Yet another episode in my unseemly series focusing on my man-crushes on comic book creative types.
Back in the day (as all posts of this nature should begin), in the mid-eighties, when we all thought comics were going to take over the world, I was a frequent purchaser of fanzines flogged in small ads in publications such as FANTASY ADVERTISER and ESCAPE, among others. I think it was in one of these that I first came across Fegredo's work. Or then again, maybe it wasn't a fanzine. Maybe it was a copy of HEARTBREAK HOTEL belonging to my old mate Bellboy. Anyhoo, it was somewhere in a British small press indie rag where I simultaneously came across the work of both Duncan Fegredo and D'Israeli. Both stood out head and shoulders above the rest of the talent in the mag. D'Israeli for his smooth-but-quirky ligne claire, and Fegredo for his frenetic, scratchy illustrative style. Back then, I'd guess that Bill Sienkiewicz was an imposing influence on the guy. This style developed further as I came across Fegredo's work in Fleetway's 2000AD spin-off CRISIS, filling in on both it's main strips. Painted art had taken over in the UK, and here was a guy clearly confident with the medium.
Like so many other members of this new wave of Brit creators at the time , DC swooped in to offer Fegredo work revamping an old (minor, unmissed) character (see also: Animal Man, Black Orchid, Shade The Changing Man, Sandman, et al), usually under the all-seeing eye of editor Karen Berger. Written by Grant Morrison, KID ETERNITY, however, failed to set the world alight (though I see DC are finally going ahead and collecting it as a trade paperback in a couple of months time). This turned out to be pretty much the last splash for Fegredo doing painted interiors (though his painted covers remain a regular occurrence to this day). The next time Fegredo's art graced the interiors of a comic book was during the inauguration of Berger's own imprint, her corner of the DC Universe now safely demarcated off as Vertigo. THE ENIGMA is still one of the most under-rated series of the post-WATCHMEN era: a stone cold, desert island, classic. It's the book I'll always produce when I want to establish Peter Milligan as the worthy equal of any other writer in his field. In the work, you can clearly see Fegredo's art evolve into the style we know and love: illustrative and realistic, but capable of expressionistic flourishes that are pure comic book. His work suffers none of the stilted tendencies of other comic realists. The changeover of his main media from paints to pen and ink meant that his work had changed from seeming part of a generation of iconoclasts like Sienkiewicz and Dave McKean, and instead evoked classic British influences like Baikie, Ridgeway, Ranson and Burns.
Fegredo went on to further establish a partnership with Milligan on more Vertigo projects, such as FACE and GIRL (both great, both worth tracking down). His work also popped up on other Vertigo projects, such as illustrating Milligan's fellow DEADLINE alumni, Nick Abadzis' charming, whacked-out, trans-sexual alien love story MILLENNIUM FEVER. A Fegredo credit in a Vertigo anthology meant I was sure to buy it, as would an occasional fill-in at the imprint (such as the great THE DREAMING #26, a cracking little stand-alone story, but a trend that continues to this day with his recent turn on THE BOOKS OF MAGIC: LIFE DURING WARTIME #6).
Fegredo's name would start popping up more and more as a cover artist for Dark Horse's big science fiction licenses. The guy clearly has a tremendous affection (hey, like everybody our generation) for STAR WARS, and produced some mouth watering pieces. Some of which are still for sale here. No, I can't afford them either. When Dark Horse editor Bob Schreck moved on, forming Oni Press, and publishing comics written by Kevin Smith set in his View Askewniverse, Fegredo produced some amazing work on the CHASING DOGMA books, a comic that bridges the movies CHASING AMY and DOGMA. The work was later cannibalized by Smith to pretty much provide the entire structure of the movie JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK. So much so, Fegredo really deserved to be credited as the director of photography, or something of the sort, at least. Smith must have had a copy of that trade open every minute he was behind a camera shooting that thing. Meanwhile, Fegredo filled the comic with lots of visual references to Star Wars. I'd guess the guy's dream job would be as an imagineer or story boarder at Skywalker Ranch.
Of course, many Vertigo staffers made their merry way over to Marvel during recent years, and Fegredo's phone number was clearly in their rolodex. His work made Peter David's inane Fantastic Four prequel bearable, and his work on the daft/callous Marvels Comics: X-Men #1 with Mark Millar and Sean Phillips highlighted the similarities in career path and style between the two old friends (in fact, one of the reasons I admire Phillips' work so much is that, to a certain extent, he's the Duncan Fegredo who can pump out thirty pages a month). With the Quesada/Jemas era kicking off at marvel, and the poaching of Axel Alonso, Fegredo's name started to become a regular fixture in the Marvel solicitations. He partnered up again with Milligan for the rather charming Flowers For Rhino arc in TANGLED WEB, and for the last chapter in Pete's critical rebirth, X-FORCE (soon to become X-STATIX) #129. This busy period unfortunately appeared to crash and burn with the disaster that was the U-DECIDE forago. A bust-up in the online media between Peter David and the Quesada/Jemas camp led to a publishing stunt where all three debuted new series, with the winner supposed facing an unnamed humiliation at the San Diego comic convention. Quesada's bid was to allow a crony of his, Howard Stern sidekick Ron Zimmerman, write a series called ULTIMATE ADVENTURES. Zimmerman had already become a bete noir for the Marvel fan community, producing inferior Spider Man books, a ridiculous camped-up Rawhide Kid, and seemingly exercising undue influence over Quesada with the promise of mainstream media exposure, especially on Joe's beloved Howard Stern radio show. Allowing this seemingly unworthy writer to paddle in the unsullied water of the Ultimate Universe was the last straw for many Marvel zombies. The series stalled in the gate, many deadlines ended up missed, a proposed trade paperback was cancelled. A shame really, because it really wasn't anywhere near as bad as it could have been, hung quite well together as a whole, and featured Fegredo's note-perfect take on Bryan Hitch's The Ultimates designs.
So, anyway, enough he-lovin'. Go out and buy Fegredo's new comic book, MONSTERS ON THE PROWL. It looks gorgeous, Steve Niles writes a spot-on Ben Grimm, and if enough people buy it, maybe more editors will commission this great artist before he catches on and scarpers to a job that'll pay more, for considerably less heartache.