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2010 SKETCHBOOK (60 pages, black/white/tone, print run 100 copies)

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Sunday, September 27, 2009

The bandwith...or whatever happened?

Have you ever picked-up a comic book and were totally blown away by an artist who just came out of nowhere? I sure had a couple of experiences like that and I would start looking for more from these artist, but for some reason I just could not find any more of their work, or if I could find more work it was way different than what I was expecting....

Marc Sutherland drew a book called "Chiron" that was published by Hammac Publications back in the late 80's (and it came out the same week that my first published comic book, "Moonstruck", hit the stands). I was totally taken by his illustrative style that had a bit of Kaluta and a bit of Vess (before there was Vess). Have not been able to find any more of his art since:


Adam McDaniel I met in the 90's when I was doing some short stories for Tim Vigil's "Raw Media Mag". Adam was a young artist just starting out and his style was slowly maturing, but when I met him he was just starting to get away from his part Wrightson part Adam Hughes influence. He drew "Cuda" and "Tool" and, it seemed to me, was destined for great things. And then he sort of disappeared...last I hear (and I don't rememebr who told me this) he was working in a karioke bar somewhere in Midwest:


Rob Haynes came out of nowhere like a steamroller. I bought an issue of Daredevil that he did and my jaw just dropped. I read that he was going to do a 3 issue Daredevil miniseries and I bought every issue...and I have not seen any more of his artwork since. I did see an interview of his a few years back and I believe I read that he just really enjoys storytelling/storybording much more than doing actual pages, so I believe he is very happy working in Hollywood.



Aron Wiesenfeld, whom I mentioned in the earlier post, was another one of these "Wow, where did he come from...and where did he go?". He did a 4 issue "Team 7" miniseries for Image, Deathblow & Wolverine cross over, and a 2 part black and white story in one of the Image anthology books and they are all great. Real nice style, wonderful storytelling. After googling his name I found out that he is now doing gallery paintings in the Symbolist tradition.



Trevor Von Eeden...I have to say that his Batman Annual and Green Arrow miniseries from the mid 80's where eye opening for me. I think I just went nuts when I read both of them because I never realized comics can be drawn with such style and be so bizarre and at the same time be so approachable. I went out looking for more of his stuff, but it seemed that with in a year or two he moved on into a different direction and started experimenting more with a looser line work. Even though I appreciated his newer work, it has never touched me like his earlier work did. Just this year, I read an interview with him in which he talked about how he was discriminated against over at DC right after he finished Green Arrow mini and just how mean the editor and how it effected his work (in a very negative way). What a shame.



Arthur Suydam's art woke me up and told me to learn how to use a brush, because the kind of lines he was getting there was no way to make with a pen (even if you traced the lines over and over). I also re-discovered Frazetta through Suydam and I am very glad of it. Suydam's stories in Heavy Metal, Epic Illustrated, and this portfolio were awesome. I also liked his issue of Deathdealer (Verotik, Deathdealer #4) and I was real disappointed when he sort of disappeared from the comic book scene. Recently, he re-emerged doing covers for Marvel, but I again, just like with Von Eeden, he has went off into a different direction and I just don't find it as appealing as his earlier work.





And last but not least, something to smile about. Two of my favorite artist drawing an explosion in a very similar way. I do believe that the Swamp Thing came out in '72 and Warlock came out in '75:

6 comments:

norm said...

It makes sense, where some of the guys went.....but if Adam McDaniel is completely out of art, that would be surprising, and a shame.

Alex Sheikman said...

I actually thought that Adam was a figment of my imagination for a while...he just disappeared and everyone I talked to did not remember him.

But 2 or 3 years ago, at San Diego, I met Brian Churilla and his friend and colorist Jeremy Shepherd who did some work for Vigil around the same time that I was working for him and he totallt remembered Adam and in fact followed Adam over to Wildstorm where both of them worked for a while.

Since I am on the subject, another guy who was awesome and just sort of disappered was Frank Brunner. His Dr. Strange was awesome...and then he just sort of went away.

norm said...

I haven't checked this site out yet, but it could be him:

http://www.adammcdaniel.com/

norm said...

ooops...not him.
Though I'm aparently not the first to think he was (on his FAQ page he says he's not the comic book Adam McDaniel.)

Jack Keefer said...

I remember Aron Wiesenfeld pretty well, because he lived in Santa Cruz when I was there. We didn't know each other, but I once ran into him at a Kinko's when we were both making copies of pages!

I was blown away and quite intimidated by the obvious quality of his drawings.

That pin-up by Adam McDaniel is just crazy good... wow. I have vague memories of him doing an issue or two of something for Marvel.

Anonymous said...

About Marc Sutherland. He only did one comic and had two children's book published. The Waiting Place done in charcoal, beautiful and McMurtrey's Wall in color, amazing! He doesn't do much art these days just some art for a New Hampshire small newspaper. He does Landscaping for a living. He is married so he feels that the art world is too unstable and he needs steady money. So he would rather work a regular job than make art. Sucks but that is his choice. Home this helps.