Mark Marek, Hercules Among the North Americans (1986)

Hercules Among the North Americans by Mark Marek, 1986.

 

Baru, Tour de France (1986)

 

"Tour de France" by Baru (RAW #8, 1986).

Kawashima Norikazu, Her Frankenstein (1986)

 

Her Frankenstein by Kawashima Norikazu, 1986.

A bullied boy in a Frankenstein mask becomes the pawn of a disabled girl and the pair form a symbiotic relationship that feeds on the terror of their victims in this classic of Japanese psychological horror manga. 

The critics: Visually, ‘Her Frankenstein’ is light on gore compared to similar works from the same period, but heavy on dark psychological themes. Abusive and coercive relationships, bullying, revenge, power, and innocence are explored through the childhood relationship of the main characters and the lifelong consequences for the protagonist. -- A.J. Dinsdale, The Aither

Charles Burns, Big Baby: Curse of the Molemen (1986)

 

Big Baby: Curse of the Molemen by Charles Burns, 1986.

Burns' scalpel-like ink lines dissect the dark underbelly of suburbia in this short horror tale published as RAW One-Shot #5 in 1986. The story, which did for comic books what Blue Velvet did for film, tells the tale of a strange child who may or may not have seen a subterranean monster digging around in his backyard. 

Hergé, Tintin and the Alph-Art (1986)

 

Tintin and The Alph-Art by Hergé,1986.

Hergé's last unfinished masterpiece!

Mark Newgarden, Love's Savage Fury (1986)

 

"Love's Savage Fury" by Mark Newgarden, 1986.

Not many experiences can compare to the thunderclap of reading Mark Newgarden's deconstructive examinations of the gag comic format for the first time. In this famous strip, first published in RAW #8, Bazooka Joe and Nancy are forcibly dragged into the netherworld of the New York City subway system and experience a "missed connection" that reconfigures our understanding of sequential narrative.

The critics: “Newgarden’s dense, formally experimental work began appearing regularly in RAW from the publication’s first issue. ‘Love’s Savage Fury,’ a narrative about the failure to find love on the subway, is based on a personal advertisement Newgarden read in a newspaper. The characters who Newgarden chose to star in this story were also drawn from mass culture: the lead character of Ernie Bushmiller’s comic strip Nancy and Bazooka Joe, the main character in a series of comic strips printed on bubble gum wrappers manufactured by the Topps corporation. More than an act of détournement, ‘Love’s Savage Fury’ intensely deconstructs the visual appearance of Bushmiller’s Nancy as a meditation on heartbreak, memory, and the iconic precision of those widely known fictional characters who exist within the public imagination.” – Bill Kartalopoulos, Formula Bula 7, Paris.

Daniel Clowes, Lloyd Llewellyn (1986)

Lloyd Llewellyn #1 by Dan Clowes.
 

Lorenzo Mattotti, Fires (1986)

 

Fires by Lorenzo Mattotti. 

Art Spiegelman, Maus, Volume One: My Father Bleeds History (1986)

 

Maus, Volume One: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman.

Chester Brown, Yummy Fur (1986)

 

Yummy Fur by Chester Brown (1986).

One of the greatest comic book series of all time, Chester Brown's surrealistic, scatalogical, sacred-and-profane Yummy Fur debuted as a self-published mini-comic before being picked up by Toronto's Vortex Comics (the seven issues of the mini-comic were reprinted in the first 3 issues of the Vortex series).  It was in the pages of Yummy Fur that Brown first serialized his Ed the Happy Clown graphic novel and where he debuted his groundbreaking, revelatory autobiographical pieces, some of which were collected in The Playboy and I Never Liked You. Yummy Fur was also the home for Brown's quirky, personal, unvarnished Gospel adaptations.

The critics: "It’s hard to remember this now, but when Chester first started cartooning he did seem to be a late-born underground cartoonist, someone whose roots were clearly in the comics of Crumb and Justin Green. In chronological terms, Chester’s earliest work is much closer to the heyday of the undergrounds (say 1968-1974) than we are to Chester’s first published work. The sexual radicalism of Chester’s art, his enjoyment at shocking his audience, and his direct political engagement all place him still in the underground comics tradition." --Jeet Heer, "A Chester Brown Notebook" (The Comics Journal, May 19, 2011).