Bachalo - Incredible Hulk 400 page 30

The reason I have a lot of Hulk art is because of the Peter David run. I started picking it up during the Keown stint and then found the Purves issues which weren’t as pretty (to my young eyes), but I liked them and the Joe Fixit thing.

Issue 400 was the big pay off for everything that had been building for years, but what, no Keown on it? He did the cover though, right? Nope. That was Gary Frank. But anyway, the issue itself was an interesting mix of artistic talents. A almost Marvel-house style artist and then the Shade artist, Chris Bachalo. What? Really? Cool! Well, cool now but at the time it was very jarring and wrong for me. Time and my love of the run have helped me like his art on the story more, and he got the good action/conclusion chunk of the issue too, which helps. The inking by master ink slinger Mark Farmer really added a different touch than Bryant/Pennington from his Shade work too. Less splatter at least.

I’ve specifically picked up Chris Bachalo pieces (Shade, Death, Batman) as he’s one of my favourite creators, especially on Shade and the Death High Cost of Living story. This is the intersection of a favourite character, a favouritate run, and also creator. A perfect combo. And then the page itself is pretty sweet…that second panel in particular. Funnily (read the description), I already have a page from this issue, but it’s got nothing on this one.

Hulk 400 was Chris’s first work at Marvel and I have a lot of fondness for his art around this time, and early in the Generation X run too.