After getting the Modern Masters issue about Mike Wieringo I wanted to try out other interesting artists. Alan Davis’ style is definitely one of my favorite. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to read most of his comics, though I had a good sampling.
This magazine definitely helped giving me a good overview of Davis career in comics and allow me to note what I’m missing. In the interview there are a lot of references to British comics, so unfortunately I didn’t really enjoy those parts. But that’s not the fault of anyone.
However once they get into his professional career at Marvel and DC I really started to understand more his thinking towards comics. He seems very practical about earning money for his family, but at the same time he really hates having editorial interfering with his work.
That’s probably why he hasn’t done any long series since Excalibur. That’s probably the series he’s most known for, which goes back to his beginnings on Captain Britain. I really need to read those early stories, since a certain Alan Moore was writing them.
I have read some of his Excalibur issues, but not enough to appreciate them. Obviously the art is always good and fun to look at. In the last few years he’s only been doing mini series, or some fill-in art here and there, which is actually fine by me.
One thing I wish he did more is creating new characters and properties he can own, instead of working for the big two. But that seems to go back to his philosophy of earning a steady income for his family. The created many characters for Marvel, especially Clandestine, which is as close as it gets to his own series.
I read that first series of Clandestine, and I really liked it at the time. Too bad it folded when Marvel UK closed. He did make a new mini series recently, I can’t wait to check it out.
His JLA: The Nail mini was fun to read, even though I wasn’t familiar with those Silver Age characters. I haven’t read the sequel yet, so that’s on my list.
The magazine contains many sketches and pencils by Davis, all cool to look at. Another great book for a great artist.