Boyette
by Frank Santoro
Monday, January 4, 2010
From BEM #36, a British comics fanzine published in 1980:
Boyette on attitudes:
“Most comic people from the East take themselves, and comics, so damned seriously. I read THE COMICS JOURNAL, and I can’t believe that those guys are talking about… and having emotional apoplexy over… comics! My attitude towards comics has never been that.
“I see everything in comics today but FUN. Where the hell is this enjoyment I knew in comics as a kid? The excitement of drawing and reading the comics?”
Labels: fanzines, Pat Boyette, The Comics Journal
that guy had the best voice, which i guess makes sense given his day job
Man, I'm with Boyette. 30 years later and I think that quote still holds some truth.
He was great. His Children of Doom is in Art in Time. I wish I'd seen that interview, but luckily there are some other really good ones. Frank's busting out the scanner today!
Yeah, I think there's something to what he's saying, but it seems like he was around before fandom really took hold. I see the "seriousness" he's talking about as these fandom guys who wanted to hold onto that, but also do "adult" things within it.
I get that urge, but it seems like the "serious" work they produced is somehow more immature than the the stuff they made for kids and liking that stuff in earnest.
Later in the interview he basically says that "realism" in super hero comics is ridiculous. He did a few jobs for DC and one for Marvel. They were all done in the "Marvel Method" and that didn't work for him.
Really interesting artist. Said MOOD was the most important thing for making a comic read well.
My obituary for Mr. Boyette is here:
http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/resources/longbox/69/
Try this one:
http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php
/resources/longbox/69/
does anyone here actually think that statement still rings true or something? am i crazy? or is this more of a thing specific to 1980's comics?
Boyette's one of my absolute favorite artists–still, I'd no idea he drew a story for Marvel. When and which title?
Bloodstone in Marvel Presents #1
http://media.comicvine.com/uploads
/0/4/14019-2773-15692-1-
marvel-presents_super.jpg
I freaked out on his stuff as a kid. What I found most disturbing then is sometimes what resonates the most to me now. Who else could draw these murky, fearsome visions for a nickle a page at Charlton but a true driven fiend? He seems in touch with dark forces, in his gnomic comic art and for real: he was good pals with Pres. George Bush the first.
the best part of that quote from Boyette is "from the East"