ANIMAL MAN COLECTIONS

By Grant Morrison and Chris Truog, et al.

So's I says to Mabel, I says, "I just finished reading Morrison's Animal Man again and I realized that the real genius of the book is the art.
And Mabel. Mabel, she looks at me and she says, she says, "What, have you lost your gourd, Cletus?"
Now Mabel, bless her soul, Mabel likes a bit of flash in her pan, if you get my meaning. And Chas Truog's art is just not flashy. More overcast September day than fourth of July. Mabel, not one to temper her tongue—about comic art or cheating church-goers—she may have, eh hem, overstated her position a bit, "Of all the lackluster artists working at DC in them eighties (oh and I could go on and on about the stale nature of more than three-quarters of their staff, those ugly, ugly DC comics kept me from even looking at some of the really good books they was putting out then), Chas Truog may have been the worst. The flat out worst."
Ah, Mabel. Lovely, lovely woman. Makes damn-near the best peach cobbler this side of the Missouri. Still cools it in the windy sill. Every Thursday afternoon at four PM. A man could do a lot worse than coming home all grimy and sweaty like after a hard day working the earth to find her sweet home cookin' waiting for him. Man could do a lot worse.
And she loves them Grant Morrison comic books. Arkham Asylum. Doom Patrol. Invisibles. Marvel Boy. St. Swithin's Day. Seaguy. Skrull Kill Crew. Suffered through some truly horrendous art on X-Men and JLA, but still loved ‘em. Hell, she even tried to explain Mystery Play to me. Me? I'm willing to keep the mystery a mystery.
But Animal Man. Animal Man is her favorite. If there's two things Mabel likes more than peach cobbler and church gossip, it's animals and existential discourse. To her, it's all Grant Morrison. You could have had Rob Liefeld's quadriplegic nephew draw the book riding a rollercoaster and his art would have been just fine. Nothing could spoil Animal Man. At least, not for Mabel.
Now, I never claimed to be no expert on art, never went to one of them big city schools. Only French I know is just some American words shouldn't be said in polite company. And I could never draw no straight line, never mind hang an exposed urinal in no gallery. And maybe those what do know better wouldn't agree (Mabel sure don't), but I think Chas Truog's art was perfect for Animal Man, and I don't think no one would have been better.
Sorry, I'm talking your ear off here. Can I get you something to drink? No? Suit yourself.
So, where was I? Right. Who would have been better than Chris Truog? Sure, you could make a case for Brian Bolland. Them covers was mighty fine. But Bolland's a cover man. What he was born to do. His, what do you call it? His sequencial work tends to be a bit stiff. Too much freeze in his frieze. Sorry, that works better ‘written’ than ‘said’. Doesn't work great, but it works better.
Who else? Dave Gibbons? That could have worked. But this was 87-89. Dave was a bit of a superstar, coming off Watchmen. Too many people would've been watching. It's hard to pull off magic when all eyes on you.
What's that? Oh yeah, them some flashy artists. Too flashy. And–who? No. No. You're missing the point. It couldn't be someone who wasn't working then. We're not giving comic book artists time machines or nothing. Quit your crazy talk. No. See, all them names is artists who were just too flashy. You're a bit like Mabel, know that?
Yeah, yeah. Brendan McCarthy would've made them drug trip scenes sing the way we like to think of drug trips singing. But the domestic stuff just wouldn't have looked mundane enough. And you're right, Frank Quitely could draw a dream of nurse. But there ain't no nurses in Animal Man. Wasn't called Vetinary Assistant Fetishes Monthly. And the beauty of the characters was that they wasn't beautiful. They wasn't all glammed up and fabulous. Wasn't tarted up like a New York transvestite's vision of the midwest and they wasn't meant to look like third-world refugees way us heartlan folk often portrayed.
Them characters was just average people. Ordinary people that needed ordinary art so when things did get crazy, what with men jumping through mirrors, universes exploding atop desert plateaus and not-so-super men trying to break through the borders of the art itself, it all had the look of something happening next door. To one of us. The craziness could have been happening in our very own world.
And here's the other thing. Since the pictures wasn't particularly pretty, you didn't need to stop and stare and marvel at the spectacle of it all, you know. You just read it like you would a label on a jug. Or traffic sign on the road. One ain't been blown to hell by them shotgun-toting Graham boys. What it does is, what is does is make it even more of a Grant Morrison story. Sort of, ‘here's the story, it's frilly as hell already, don't need the extra frills’. Besides, them frills would just obscure the insanity of the story.
And that's why Truog was perfect for Animal Man. He wasn't never going to show up his writer, so Morrison could do whatever he wanted. Besides, all that dry, arid humor might have gotten a bit too obvious had someone else drew it. Maybe that's why Mabel loves the book so much. It's practically undiluted work by her favorite writer. Pity she doesn't realize how important Chas Truog was in making it that way.
Okay, boy, I done bored you to tears long enough. Time for you to go out, get yourself some of that fresh air. Climb a tree, pretend you can fly or some other fun. Go ahead, an' if you happen to pass by Mabel's house on your way, go and ask her for a bit of that peach cobbler. Tell her Cletus done sent you.

—Justin J Fox