Ma, Simon :: Comic Art

Spectre: A Missing Life

Artists: Richard Corben (All) , John Arcudi (Writer)

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Artwork Details

Title:	Spectre: A Missing Life
Artist:	Richard Corben (All)
Artist:	John Arcudi (Writer)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Interior Page
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	317
Likes on CAF:	7 8
Comments:	6
Added to Site:	12/2/2021
Comic Art Archive:	Solo Issue: 2 Page: 39 View

Description

Solo 2 (all Richard Corben issue), February 2005, DC Comics

This is a page from an eleven-page story, Spectre: A Missing Life. In the tale's shortness it seems to homage the classic Fleisher and Aparo Spectre stories of the 1970s but brought up to date for the 21st century. It�s the same tortured, slightly aloof loner/outsider, but there is no extravagant �The Omen�-type revenge death, and it is the better for that. The story deals with all the big issues: life and death, good and evil, crime and retribution. I don�t know if there is a spiritual dimension to our existence, but if there is then the one depicted in this eleven-pager is how I would like to think it would operate. And in that sense it is one of my �comfort stories�, one that I have read and re-read many times and which I hope to re-read many times more. I am not sure if it is an age-thing but I find it much more moving now than when I first read it sixteen years ago. Maybe it is from being more conscious of my mortality. There is no happy ending, but there is closure.

The new, as far as I am aware, spin that John Arcudi has given the Spectre is that, �The Sixth Sense"-like, Corrigan can see the dead. Strictly speaking they are the undead who are still on earth as a form of purgatory for unatoned sins. And, �An American Werewolf in London"-like, these dead are in varying forms of decomposition. Now if you were to choose an artist in the history of comics to draw a story featuring the undead in states of decomposition then two names immediately spring to mind. One of them is Richard Corben (no prizes for guessing the Wright answer for the second artist). Would the story be just as good if another artist had drawn it? This is one of those hypotheticals that are pointless. The story and art are now one cohesive inextricable whole.

What I especially like about this page is that the word-ballooned version is a one-page story complete in itself, with an important life lesson to boot: don�t leave things too late because you do not know what is around the corner.

When I first became aware in 2016 that the Corbens were selling their artwork personally via their website I emailed Mrs Corben to ask if they had yet sold off the pages to this story, but was told that they had long gone. In January of 2018 I left a comment on the one other page (as of this writing) from this tale that is on CAF. (There are no dud pages in this story but In my opinion that page is even better than this one.) Then in September of 2019 this page turned up on eBay with a �Buy It Now" price of less than a grand, or the option of making the seller an offer. Apart from checking to make sure the seller was not in the possession of any other pages from this story I could not tap the keys of the the BIN option fast enough. Thank you �Sien�. In the late summer of 2020 I messaged Mrs Corben again to let her know that I had sourced a page from the story I had enquired about four years earlier and to ask her to pass on my thanks to her husband for the work and craftsmanship he had put into the page�s execution. I consider it an honour to be the present custodian of it.

Richard Corben was a famously modest and private person. Mike Mignola said on his IG that he did not really know him and thought very few did. Far be it for me to claim to be more aware than one of his regular collaborators as to how Richard Corben thought or felt but I just know the Corbens fully appreciated the reverence and affection their fans had for his work and by extension, because the work was often so very personal, for them. And this was reciprocated in a number of ways; the most obvious being that he never "phoned in" a job, but would strive to interpret his ideas or those of the writer he was working with in the most interestingly imaginative way of which he was capable. The body of work he left behind is evidence of this. He was special.

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About the Owner

	Simon Ma ( 2 ) Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	April 2013
Last Login:	September 2025
Country:	UNITED KINGDOM
On CAF:	Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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Comments on this Artwork

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artless artmore
Member Since 2013

Posted on 12/2/2021

Great page!

Simon Ma
Member Since 2013

Posted on 12/11/2021

artless artmore wrote:

Great page!

I was surprised to see how much whiteout/white paint was used on this page. Not necessarilly for corrections, or just for highlights, but to refine and mould the linework. But I bet it is nowhere as extensive as on your page. It is like having an impasto pen and ink drawing. When the Garbage Man art dropped I did not pay it too much attention because I was unfamiliar with it (it had not been published yet; duh). Perhaps I should have, because you have made a great score. And like you, I have the utmost respect for Mrs Corben too; she's great to communicate with.

Marcus Wai
Member Since 2005

Posted on 12/2/2021

The stories in Solo were such a great showcase of modern masters and their array of work. Any one of these pieces will forever be immortalized in their collected trades. This is a wonderful display of Corben art as it has his great pebbly inks and shadow details that he pulls off to give depth and dimension to these characters.

Simon Ma
Member Since 2013

1 - Posted on 12/11/2021

Marcus Wai wrote:

The stories in Solo were such a great showcase of modern masters and their array of work. �Any one of these pieces will forever be immortalized in their collected trades. �This is a wonderful display of Corben art as it has his great pebbly inks and shadow details that he pulls off to give depth and dimension to these characters.

I agree. Every issue of Solo was at least good, and some issues were hands-down outstanding. Sadly it does not seem like Solo is the sort of title that DC would publish today, especially with the departure of the editor Mark Chiarello, who oversaw some choice comics.

Tyler T
Member Since 2020

Posted on 12/2/2021

Fantastic page. Congratulations on a signature example of Corben's work.

Simon Ma
Member Since 2013

1 - Posted on 12/11/2021

Tyler T wrote:

Fantastic page. Congratulations on a signature example of Corben's work.

Thank you. I am very fortunate to have the page. I like just looking at it.

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