132 Survey 8: Gary Panter

1980-1990 New Voices

The 1980s was a time that embraces creative expressions in illustration styles. New voices were heard when illustrators like Gary Panter, Marshall Arisman and Sue Coe shocked the world with an unflinchingly grotesque style of Neo-Expressionism. Similar to the depictions in the other two illustrators’ works, monster/human-like characters depicted in Gary Panter’s works have distorted facial features and ghastly expressions. However, Panter is most known for his underground comix illustrations for Arcade: The Comics Revue and RAW. His signature style is characterized by scratched lines, jagged shapes and psychedelic colour palette.

Most comic book readers are familiar with either the idealized superhero depictions or child-like cartoon characters drawn with clean lines in comics. The fact that Panter went against the current and introduced Neo-expressionism style to the comics makes his works memorable. The style is also very suitable for the dark humour and adult-content in underground comix.

Reference:

https://www.illustrationhistory.org/history/time-periods/the-decade-1980-1990