Ma, Simon :: Comic Art

Deadman – Teddy Kristiansen

Artist: Teddy Kristiansen (Painter)

2 Comments - 221 Views - 3 Likes

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Teddy Kristiansen at UKCAC 1995

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Artwork Details

Title:	Deadman – Teddy Kristiansen
Artist:	Teddy Kristiansen (Painter)
Media Type:	Paint - Watercolor
Art Type:	Illustration
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	221
Likes on CAF:	3 4
Comments:	2
Added to Site:	7/29/2023
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Neil Gaiman has written three of my all-time favourite comic shorts; stories that I have gone back to time and again to reread – The Court, with art by Warren Pleece, which appeared in the anthology It’s Dark in London; Black and White World, with art by Simon Bisley, which appeared in the first (and best) Batman Black and White miniseries; and At the Stairs (featuring Deadman), which featured in the Teddy Kristiansen issue of Solo. I have never seen any original art pages from the first two of these on CAF, on sale, or at auction, and only once seen an original page (the page featuring the “squid”) from the third story, which was on eBay around about ten years ago. Because I was not so besotted with original comic art then I did not go all-in and so missed out with my low bid, and have regretted it ever since. It might just be that At the Stairs may be my all-time favourite Deadman story – at least a couple of people have uploaded its entire six pages onto the web, if there is anyone reading this who has not come across it before – and I have read a lot of them with art from some comics greats such as Neal Adams, José Luis Garcia-Lopéz, Kelley Jones and Alex Ross. At the Stairs switches the emphasis of the usual Deadman story with the superheroics taking a backseat to the spiritual. It features the same tortured loner who craves human connection but their heroic act is a task which involves compassion and understanding, and Neil Gaiman uses his trademark precision-tooled dialogue to perfection. This offbeat tale is given a suitably ethereal and delicate treatment by Teddy Kristiansen.

This drawing is not from the published story but it looks like it may have been a tryout, or a prelim, or an out-take, and that is good enough for me.

I had the pleasure of meeting Teddy K (as he likes to sign himself) at a London comic convention back in the 1990s. I had followed him since his work on Four Devils, One Hell and he is the type of creator that you hope all those whose work you admire would be when you meet them: courteous, friendly, generous. Ever since I have made it a point to pick up his comics work, although it is unlikely he can change his lifestyle based on my single purchases of his published work, especially now that that work sadly seems so sporadic. I do hope he held onto some of the artwork for The Kindly Ones.

Incidentally, I was so very eager to lay my hands on this piece of artwork that just in case I was indisposed or my computer went down at the scheduled time of its auction I put in a high bid well in advance which turned out to be many multiples of the much-lower final price I ended up paying. In the past I have won auctions with the same online auction company with high bids I had placed in advance and which ended up just one increment above the second-highest bid which does make you suspicious. The Deadman drawing I won with a bid that was a fraction of the amount I placed in advance proved to me that this company does not practise shill-bidding; at least not always, and certainly not on this occasion.

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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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Marcus Wai
Member Since 2005

Posted on 7/31/2023

His art challenges the reader to engage and experience the mood and motivations of the character and himself. Not meant to be beautiful, but has deeper meaning behind the image to communicate beyond first glance.

Simon Ma
Member Since 2013

1 - Posted on 8/25/2023

Marcus Wai wrote:

Wow, that’s deep. I recognise and understand the individual words you have written but the way that you have arranged them together is a head-scratcher for me. That is the way I feel about a lot of Neil Gaiman’s work and that is also why I never finished The Sandman – too sophisticated, too intellectual for me. Thank you for your comment – it definitely gives me something to think about.

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