06/25/2018

Caleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #3, featuring the art of Gray Morrow, and other news!

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1973

I was delighted to pull this issue out of the Comics Workbook vault. It’s an all Gray Morrow issue of Chilling Adventures in Sorcery published by Archie Comics’ imprint, Red Circle. I enjoy Morrow’s comics immensely. I just look at the pictures. Morrow’s gift (other than his virtuosic drawing ability) is his knack for making interesting pages.

the scientist on this spread, from what I can tell, is a Morrow self-portrait

Comics like Orion (for Heavy Metal) and Edge of Chaos (a limited series for Pacific Comics) feel much more from Morrow’s head if you will. Imagined. They’re great. In contrast, comics like the one featured here today, feel more stitched together to me. More collage-y. In a good way.

Usually I detest any whiff of photo-reference in comics, but Morrow makes it work. Occasionally the sequencing is a little wonky and the referenced images juxtaposed with the imagined images can be jarring, but overall the pages are pleasing to the eye. There is a dynamism to his work that makes up for a lot.

Simply, Morrow’s comics are always interesting. He seemed to have a real desire to “wow” the reader. Every page is crammed with interesting imagery. And those colors! Morrow was one of those cartoonists who seemed to think in color as he made the comic, as opposed to most who only use color as an afterthought. Have you ever seen Orion in those old Heavy Metals? Those are hand painted.

Is it just me, or is there a swagger to his work? Like, I can imagine him at the drawing board and drinking a glass of Dewar’s and laughing to himself, knowing how impressed I’d be in however many years I’d be born to see the work.

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if you don’t know, now you know

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Suzy and Cecil – 6-25-2018 – by Sally Ingraham

 

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