An earlier version of this article appeared on Indie Creator Explosion in May 2020. Intro In this article, I delve into the work of Barry Blair, a controversial figure in alternative and independent comics in the 1980s and 1990s. I want to preface this piece by saying that as a kid I was a fan … Read more
From Gasm # 4 by James O’Barr Part 1: The Crow Creator James O’Barr’s Early Years Part 2: The Crow and Caliber Years Part 3: After The Crow: The Works of James O’Barr Note: I might receive a cut of any referrals to Mycomicshop.com. Even if they sold fairly well, most Outlaw Comics existed on the … Read more
Tim Vigil’s first project for Comics Express was Omega, a sci-fi series co-created with inker Paul Martin. Omega was a big departure from Grips. Vigil tapped into his love of Jack Kirby and Fantastic Four to produce cosmic psychedelia complete with “Kirby Crackle.” The story is the tale of a hiker who stumbles upon a … Read more
Tim Vigil cleaved his way into public consciousness with Grips # 1 in the fall of 1986, around the same time as Watchmen # 1. The artist announced his arrival with a double splash page — aggravatingly split into two frames — highlighting what has become the hallmarks of his work: sex and violence. In that spread, vigilante protagonist … Read more
Bill W. Miller Promises More Jontar as Bib Fortuna Actor and Other Celebs Induct Cartoonists Into the First Power Comics Hall of Fame Before Sewer Mutant, before Cartoonist Kayfabe, there was Power Comics. For nearly a decade the Power Comics crew has been excavating and documenting the diamonds they find in the dollar bin rough, … Read more
EC only published horror comics from around 1950 until 1955. But that was long enough to warp a new generation of cartoonists. A decade after the Comics Code Authority defanged newsstand comic books, Underground Comix . “I always saw the underground comix movement as a sort of extension of the ECs,” S. Clay Wilson told … Read more
Continuity Studios. The Studio. Homage Studios. Extreme Studios. Gaijin Studios. These are near-legendary agglomerations of talent that comics fans will remember forever. The short-lived Homegrown Studios should have been on that list, if only they’d gotten more of a chance to show off their work before the mid-90s comics market crash. They published a small … Read more
Outlaw Comics Prehistory Part 1 A prehistory of Outlaw Comics could stretch back as far as the Marquis de Sade’s The 120 Days of Sodom in 1785, or even to paleolithic erotic art. It could cover films, novels, art, music, and more. But let’s stick to comics. We’ll begin with Entertaining Comics, better known as … Read more
Part 1: My Internet Before the Internet Part 2: Empire Building Part 3: The End My family moved from Dalhart to Sheridan, Wyoming in December of 1994. It was a difficult move. I didn’t have many friends in Dalhart, but it was hard to leave the ones I had. We’d lived in Texas my whole … Read more
I’m still plugging away at the Outlaw Comics history series. The “prehistory” section — which covers things like EC, underground comix, Warren magazines, the rise of the direct market and more — is taking quite a long time. I already jumped ahead once with the Avatar Press history. Below I’m sharing a timeline I assembled for the Bad Girls … Read more