Among the missing, one of my favorites of the 70's and 80's,
Mike Grell :



Grell first rose to fame when he took over SUPERBOY/LEGION from Dave Cockrum in 1974, and drew a fabulous run from 201-228, plus a special LIMITED COLLECTORS EDITION Legion issue.



But my favorite work from Grell was his run on THE WARLORD (1975-1982). Especially the first 14 issues that he wrote, pencilled and inked himself. Some outstanding pages of comic art.


Then Grell went to Pacific Comics in 1981 and did his creator-owned series STARSLAYER for six issues (which was continued after at First Comics by Ostrander, Truman and others, after Grell left the book). Again, some of Grell's finest pages, particularly the first 2 issues.
( the last I saw, someone re-published this series on better paper, in a STARSLAYER:THE DIRECTOR'S CUT version, which I didn't like, mostly due to bizarre coloring.)



From 1983-1987 Grell did the outstanding JOHN SABLE FREELANCE series for 43 issues, a mixture of espionage, safari adventure, political commentary, detective stories, likeable down-to-earth characters and humor, and again, many beautiful art pages. particularly his double-page spreads and nature scenes.
A lot of commentary on the human experience, told with humor and a remarkable lack of pretentiousness.
But I did feel the art quality of the book declined quite a bit in the last year or two he was on the series.
Grell's attention was diverted to a new Green arrow limited series.

In 1987, Grell did the three issue GREEN ARROW: THE LONG BOW HUNTERS. Which features what is arguably his most precise and detailed art. But while many rave about this series, for me the writing was weak, and it was just too dark.



The last series by Grell I saw that really excited me was a series formatted like the BOW HUNTERS series, a three issue Eclipse series, JAMES BOND: PERMISSION TO DIE. A very engaing and fast-moving story, that was reminiscent of Grell's Jon SABLE series, that reads like a movie on paper.

Since then, I've seen a few reprises by Grell of his former characters, one for Image that read like Grell's version of Jim Lee's WILDCATS ( or more to the source, like another re-tread of X-MEN ).
Plus a few issues featuring THE CAT from JON SABLE FREELANCE.



Grell at his best (which is often)is a master visual storyteller, and paces his stories with scenes that tell the story completely visually, without dialogue.



But I wonder if there's anything I might have missed by Grell that's worth seeing, over the last 15 years or so.


Or more recent work by many of my other favorites from the 70's, 80's and 90's. Such as:

Arthur Adams.
Chris Bachalo.
Paul Smith.
Michael Kaluta.
Berni Wrightson.
Barry Windsor-Smith
Paul Gulacy
Jim Starlin
Len Wein
Marv Wolfman
Roy Thomas
Doug Moench
Tony Isabella
Joe Rubinstein
Michael Golden
Dick Giordano
Marshall Rogers
Paris Cullins
Stan Woch
Steve Bissette
John Tottleben
Rafael Kayanan
Scott Hampton
George Pratt
Jackson Guice
George Perez
Tony Salmons
Ann Nocenti
Bob Layton
Chuck Dixon
Pat Broderick
Armando Gil
Craig Russell
Richard Corben
Rich Buckler
D Bruce Berry
Mike Royer
Alex Nino
Nestor Redondo
E.R Cruz
Dennis O'Neil
Steve Ditko
Dick Ayers
Jerry Bingham
Ken Macklin
Lela Dowling
Cat Yronwode
Ken Steacy
Bill Sienkiewicz
Dan Day
David Day
Al Williamson
Mike Mignola

and so many others.


Gone but not forgotten, these are creators with work that has endured, and warrants a second look.

What does anyone know about the recent work of any of these folks?

And what are some of your favorite stories from these creators, that you think best represent them ?