I've spoken about my love for Bryan Baugh's work before in this post. But he needs to be officially immortalized in my Artists I Like series.
Baugh hits the dark, campy, Halloween horror vibe like a champion. His Wulf and Batsy comic is delicious. But I already said this in my other post from 2023. But some of the links in that post are now dead, so here's where you should go to find his work: Instagram and Bryan Baugh's Monster Art and Comics.
I started seeing John McKenzie's work on Facebook a while back and was immediately smitten by it. John has the perfect balance of silly cartoonery and grit. It's almost as if Basil Wolverton and Mike Mignola conspired to create a new life form and I truly love it.
My instinct is to say his work begs to be animated. It FEELS animated. But I don't want to suggest it would better if animated... It lives and breathes as is, but it would translate to animation quite easily.
Also sounds like he's making an RPG. Gotta have that for sure.
Here's another Instagram find. Drew Rausch does these very cool limited pallet images with lots of black and silhouette. Mostly horror or Halloween themed. They're just wicked and fun. He has prints and maybe some mini comics on his site. Good stuff.
Like his brother Jamie, Gilbert Hernandez of Los. Bros Hernandez is an amazing comic book artist capable of delivering so much clarity and so much feeling in so few lines.
In truth, I was exposed to Gilbert's work more than Jaime's back in the day because as a sex-comics enthusiast in my early 20s I spotted Birdland and snatched it right up. Only later did I start checking out Love & Rockets.
Gilbert's work is fascinating to me because it seems to ride a line that I cherish. It is revered and respected as part of the Los. Bros. Hernandez oeuvre, which left a giant imprint on comics history. But it is happily and frequently dirty as fuck. Who else can draw women with huge boobs and still be an icon across generations?
Oh you sly devil, you. I see what you did there.
This week's Artist I Like is Larry Todd, one of the lesser-celebrated cartoonists of the 60s and 70s underground comix movement. He was a New York guy who was pals with Vaughn Bodé and the two collaborated on science fiction and comic covers that are absolutely amazing.
I confess I haven't read many Todd comics. He's best know for Dr. Atomic, which seems to be in the post smokin' wheelhouse of the comix movement. All those guys liked to do was draw drug using hippies and naked ladies.
I don't know how to explain my attraction to this style. But Bodé and Todd both simply charm the socks right off of me. There's a cartoon vibe to them both, mixed with a fantastical aesthetic and it's just perfect.
Larry Todd died less than a year ago in Sept 2024. And that makes me very sad. The idea that I could *possibly* have found a way to contact him and I didn't... well, honestly, that's just how I roll. I never reach out to "famous" artists I admire because I assume they don't want to talk to a schmuck like me. Anyway, RIP Larry Todd.
| Todd + Bodé |
| This image inspired my whole ZSF idea, honestly. |
| This is my fave. |
I know very little about the iconic 80s/90s comics artist Donna Barr. I know she is famous for The Desert Peach comics, which is a series about the youngest brother of the German WWII general Rommel. But don't be discouraged... Barr creates a gay character charged with commanding misfits and, as far as I can tell, does his best to undermine the evils of the Holocaust.
I have not read it, so I can't comment further. But according to Wiki, she simply took the name of Rommel's brother who died in infancy and imagined The Desert Peach into existence. A sort of "what if" kind of treatment. Very unique and original idea, if you ask me.
Oh, she also illustrated Pauli Kidd's Lace & Steel roleplaying game. And she created Stinz, a comic about a centaur society.
Barr is a creator I need to look into a lot more.
Artists I Like.... Daniel Strickland! I encountered his work on Insta and fell in love. He draws fat girls a lot, and I appreciate that. It's a morally good thing.
This post might be more comfortable over on my Blood Red blog... and I might do a mirror version featuring more of his art over there. But hell's bells, y'all. If you don't know my proclivities by now you ain't never gonna learn. I'm a package deal.
Anyway... Daniel Strickland seems to work mostly in ink with digital color. His website says he's a professional comic book artist. Looks like he also makes adult coloring books*.
I love his delicate lines. Almost an animation style. Of course his forms are fabulous as well, capturing the volume of a body in an elegant way. This is my kind of thing. So check him out.
*"Adult" coloring books sounds dirty, right? But it just means coloring books created for grown ups, not kids. So it can be anything from hot rods to flowers.