Spotted Online – A Look at Keith Giffen’s “Trencher” Art Style
Over the weekend I happened to mention the 1993/1994 Images of Shadowhawk comic book (posted here), and after flipping through some of those old Image books I thought it would be fun to see what sort of commentary I could uncover about Giffen’s artwork on Trencher. I was not expecting to find this.
Titled “Keith Giffen’s weirdest art ever”, this blog post deconstructs Giffen’s Trencher artwork, zeroing in on specific pieces and going fairly deep into several panels and pointing out just how much detail Giffen poured into the artwork.
“Today we are going to look at some of the most baffling art of the 20th century; the famous comics artist Keith Giffen’s infamous “Trencher†style.”
Now I’m a bit stunned to find such a detailed look at the artwork, and ultimately I completely disagree with the author of the piece. I loved the artwork then, and today when I look at the books I can say that I still greatly respect the work sunk into the artwork and would happily buy more comics illustrated in this style.
At times details are tough to see through the mass of complex and interlocking lines, but unlike the author of “Keith Giffen’s weirdest art ever” I enjoy peering closely at each panel and uncovering the shapes and designs.
Additionally, this statement is completely false:
“Nobody was ever interested in this, for any reason, except that it was weird.”
I was very much interested in the artwork, and I was not alone! In my search I encountered this blogspot post where the author says of Trencher:
“Anyway, I thought it was all great fun and I was sorry to see it get canceled. I’m mostly alone in my opinions, however, since I’ve met very few people who even remember the comic, and of those most thought it was awful. But I liked it.”
Awesome! So at least two of us found this fun. Two probably isn’t enough to support a comeback . . .
Related articles
- Year of the Artist, Day 112: Keith Giffen, Part 4 – Trencher #2 (goodcomics.comicbookresources.com)
- Keith Giffen’s Bridge Between Cosmic Eras (nothingbutcomics.wordpress.com)
I was more of a fan of his pre-Trencher run on The Heckler, his creator owned DC Comics book with the Bierbaums. It used a similar very loose style but without quite as many squiggles. It didn’t last long either, maybe 6 issues.
But I actually miss this style for Giffen. It would be nice if he went back that way once in awhile, especially since I don’t see many fans for his current pencils.
Ha! After reading your Images of Shadowhawk post it took me a minute to remember Trencher; probably one of the more memorable Image comics. (At least from an artistic standpoint.) I haven’t looked at the articles you’ve linked to, but I think the inherent “what the fuck?” one gets from looking at the art is part of its charm. You have to work at figuring some of it out.