SwanShadow Thinks Out Loud

Usually, we do our comic art posts on Fridays here at SSTOL. But I held off until Saturday this week, just so that I could pay homage to a terrific artist and gentleman who’s celebrating his half-century anniversary today.

Geof Isherwood — born December 4, 1960 — is an American expat who lives in Montreal, Canada. He’s best-known in mainstream comics for his work on such series as Marvel’s Power Man and Iron Fist, Dr. Strange, and Conan, and especially DC’s Suicide Squad, for which Geof was a member of the artistic team — originally as inker over Luke McDonnell, then as penciler with Robert Campanella inking — for roughly half of the book’s original run. In recent years, Geof has focused on his creator-owned projects, a thriving practice as a commission artist, and storyboards for motion pictures including Gothika and The Fountain.

Geof was one of the first artists from whom I ever bought a piece of original comic art. He was also among the first few artists I personally commissioned. Over several years of correspondence — not always about comics or art — I’ve come to think of Geof as a good friend, albeit one I’ve never met in person. He and I keep saying we’re going to remedy that omission one of these days.

So many of Geof’s creations rank among my favorite commissions, but I chose the one above to showcase on this auspicious occasion because it’s not only an incredible display of Geof’s talents, but also representative of the series with which he’s most closely associated: Suicide Squad. I chose the four members of the long-running, ever-changing team that would appear in the piece; the scenario is 100% Isherwood. Clockwise from 12 o’clock, that’s Deadshot, the Bronze Tiger, Vixen, and Nightshade.

This drawing so beautifully demonstrates the talents Geof brought to his Suicide Squad run that when Back Issue, the outstanding magazine devoted to comics from the 1970s and ’80s, decided to publish a feature story about the Squad (with Geof as one of several creators interviewed), BI editor Michael Eury used this artwork to illustrate the first page of the feature. The story and accompanying art appear in Back Issue #26 (February 2008), the “Spies and Tough Guys” edition.

Happy 50th, Geof! May your drawing hand and imagination continue to produce wonders for at least another half-century!

And that’s your Comic Art Friday.

This entry was posted on December 4, 2010 at 12:52 am and is filed under Comic Art Friday, Hero of the Day. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.