More Newton is still on the want list. I’m just waiting to find a nice run at a convention at a decent price. I doubt he’ll ever crack my top ten Bronze artists list, but then I never expected Aparo to be knocking on that door (and he is!)

Cheers,
Andrew

Last year you and I discussed Don Newton’s run on Batman in the 80s and I urged you to get a run from both Batman and Detective (which featured Gene Colan’s art) I know they are not cheap but they are well woth reading.

Don Newton was like Aparo, brilliant without being flashy.

I wasn’t that fond of DC’s stable of Filipino artists when I was a kid, with the exception of Alex Niño. But they’re certainly growing on me now. I recently reviewed Rima, the Jungle Girl #1 and found Nestor Redondo’s art to be incredibly lush. And I just picked up an issue of The Shadow with E.R. Cruz art and was surprised by how nice that was. (There was a Frank Robbins Shadow in that batch, too, and it was nice. I thought Robbins was a good fit on The Invaders, too.)

Cheers,
Andrew

As for the Frank Robbins debate, I’m really not a fan of his work, except the stuff he did for “The Shadow”, where his style seemed perfect for the material he was drawing.

Thanks for stopping by. I understand where you’re coming from about Sal Buscema. That’s why he got a special shout out (along with Jim Aparo) in the introduction. I like his work a lot more today than I did as a kid, even if it still hasn’t cracked my top 10. And it’s hard to imagine a Bronze Age without Sal; he was everywhere for Marvel in the ’70s and early ’80s (Rom remains one of my favorites).

As for Byrne, did you check out his recent JLA Classified arc with Roger Stern? It was some of his nicest published work in in a long time (inker Mark Farmer certainly didn’t hurt). Also, Byrne’s done some amazing commission pieces in recent years which can be seen on his Web site.

Cheers,
Andrew

While I appreciate your list, your not including Sal Buscema in the top 10 seems like a crime to me. As a kid, I didn’t like his art all that much, but now as an adult, looking back on it… man, the sheer amount of his work all over Marvel during the 70s was just amazing… much of my fondest memories of Marvel mags as a kid contain Sal’s work. His brother gets more acclaim, but for my money it’s Sal who’s the better artist.

As for Byrne, count me in as a fan. I’m reading the Essential Iron Fist now and man, he was good. Unfortunately, much of my good memories of Byrne are overshadowed by both the work that he does now, which is so subpar to what he’s done in the past, and second by how bitter he appears to have become.

Finally, if John Workman is continuing to read, I always appreciated your work. It’s weird that I’m able to recognize your lettering over say, Orzechowski or anyone else, but damn it all, I can and I really think that’s a testement to your skills. Every now and then I’ll be reading through a newer book and think to myself, boy that looks like Workman’s lettering. Flipping to the credits I see I’m right… and I can’t think of another letterer I can do that with so bravo to you for standing out in your craft!

Thanks for stopping by. It’s no gag, I assure you. Your work was a HUGE influence on me when I was a teen. I first came across a piece or two of yours in old Star*Reach comics, but when your work was collected in Wild Things from Metro, I was hooked. I was a junior in high school when those came out, and I spent the next couple of years in art class turning out John Workman knockoff strips (when I wasn’t doing Jules Feiffer knockoff editorial cartoons, that is!) I briefly pursued a career as a comics writer and layout artist in the early 1990s, and you can still see the Workman influence in those pieces, as well. (Here are a couple pages for your amusement: “The Great Wall” and “The Last Adventures of Stargirl.”) I eventually moved on to a career in journalism, where I had decent success as an editorial cartoonist (at least until newspapers started going belly up!) While my editorial cartooning style isn’t very “comic booky,” the jab-jab-punch pacing and philosophical musings of your early strips still resonates under the surface of much of my work.

Sorry to go all fan boy on you. I’m sure it didn’t hurt that I’m from Washington state, so there were all kinds of early Workman treasures to discover, and that fed my habit growing up. (I still have my Seattle Simpleton #1 and “B.J. Butterfly” and “Visit” posters!) I hope you do return to the drawing board at some point; I’ll be first in line for any new projects. And I hope some publisher has the good sense to collect all of your early work into a single volume.

Speaking of your early work, if you ever want to talk about your ’70s and early ’80s strips, know that Comics Bronze Age would love to do a feature interview with you.

Cheers,
Andrew

How could I forget

DON NEWTON – My second favourite Batman artist

I concur with your choice -John Byrne is also my choice, followed closely be:

George Perez
JL Garcia Lopez
Jim Aparo – My favourite Batman artist
Frank Miller
Keith Giffen
Gil Kane
Marshall Rogers
Walt Simonson
Paul Smith
Mike Grell
Neal Adams
Howard Chaykin
John Buscema
Paul Gulacy
Gene Colan
Brian Bolan
Curt Swan

the list goes on and on and on…

The Bronze Age was really a great time to be reading comics