The Savage She-Hulk-- Dancing With the Damned!
Added 2021-06-05 05:00:00 +0000 UTCOK-- phew! I cringe at a lot of my old, bad artwork, and this features a lot of old bad artwork... and yet I have huge fondness for this story. I loved working on this-- I felt so immersed in comics and comic book culture at the time and, even if I lacked the ability, I genuinely wanted to let my love of the medium show on every panel. Aided by some fantastic and generous colourists, I was able to bring to life a She-Hulk tale like no other I had done before!
I guess my two big influences on this comic were Grant Morrison's X-Men (hence the outlandishness of the mutants) and Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon. I even managed to get Erik to look at my work-- sadly he was only able to view the cover , which he said looked 'sweet!'. And he was right, but unfortunately that cover was the work of amazing fan-artist Tom Burgos and the peerless painting of Eegore!
I actually took pages of this to comic conventions and showed them at portfolio sessions. Dear reader, I did not get a call to come and work for the big 2. Cringe!
I got the name of the Grey Lantern from the title of an album-- 'Attack of the Grey Lantern' by Manson.
Showing the age of this comic-- all the reference material I needed for this had to be sourced-- with great difficulty-- at the central library! I was still on dial-up back in those days, and surfing for images on the net was both costly and time consuming. And, because there were no hi-def images, finding pictures in books was actually better! I'm always so amazed at the convincing detail in older comic books, knowing that the artists must have had a nightmare tracking down reference photos. That's easily a days work in itself! Google images truly is revolutionary.
Because uploading on domestic dial-up was so time consuming, I actually put all these pages onto about three floppy disks and took them to an internet cafe right before my shift at a call centre. I remember it was agony waiting for it to be over-- I really wanted to check the message board of my yahoo group to see what people thought! Lord, I feel so old writing that--- floppy disks! Internet cafes! Dial-Up Modems! These are items from a lost world.
I never got around to the sequel-- life got in the way, I guess. Back in 2002 I had a job that started in the afternoon which meant I got the mornings to draw. Shortly after completing this, my hours changed to regular 9 to five, and after that I kind of got sidetracked on to other things. I'd still like to go back and do issue 2 some day!
Comments
I'd actually quite like to redraw it, and see how far I've come.
Manic
2025-09-08 10:19:16 +0000 UTCI like everything in this comic : art (even if you're hard on yourself, the story, the action and the touch of humor. A really perfect mix - I really have the feeling to read a comic from the Vosburg era. :)
Marston
2025-09-08 09:58:20 +0000 UTCI've made attempts over the years... maybe when I get done with Red Alert!
Manic
2025-09-08 09:42:28 +0000 UTCA second issue... I've been dreaming of it for years. Even about a third one !
Marston
2025-09-08 09:38:21 +0000 UTCThat's kind of you to say so, Marston!
Manic
2021-06-07 19:03:19 +0000 UTCYeah, that guy was a legend! Such a raw talent who produced brilliant work every time. And a great guy--I think he did that cover for nothing because he was so into the idea of a SH fan produced comic. And your colours were truly superb!
Manic
2021-06-07 19:02:44 +0000 UTCSure, M's Shulk was slender by today's standards. But there's so much imagination at work here. The snappy, smart-ass dialogue. The character designs. The little details ... just noticed a certain creator hiding in the background of the group splash page. And the Crisis Superman/Supergirl homage on the last page. Wow. Buck's orange tan on the Eegore pages are a little goofy, but that cover. Damn. Hard to believe Burgos just vanished years ago. Helluva pinup artist.
Garth Ranzz
2021-06-07 17:03:28 +0000 UTCI'm so glad to see this comic back ! And you're absolutely wrong, Manic : the art is incredible with possibly the best incarnations of Jennifer and the Savage She-Hulk ever ! Honestly, you only have to consider, say, the 9th, 11th or 14th boards to agree ! In fact, I like this "special issue" of the Savage She-Hulk saga so much that I printed it in high resolution, cover by Tom Burgos included. If you decide to work on this fabled second issue (that I've been waiting for years !), I would be the happiest of men. There's so much potential... like a meeting with Dr. Doom (or one of his decoys - the lord of Lavteria is cautious...) !
Marston
2021-06-07 15:07:40 +0000 UTCQuite a stretch for me artistically at the time!
Manic
2021-06-06 15:30:32 +0000 UTCNever knew how much I needed to see a pool soaked she Hulk until now!
Hamsterminator
2021-06-06 15:08:51 +0000 UTCAlways a little disappointed you didn’t continue the storyline. But your work over the years has more than made up for it!
Jose Almeida
2021-06-06 03:14:56 +0000 UTCI don't know what happened to each of them. All I can do is hope they're happy and in a good place.
Grand Funk Master Chief Ricardo Montalbán Phon Con 14
2021-06-05 18:00:07 +0000 UTCA complete blast from the past. I lost this on my floppy disks I had it saved on in college and thought I would never find it again after the Yahoo! Groups you had it uploaded to died out. Like many people have said already, you've come a long way but that's only part of the journey and fun. It's been a wild ride seeing your growth over the years and I still love your work, even more so now than 20+ years ago. Ha, you sound like me when you talk about how much you hate/cringe looking at your old stuff. I know that feeling 200%.
Xion Zeros
2021-06-05 16:54:04 +0000 UTCMan, talk about a blast from the past. I forgot how many contributed to this book. You have come a long way, Manic.
Grand Funk Master Chief Ricardo Montalbán Phon Con 14
2021-06-05 15:18:57 +0000 UTCWow this is almost 20 years old this is really well done and definitely major improvements many years later
Nick A.
2021-06-05 14:05:29 +0000 UTCI just saw the names associated with the work.... Yow ... WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE GUYS? I forgot you had collaborators...
Brian Thomas
2021-06-05 11:22:52 +0000 UTCGoddamn I remember this.... 20 years ago right?
Brian Thomas
2021-06-05 11:20:49 +0000 UTCWow. I hope someday you get the chance to work in comics.
Thomas Stidman
2021-06-05 10:38:57 +0000 UTCcan you do some more she hulk revert to Jen transformations?
Don Ku
2021-06-05 10:04:03 +0000 UTCI would love to see more of your she hulk comics.
Don Ku
2021-06-05 09:54:02 +0000 UTCI was an original reader of this! 19 years ago. Wow...
Agent00Soul
2021-06-05 09:48:42 +0000 UTCOh wow, I remember this! Your first longform comic. Skullbulb was a favorite of mine.
Agent Zero
2021-06-05 07:07:29 +0000 UTCSome day....foreshadowing maybe?
Mr_0182
2021-06-05 05:40:39 +0000 UTCAmazing still to this day
SHADOWKNIGHT201
2021-06-05 05:02:35 +0000 UTC
