Frank Frazetta - "Werewolf!" (Creepy #1 1964)

in 1964, Frank Frazetta  (1928-2010) created his last and possibly greatest comics work for the Larry Ivie-written story "Werewolf!" in the pages of Creepy #1.  it is a towering comic art masterpiece, of course.

Vaughn Bode and Berni Wrightson - "Purple Pictography" (1971)

in 1971, underground comix legend Vaughn Bode (1941-1975) and a young Berni Wrightson (1948 -  )teamed up for an unusual series of adult comic shorts titled "Purple Pictography" for the men's magazine Swank.    Bode wrote the strip and Wrightson drew and painted them in a bold and vibrant cartoony style.   the pair turned out five 3-page stories before the series trailed off, and these pages remain as artifacts of one of the more bizarre collaborations in comic history.


Wrightson's words on these pages:

Pepe Moreno - "The Fix" (1980)

Pepe Moreno's (Spain 1954 -   ) dark and disturbing short "The Fix," signed 1980 and published in 1985 in Epic Illustrated #30.

Arthur Suydam - "Heads" (1980)

Arthur Suydam's "Heads" from Epic Illustrated #1, 1980

Caza - "The Fall of the Towers" (1976)

the following story is by Caza (France 1941 - ) and is taken from the first issue of a Spanish comic magazine called Bumerang.  i have been attempting to research this magazine and this particular story for days and have found very little.  apparently this story is a reprint from a Dargaud Presse publication, but i am not sure of any more than that.  any information on this story or Bumerang would be greatly appreciated.

Caza's draftsmanship and inkwork here are absolutely stunning, and his use of flat primary colors are extraordinary.  much of the story's power comes from the colors, and the striking isolation of one hue within a larger field of another.   the panel compositions, the page layouts, and the storytelling "beats" are all flawless.  Caza would later go on to be a major force in the pages of Heavy Metal in the 1980's.

John Severin and Wally Wood - "Creeps" (Creepy #19 1968)

MICA is not just about non-American comic art... there will be plenty of great works by North American artists included here as well.  two titans of American comic art, John Severin (1921-2012) and Wally Wood (1927-1981), joined forces in 1968 on the Archie Goodwin penned "Creeps" in the pages of Warren Publishing's Creepy.  It was actually Severin who helped Wood break into the business in 1948, introducing him to Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder.  Through that meeting, he found his first work as a background artist on Will Eisner's The Spirit.  The rest is history.