All right, it’s Misfit Appreciation Day 2017, and we’re finally at the 1990s for the entry here.
When a lot of people talk about the 1990s, it’s usually with scorn, often making accusations of every comic being loaded with over-muscled men, women with impossible body types, pupil-less eyes, shoulder pads, big knives and bigger guns. And I’m here to tell you that’s like assuming you know what the 1970s was like because you watched a bunch of blackploitation movies. While there were a ton of bad books, there were plenty of awesome and amazing books from that decade. Just off the top of my mind, Kingdom Come, Mike Allred’s Madman (as well as his series Red Rocket 7), League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Hellboy, Preacher, Sandman Mystery Theatre, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac… I wanna count Maus in there, but I can’t remember if it started in the early 90s or late 80s and I’m too lazy to do a Google search. And honestly… Whether they were great books or not, the Knightfall and Death of Superman stories were a LOT of fun to read. The Birds of Prey started around this time as well. Valiant’s Unity Crossover early on was amazing to read at that time… And that’s just the stuff I remember off the top of my mind. And there were a ton of comics that started off questionable that turned into something amazing. Witchblade turned into Switch (which I’m still waiting on issue #5, Stjepan Sejic!) Glory, which was kinda crappy turned into the amazing comic by Joe Keatinge. And then there’s Prophet… Which is all sorts of amazing, considering how bad that book was.
The 90s gave us some pretty amazing things. Yeah, there still was rampant sexism and stupid violence. But there was some very great comics and ideas that still influence very positive things to this day in comics.
Such as the Batman Adventures, and a special one-shot it had that, for me, is the greatest comic of all time: Batman: Mad Love
The use of shading and strong line work. Story panel layouts and “camera work”. Strong dialogue and even stronger storytelling. Characterization so developed that even if you didn’t watch the show, you knew what was going on and who the characters were. We all know how great the show was, but this was the first time i’ve seen a comic book fully make me feel like I was reading an episode of the series. (So much so that I actually prefer the comic book to the episode!) That book was THE most influential comic to me EVER. I would probably have given up being a cartoonist long ago, if not for that book. It’s probably more responsible for me being the artist I am, more than anything else.
So it’s only fitting that Misfit’s entry into the 1990s be based on the comic book series that created… Well… Created me. 🙂
Now that’s how you kick off Misfit Day!
Thanks, Dave! Another fantastic cover.
Damn this awesome. Love the Azrael Batman.
