Welcome to another installment of Pick Five, where one of our writers picks five of whatever comic related “fill in the blank” that tickles their fancy.
One of my favourite artists of all time is Paul Smith. He had an amazing and short run on Uncanny X-Men and Doctor Strange for Marvel, The Golden Age for DC and then Leave It To Chance at Image. Since then the odd cover or fill in art. Smith doesn’t seem to have a website and I can’t track down how to find him or get a commission. Here are fives pieces of Paul Smith art that exemplify why he needs to be putting out comic books.
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I don’t know what happened to Paul Smith. However, there are a lot of great artists from the 80’s and 90’s who are out of work at Marvel and DC. I’ve heard this explained that a lot of the editors at Marvel and DC were kids who grew up liking Image comics and they still gravitate towards that style (also explaining how someone like Rob Liefeld STILL gets work)… while a competent artist like Paul Smith with a unique style gets nothing.
Sad, because I, too, bought just about everything he worked on.
Like most collectors… I was a huge X-fan and was devastated when Byrne left the title (replaced by returning artist Dave Cockrum). I nearly gave up collecting the title until they recruited Paul Smith. Although it still took some getting used to, Paul’s work had an understated, refined quality that I liked. I sensed that he struggled a bit with his art and perhaps it was his attempt at conforming to Marvels house style that I found appealing. I followed Paul to Doctor Strange and when John Romita Jr took over as artist on the X-Men afer Paul, I dropped that book like a hot potato.