Crusty Bunkers

Last updated
Crusty Bunker
Area(s)Inkers
CollaboratorsNeal Adams, Dick Giordano

Crusty Bunker, or the Crusty Bunkers, was the collective pseudonym of a group of comic book inkers clustered around Neal Adams' and Dick Giordano's New York City-based art and design agency Continuity Studios from 1972 to 1977. The group was also occasionally credited as Ilya Hunch, Chuck Bunker, or The Goon Squad. [1] Many Crusty Bunkers team members went on to successful individual careers in the comics industry.

Contents

History

According to former member Alan Weiss, the name "Crusty Bunker" was first coined by Adams in relation to his children: "It was like calling someone a name that wasn't really dirty. ... It didn't really mean anything, it just sounded good". [2]

There were over 60 artists who at one time or another were Crusty Bunker members. [3] The core group consisted of artists who rented space at Continuity or worked up front in the advertising studio itself. Continuity would get the assignment, someone with experience (usually Adams or Giordano) [3] would ink the faces and main figures, then pass it around for everyone to work on it, until the whole thing was completed. Comic book titles that the collective worked on included Marvel's Red Sonja and Marvel Premiere , the Marvel black-and-white magazine titles Dracula Lives! , Tales of the Zombie , and Monsters Unleashed ; and DC's Sword of Sorcery .

Former Crusty Bunker Larry Hama recounted: "If a job was incredibly late, then the Crusty Bunkers would gather together half-a-dozen to a dozen inkers and... turn out a whole book in a day or two, all under the supervision of Neal [Adams]. It was a whirl. Guys would be passing pages back and forth. Guys would be standing over boards filling in blacks upside down while somebody was rendering a face at the bottom of the page". [4]

This period was one of transition in the comics industry, as DC Comics had been toppled from comics dominance by Marvel Comics. In an attempt to revitalize its brand, DC made a concerted effort to entice young artists,[ citation needed ] including from this talent pool. As many of the Crusty Bunkers began getting regular comics work, they discontinued working in the group's collaborative fashion. The collective was effectively disbanded in 1977,[ citation needed ] although Adams resurrected the name for some of the comics put out by his own publishing company, Continuity Comics, from 1985 to 1993.

Art style

Although directed (and often worked on directly) by Adams, the Crusty Bunkers inking style was not a clone of Adams' individual work. Their early published work showed a herky-jerky, jumble of styles that revealed the work of multiple hands.[ citation needed ] Within about a year, however (in response to the demand from publishers for a homogenous look), the Crusty Bunkers had developed a true "house style", with only hints of the individual styles that the respective artists later became known for. This house style was more rough-hewn than similar work by Adams.[ citation needed ]

Members included

Source: [1]

Bibliography

Source unless otherwise noted: [1] [8]

1970s incarnation

Atlas/Seaboard

  • Wulf the Barbarian #2 (1975)

Charlton

DC

Marvel

1980s and 1990s

Continuity

  • Armor #1 (1985)
  • The Basics (1985)
  • Hybrids: The Origin #4–5 (1993)
  • Ms. Mystic #5 (1990)
  • Ms. Mystic (vol. 2) #1, 3 (1993)
  • Revengers Featuring Armor and Silver Streak #1 (1985)
  • Urth 4 (1989–1993)

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Spelling in Who's Who of American Comic Books [5]
  2. ↑ Source notes: "Dougherty, Karin [spelling?]"
  3. ↑ Included in source, which notes her as writer rather than artist.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neal Adams</span> American comic book artist (1941–2022)

Neal Adams was an American comic book artist. He was the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates, and was a creators-rights advocate who helped secure a pension and recognition for Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. During his career, Adams co-created the characters Ra's al Ghul, Man-Bat, and John Stewart for DC Comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inker</span> Comic book or graphic novel line artist

The inker is one of the two line artists in traditional comic book production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Cockrum</span> American comics artist

David Emmett Cockrum was an American comics artist known for his co-creation of the new X-Men characters Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus, and Mystique, as well as the antiheroine Black Cat. Cockrum was a prolific and inventive costume designer who updated the uniforms of the Legion of Super-Heroes. He did the same for the new X-Men and many of their antagonists in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Terry Kevin Austin is an American comic book creator working primarily as an inker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dick Giordano</span> American comic book artist and editor, 1932-2010

Richard Joseph Giordano was an American comics artist and editor whose career included introducing Charlton Comics' "Action Heroes" stable of superheroes and serving as executive editor of DC Comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Layton</span> American comic book artist, writer, and editor

Bob Layton is an American comic book artist, writer, and editor. He is best known for his work on Marvel Comics titles such as Iron Man and Hercules, and for co-founding Valiant Comics with Jim Shooter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Hama</span> American comic book writer, artist

Larry Hama is an American comic-book writer, artist, actor, and musician who has worked in the fields of entertainment and publishing since the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Golden (comics)</span> American comics artist and writer

Michael Golden is an American comics artist and writer best known for his late-1970s work on Marvel Comics' The Micronauts and The 'Nam, as well as his co-creation of the characters Rogue and Bucky O'Hare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Potts</span> Writer, artist, editor, teacher

Carl Potts is an American comics artist, writer, teacher, and editor best known for creating the series Alien Legion for the Marvel Comics imprint Epic Comics.

In the United States, creator ownership in comics is an arrangement in which the comic book creator retains full ownership of the material, regardless of whether the work is self-published or published by a corporate publisher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Academy of Comic Book Arts</span>

The Academy of Comic Book Arts (ACBA) was an American professional organization of the 1970s that was designed to be the comic book industry analog of such groups as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Composed of comic-book professionals and initially formed as an honorary society focused on discussing the comic-book craft and hosting an annual awards banquet, the ACBA evolved into an advocacy organization focused on creators' rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Netzer</span> American-Israeli artist

Michael Netzer is an American-Israeli artist best known for his comic book work for DC Comics and Marvel Comics in the 1970s, as well as for his online presence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob McLeod (comics)</span> Artist

Bob McLeod is an American comics artist best known for co-creating the New Mutants with writer Chris Claremont.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg Theakston</span> American comics artist and illustrator (1953–2019)

Greg Allen Theakston was an American comics artist and illustrator who worked for numerous publishers. He is known for his independent publications as a comics historian under his Pure Imagination imprint, as well as for developing the Theakstonizing process used in comics restoration. He used the pseudonym Earl P. Wooten.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josef Rubinstein</span>

Josef "Joe" Rubinstein is a comic book artist and inker, most associated with inking Marvel Comics' The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and the 1982 four-issue Wolverine miniseries by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller. He is also known for giving artist Art Adams his first professional work.

John Costanza is an American comic book artist and letterer. He has worked for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. He was the letterer during Alan Moore's acclaimed run on Swamp Thing. The bulk of Costanza's art assignments have been for anthropomorphic animal comics and children-oriented material.

Sal Amendola is an Italian American comics artist and teacher primarily known for his association with DC Comics.

Continuity Studios was a New York City and Los Angeles-based art and illustration studio formed by cartoonists Neal Adams and Dick Giordano. For fifty years the company showed that the graphic vernacular of the comic book could be employed in profitable endeavors outside the confines of traditional comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Detroit Triple Fan Fair</span> Defunct multigenre convention; one of the first U.S. comic book conventions

The Detroit Triple Fan Fair (DTFF) was a multigenre convention generally held annually in Detroit from 1965 to 1977. It is credited for being one of the first comic book conventions in the United States. The Triple Fan Fair also gave balanced coverage to historic film showings and science fiction literature, in a manner that provided a template for many future convention organizers — most of which have yet to attain the same level of equal service to this sort of linked fan base.

Comics packaging is a publishing activity in which a publishing company outsources the myriad tasks involved in putting together a comic book — writing, illustrating, editing, and even printing — to an outside service called a packager. Once the comics packager has produced the comic, they then sell it to the final publishing company.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Theakston, Greg and Nowlan, Kevin, et al., at Bails, Jerry; Ware, Hames. "Crusty Bunkers". Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999. Archived from the original on May 11, 2007. Retrieved June 16, 2012.
  2. ↑ Alan Weiss in Cooke, Jon B., ed. (2000). Comic Book Artist Collection One. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 184.
  3. 1 2 Netzer, Michael. "The Lives and Time of Crusty Bunker", Michael Netzer Online, September 17, 2007 Archived June 26, 2008, at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved July 5, 2008.
  4. 1 2 Salicrup, Jim; Zimmerman, Dwight Jon (September 1986). "Larry Hama (part 2)". Comics Interview . No. 38. Fictioneer Books. pp. 36–45.
  5. ↑ "Joe Brozowski". Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–19999. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  6. 1 2 Bob Layton in Cassell, Dewey, with Aaron Sultan and Mike Gartland (2005). The Art of George Tuska. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 68. ISBN   978-1-893905-40-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ↑ Stroud, Bryan (January 2, 2019). "An Interview With Steve Mitchell - Invasion of the Blue Jean Generation". Nerd Team 30.
  8. ↑ Crusty Bunkers at the Grand Comics Database
  9. ↑ Doctor Strange #4 (Oct. 1974) at the Grand Comics Database. Retrieved September 1, 2008.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.