly have some Baker Street art. I've flirted with the thought even so, several times over the years.
I'd also have some Wagner (Hunter Rose) Grendel.  Maybe a page or two from Samurai. Definitely would want something Elfquest. Critters (the birthplace of Usagi Yojimbo, and years of fandom from me). Etc and so on.

As a total aside to the topic, I remember driving around the Beltway  to Jim Warden's house, to pick up a Fabry painting ages ago, and him showing me all the Byrne stuff he had, and also these stacks of Wagner pages. Some older, but mostly the new Warchild material. He even had a dresser downstairs full of stacks of art from Ploog, and so on. What a surreal day.

 

Edited March 17, 2018 by ESeffinga

[PhilipB2k17]

Here are the sum total of my entire 80’s Indepedent OA Pages (so far!). The first three are a DNAgent DPS with the two sexy pinups Will Meugniot drew on the back. Then my Badger page and my Myth Adventures (Phil Foglio & Tim Sale) Page. 

Edited March 17, 2018 by PhilipB2k17

[vodou]

[Nexus]

Bumping thread with another '80s indy cover. Love Jaime's art.

[MarvelComicsArt]

4 hours ago, Nexus said:

Bumping thread with another '80s indy cover. Love Jaime's art.

One of the most underrated indie artists.  Jaime (Xaime) Hernandez has done some wonderful artwork during the course of his career!

Great example of a splash page from the 1990's ( heritage archives )... sorry i know it's supposed to be all 80's . Just couldn't help myself.

Edited March 26, 2018 by MarvelComicsArt

[F For Fake]

Xaime is one of the all time greats. Would love to have a page one day.

[F For Fake]

PS: And Beto is no slouch! But I've always loved Xaime's silky inks.