sketchbook: dave's devil!

okay...

i don't know exactly when (the reverend) dave johnson joined mike and rich and the rest of the guys at artamus studio, but it must've been like '97, '98...? mike had been very excited that dave was coming and he was only there for a month or two when i came down for heroescon and got to meet him. i had loved any and all of dave's work--his stuff, which was just consistently....stunning...and always had this undercurrent of a quirky kinda madness there. his sketches in his sketbook spork! informed me that he was coming from a wonky place that i wanted to visit. when mike introduced us, i immediately felt that i had just joined the brotherhood in the church of kitsch and camp; his office in the studio was filled with such awesome wacky toys and bizarre props. he had a fez.
dave was very cool--although he busted on me hard for not being able to turn the fanboy off soon enough.
sometime during that weekend, dave did this gorgeous piece for me.
i know.









and the wonderful beauty of it is that once dave was all done with it, we realized that i had somehow gotten two incredible pics for the price of one! (which was free, so even better, right?!) the bonus negative image was just as freakin' cool as the one on the front, so lucky, lucky me!
you can see why this is one of my favorites...







i want a fez.

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i went on a tear the other day on ebay and bid on (and won!) a handful of old tigra comics--marvel chillers! to be exact. stuff from the early 70s is so cool to me. from the same seller i saw that he was also offering four issues of captain america from the early 80s roger stern/john byrne run--a great run, really! so i'm reading through them this week (chuckling when i see kurt busiek's name in the letters column) and decided that i really want to dig out the best this summer, that i want to get out my long boxes and re-read the great runs that i can still look back on with fondness and excitement! i'm sticking to the late 70s/early 80s 'cause that's when i think things started to change, when long-term subplots were beginning to be encouraged and stories became even more character driven. sure, there were some like that before then--and certainly plenty since--but to me this was a magic time and if you know anything about me by now it's that i love to go back...
i'm making a list--it's below--but i'm wondering what yours would be like...?
would it be the same as mine? have i reminded you of some? will you remind me of others...?

engelhart/rogers batman/detective *
claremont/byrne x-men
stern/byrne captain america
miller's daredevil
walter's thor
byrne's fantastic four
claremont/smith x-men
wolfman/perez teen titans

so...what would be your list...?


* added after i stupidly forgot it--thanks, jim!

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okay, back to work!
have a good weekend!
smell ya later!
todd

this is post no.692