Party Like it's 1994 to 1997
Wherein I write about three comics that reinvigorated me in the 90s
I was recently a guest on the Never Iron Anything podcast, talking with Tony Esmond about artistic influences. I had a great time as always. It got me thinking about how my influences have changed over the years, very much in step with the evolution of my taste in comics. Which brings me neatly to the 1990s.
It was 1994, I was 20 years old and I had just gone straight into the second year of university, having come out of school with a small handful of uninspiring qualifications and subsequently spending two years at college, simply because I had no plans for what to do with my life.
I had drifted away from comics after discovering the seductive allure of alcoholic debauchery as a 16 year old (which played a large part in the aforementioned lacklustre scholarly achievements and lack of direction). The walk to university from the train station took me past Forbidden Planet on Buchanan Street, and feeling very isolated and alone, I ventured in seeking the security blanket of comics. I was about to fall in love with Madman.
This would sadly be a short-lived return to reading new comics, around a year later I moved out of my family home and just couldn't afford to buy comics for a couple of years (with exception of Madman Comics). Alcohol, rent, food and toilet roll were my priorities, almost certainly in that order. Which is sad.
Madman: The best Oddity Odyssey
The comic that reignited my passion for comics was Madman Comics 4, published by Dark Horse. This was, and still is, one of the best comics I have ever read. It's one of my favourite comics. It turns out that it had a huge impact on the late Ed Piskor too, as he revealed in a brilliant interview with Mike Allred on Cartoonist Kayfabe.
After reading the comic, I went back and got Madman: The Oddity Odyssey, which had come out the previous year. I got The Collected Madman Adventures a few months later. I collected Madman's Comics until 1996, when Allred took a couple of years off to work on other projects. The Oddity Odyssey was written and drawn by Mike Allred and lettered by Laura Allred, now best known as a colourist.
Tonally, it’s pretty different than the series(s) that followed it, with more of a horror bent. At one point, the titular Madman Frank Einstein rips someone’s eye out their head and swallows it.
The origins of the comic are interesting, Allred had moved from a career in regional European TV reportage to making indie comics, notably Graphique Musique. Allred explains, ‘I was doing fairly esoteric, semi-under-ground work before. When my eldest son wanted to take some of my work to school for show-and-tell, I said, ‘Uh, I’m not sure if they would like it.’ I realized I wasn’t really enjoying it that much either. I thought about the comics I loved, like Jack Cole’s Plastic Man, The Fox, Matt Wagner’s Grendel, Bernie Mireault’s The Jam, the old Fantastic Four…l wanted to do something in that spirit’.
Allred explains further in the Cartoonist Kayfabe interview, ‘At the time, my favourite character was Frank Einstein and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll put a costume on him and turn him into an adventurer’. I’ll just send him on all these adventures, stuff that happened that I loved when I was a kid, with flying saucers and aliens and robots and all this stuff’.
Originally Allred named Frank Einstein’s alter-ego The Spook, as a nod to Will Eisner’s The Spirit, and there is an off-kilter vibe (that doesn’t quite go as far as surrealism) and an enduring sweetness to the character. As the comic series goes on, it revolves around the romantic relationship between Frank and Joe, based on Mike and Laura Allred. It explores the idea of identify and muses on spirituality.
Piskor described Allred as, ‘a master of gesture’, noting the way that his characters stand and move. This reminds me of Ron Frenz’s observation of Ditko’s Spider-Man; the character doesn’t stand like a hero, there’s a real sense of character emanating from the gesture and facial acting.
On a side note, I started drawing comics again in 1994, which had been prompted by Batman: The Animated Series and the discovery of an art shop in Glasgow when I bought a crow quill, brush, bottle of ink and a pad of A2 cartridge paper. The Oddity Odyssey had a big impact on that nascent comic, not least in me swiping a panel showing the lead character urinating against a tree.
There’s a fantastic video on Mike Allred on the Chaos Ensues YouTube channel here.
Atomic City Tales
I’m a big fan of Jay Stephens’ comics work whether it's Atomic City Tales, Land of Nod, Dejects or the more recent Dwellings. There's just so much energy in his work and his early comics pop with a frenetic, irreverent and fun kineticism. I have the original trade collection from 1997 and I must have picked this up after I’d finished my undergraduate degree and I was working in a factory in Irvine. This would have been a much-needed respite during a difficult period in my life.
Atomic City Tales feels like beat comics, with that automatic cartooning vibe generating an endearing silliness, with a hint of profundity. Stephens' drawing style oozes fun and he’s able to seamlessly move from cartoon realism to big foot cartooning. His storytelling is great, even taking into account the weird narrative cul-de-sacs that can result from beat writing. It also feels Seinfeldian, to a certain extent it's a genre comic about nothing. Like Madman, it's funny, charming and produced by a great cartoonist.
There’s a very interesting interview with Jay Stephens in The Comics Journal 212 (1999), which explains the brevity of the lifespan of the comic.
Sadly, there were only a few Atomic City Tales comics that came out and Stephens left comics for an extended period of time. It’s great to see him putting out new comics and his most recent work is absolutely stunning.
Terminal City
This is the odd one out in that it's not written and drawn by a single creator. Dean Motter and Michael Lark produced a retro-noir caper that combines an art-deco aesthetic with Zeppelins, monorails, world fairs, old timey explorers and human flies. This was some of Lark’s earliest work, but Motter was a veteran on findie comics having created Mister X in the early 80s.
There's a European vibe even though the comic has an attachment to a specific kind of decaying American urban utopia, probably due to the nods to Tintin and a pre-realism Lark’s line weight evoking Moebius. It's a retro-futuristic potboiler that is never bogged down by the huge cast of compelling characters or the swathes of cultural references. It's a magnificent ensemble comic that balances story arcs around a compelling central plot.
The central protagonist, Cosmo Quinn, is a wonderful creation - a former human fly turned window cleaner (which makes me think of the revolutionary plumbers in Brazil). Motter said, ‘The notion of a retired human fly-turned-window washer came to me when I first moved to Manhattan […] While watching the New York window washers one day it occurred to me that they were daredevils of a kind […] In many ways living in, and being inspired by New York offered me the chance to actually explore the sort of world that had--up to that point--been more or less imaginary or theoretical to me. NYC had a history I had romanced all my life […] In the course of doing Mister X I had become obsessed with retro-futurism. The 1920–50s vision of the 21st century. So I crafted a new premise mixing all of these elements''.
Motter cites the main influences for the series as, ‘Will Eisner's The Spirit. The Bogart film Dead End. And, yes, Altman -- especially films like 1975's Nashville. And also from the crime TV shows from my youth like Naked City and Perry Mason’.
I also picked this up in 1997 and, you guessed it, was completely blown away and this is also still one of my favourite comics. The follow-up mini-series, Terminal City: Aerial Graffiti, is also brilliant. Motter did a kind-of sequel, Electropolis, which I’ve need to read, not least because it’s in my garage.
The Secret Ingredient is Charm
All three comics are wonderfully crafted, ooze fun and are just plain charming. The cast of characters in each comic are superbly designed and well-rounded. There's a bittersweetness to Madman: The Oddity Odyssey and Terminal City that's absent from Atomic City Tales, but that's complimented by a hopeful, romantic energy. Atomic City Tales also differs in that the lead character, Big Bang, isn’t particularly sympathetic and could be described as a bit of a douchebag.
It’s no coincidence that The United comics that I’ve made focus on a big, ensemble cast of eclectic characters. Looking back, I wonder if my use of grey tones was influenced by The Oddity Odyssey.
These comics had a lasting influence on me and I wholly recommend reading them.
Next Time!
I mentioned above a comic that I drew back in the mid 1990s. I will include this in my next newsletter and maybe reflect on how my style and approach has evolved.
As ever, you can find the comics that I make here. I can also be easily found on Instagram, Bluesky and Threads under Cannonhill Comics.