Alack Sinner by Carlos Sampayo and José Muñoz is one of the most quietly influential comic books of all time. It’s likely inspired the look of the entire modern crime comic book genre from Sin City to 100 Bullets to Criminal. Keith Giffen spent years swiping Muñoz, and countless professional comics artists were either directly or indirectly influenced by it. Yet it remains fairly obscure and out of print. Here’s a quick overview of some of the artists inspired by this classic work. (For a deeper dive on Alack Sinner itself, check out our podcast episode and transcript).
Frank Miller
Muñoz is frequently cited as an influence on Frank Miller, specifically Sin City. It’s hard not to see the impact there. However, I haven’t been able to find any interviews where Miller specifically mentions Muñoz, as opposed to European comics more generally. For example, in Comics Interview issue two, published in 1983, Miller says he’d been looking at “the work of Moebius, Bilai [sic] and all from Europe.”
Still, I think the influence is apparent enough to include here. Also, Eduardo Risso (see below) said in an interview:
Nowadays, I’m told Miller has influenced me, for instance, but Miller himself has told me “I’ve learnt the black-and-white from Breccia”.
CS: And Muñoz?
ER: And Muñoz. Basically, I was influenced by Breccia and Muñoz. I always say the same: I like Miller’s work, it’s incredible, and he’s a great master, but basically, I was influenced by Breccia and Muñoz.
Also on Breccia, and Argentinian comics in general, Risso told InfoBae (translation via Google Translate):
We were in a bar and I asked Frank, “You must have read Alberto Breccia.” And he replied, “Of course! One of my mentors!” That’s right, Miller knows Argentine comics inside and out. He was one of the first to look outward and then back in.
Via Miller, Muñoz and Sampayo were able to have an even bigger, indirect influence on modern comics, from Jim Lee and the other Image Comics founders to David Lapham.
Keith Giffen
This one might be a bit more of a surprise to younger readers. Giffen is these days probably better known less as an artist and more for writing Lobo, Justice League, and Annhilation. But in an article in Comics Journal # 105 in 1986, Mark Burbey noted dozens of different instances of Giffen swiping Muñoz in, of all things, the 1985 Ambush Bug mini-series that Giffen wrote and drew (and a few subsequent projects as well). More recently, Jed Alexander took a hard look at Giffen’s swiping from the period as well.
In The Comics Journal issue 118, Giffen said he “wasn’t attempting to steal from Munoz, but had unconsciously absorbed Munoz’s style after intensively studying his art” and that “his ‘Munoz
style’ was, as he put it, ‘universally loathed and scorned’ by his audience.” (Hat tip to Lars Ingebrigtsen for this passage).
Muñoz and Sampayo responded to the controversy in an Alack Sinner story called “Over a Few Drawings,” first published in TK in TK. In the story, a stand-in for Muñoz, “José Martinez,” visits one “K. K. Kitten,” a wealthy American comic book artist who lives in a mansion, to confront him for swiping his work. Lars Ingebrigtsen writes: “It’s hard to tell from this story whether Sampayo/Muñoz are just goofing around, or whether Martinez’s feelings are representative of their own feelings.” I’m not sure either, but I’d lean towards them mostly goofing around but also being partially serious.
Dave McKean
In an interview with Bob Fish, McKean, probably best known as the artist of Arkham Asylum and for his Sandman covers, acknowledged Muñoz’s influence, particularly on Cages, a black and white series that he both wrote and drew.
Ted McKeever
I haven’t found any quotes from McKeever about Muñoz, but in Wizard magazine issue 18 in 1993, Tom Palmer Jr. cited Muñoz as an influence on McKeever.
David Quinn
Faust: Love of the Damned and The Addiction co-creator David Quinn noted in a comment on my Instagram that he’d seen a friend’s untranslated copies of Alack Sinner stories “at a curious, formative age.”
D’Israeli
Matt Brooker, better known as D’Israeli, the artist perhaps best known for Lazarus Churchyard with Warren Ellis or for inking Kill Your Boyfriend by Grant Morrison and Philip Bond, has cited Muñoz as an influence, on his work on Stickleback.
Phil Hester
Phil Hester, possibly best known for his work on Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow run, said he was influenced by Muñoz at the time he was doing Freaks’ Amour for Dark Horse. But I think you can see the influence throughout his career, including on his early work on Wretch (above) and more recently on Gotham Year One with Tom King (below).
Eduardo Risso
Brian Azzarello and drawn by Eduardo Risso.
In addition to the quote cited above about Breccia and Muñoz, Argentinean artist Eduardo Risso, best known for 100 Bullets, cited them both in this interview.
Also, 100 Bullets editor Will Dennis wrote in the YouTube comments on our Alack Sinner episode: “Speaking of the little vignettes in the background, risso did the same thing through all of 100 Bullets! I was the editor for issues 19-100 and was always amazed by them. They were never in the scripts. He would just add little moments in the background to entertain himself.” There’s an example above from issue 27, found via Magnett Academy.
Brian Michael Bendis
Wikipedia lists Muñoz as an influence on Brian Michael Bendis, who got his start writing and drawing black-and-white crime and espionage comics like AKA Goldfish, Jinx, and Torso, but I haven’t been able to verify the citations.
Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, the duo behind Criminal and Reckless are the preeminent modern crime comic creators. Brubaker once said in an interview:
Sean and I have been a team for fourteen years now, so I mean, we were walking into town earlier and I was talking to José Muñoz, and him and [Carlos] Sampayo are our idols, and they’ve been working together for thirty years, so Sean and I are planning to work together for the rest of our lives.