Found out my favorite artist from the 90s only drew 12 issues of his own series

I was digging through old Wizard magazines at a flea market in Des Moines and saw a stat that blew my mind. The guy who made that whole run iconic? He just plotted it and handed the pencils off after issue 12. Anyone else ever find out a creator barely touched their own famous work?

3 comments

3 Comments

claire_hart531mo ago

Yeah right, imagine blowing your whole allowance on back issues thinking you're collecting a complete run, only to find out the real artist dipped after a few issues like he forgot to pay the electric bill. That's like buying a whole record album because you love one single and realizing the rest is just filler from some session guys who showed up for a free sandwich. Did the fill-in artist at least try to copy the style or was it just a total 180 that left you squinting at the page?

mila_campbell251mo ago

nah but you gotta look at this different. those first 12 issues set the whole visual tone and vibe of the series, the fill-in artists had a roadmap to follow. it's like the blueprint for a house - the architect might not lay every brick but they designed the whole thing. without that original artist's vision you dont even get those later issues worth collecting. plus some of those fill-in guys actually nailed it better than the original in spots, like the Marvel guys who took over on Spawn after McFarlane got too busy. the creator still had final say on layouts and covers anyway so its not like they totally ghosted their own book.

grantw321mo ago

Heard a story from a buddy of mine who collects old Image comics. He tracked down every issue of this gritty 90s series he loved, spent YEARS hunting them down. Turns out the guy who created it only actually drew the first FOUR issues before handing it off to a fill-in artist for the rest of the run. My friend was SO mad when he found out because the whole reason he loved the series was that rough, scratchy art style. He said it felt like finding out your favorite band only played on one song of their own album.