Yes, Cross Plains had some nice stuff, particularly the BRAN MAC MORN: WORMS OF THE EARTH book I posted an image of on page 1 of the topic.
I don't know what happened there, they just quietly ceased publication around 1999 or so. But I very much liked the design of their books.

Here's some reviews and images of their titles. Of particular interest is the interview of editor Richard Ashford, in outlining the editorial direction intended for CrossPlains:

http://www.barbariankeep.com/cpc.html




Tim Vigil I'm less a fan of. I like his art, loosely Wrightsonesque, but find the content extremely violent in a perverted sexual way, and decidedly misogynistic. I'm thinking in particular of his late 80's/early 90's work on EO and FAUST.




Tim Truman has done a lot of great stuff. I haven't read his THE SPIDER series you listed, but I'll look for it.

For me, that was one of those series I saw advertised, but the shops I went to didn't order any copies to display, just to sell out, advance-order only. So it looked interesting, but I never saw the actual book or knew precisely when it came out.

But Truman has done a lot of stuff i've enjoyed.

My favorites of Truman's are:
  • his three-issue HAWKWORLD miniseries in 1989 (which reads like a speculative fiction novel more than a comic, with a lot of visible allegory to our world).
  • his Eclipse graphic novel TECUMSEH from roughly the same time, a great historical graphic novel about the last great Native American resistance to U.S. expansion across the midwest, in the early 1800's, and also exploring the friendships and philosophy of the characters.
    and...
  • A full color glossy 8" x 11" magazine-size Malibu Comics/"Rock It Comix" one-shot out in 1994, SANTANA. A documentary in comics form of rock musician Carlos Santana's life, in a 25-page comic book story "interview".

    Plus photo features on Santana and his guitars.
    And even a photo of an 18 year old Tim Truman playing in a high school garage band!


Truman has also done work in STARSLAYER (his first series work, in 1983), GRIMJACK, then SCOUT in the mid-late 80's, and a funny-animal TIME BEAVERS graphic novel.

And other work I haven't liked, such as JONAH HEX: TWO-GUN MOJO, which is way too dark and cynical for my taste.

But regardless, Truman has done a lot of great work and supplied the comics field with a wide variety of innovative other-genre projects, outside the mainstream.