A couple of months ago, I got my copy of the Modern Masters focusing on Mark Schultz. I’ve got a handful of Xenozoic Tales and the Epic color reprints in Cadillacs and Dinosaurs but, in some odd way, his work never made a huge impact on me. The stories seemed impenetrable and the concept was just ridiculous (even as I was able to accept a ton of other even more ludicrous and ridiculous concepts.) But after reading the Modern Masters, I needed to find more work by Schultz. Unfortunately, the two trade collections of Xenozoic Tales from Dark Horse are out of print and the first one goes for a high price through the used dealers on Amazon. Ebay at the time wasn’t much more help because the books weren’t showing up on there. I had almost resigned myself to living just with the Modern Masters and the handful of assorted issues that I already had.
Yesterday, just to kill some boredom and dead time between family events, I went out to a comic shop by my parents. I’ve been to this shop many times and have worked my way through most of its inventory but I still enjoy going just to browse. If nothing else, I was actually thinking of picking up DC’s Trinity just to have something to read. As I had gone through the new stacks a couple of times, I figured the collections before heading out. I first looked for the trade for the new Thor but they didn’t have that one and then took a quick, last look at the Dark Horse trades.
They had both of Mark Schultz’s Xenozoic Tales book. Or more appropriately, I have them now after plunking down cover price for the both of them. I haven’t had a chance to start reading them yet (perhaps in a week or two) but something really jumped out at me. In the Modern Masters, Schultz’s artwork seems more photo realist, following in the look and style of Al Williamson but from Xenozoic Tales, I’m getting more of an Wally Wood/EC vibe from his drawing. Imagine Wally Wood inked by Dave Stevens and I think you get an inkling of Mark Schultz from that.
These stories were done in the 1980s and 1990s before probably getting caught as part of the incredibly shrinking market of the late 1990s. In the Modern Masters, Schultz calls it an “hiatus,” which is hopefully what it was. I think the current market, while not making this a top seller, would accept these books better now. They would be at least critical hits again, thanks to the resurgence of appreciation for the old EC horror and sci-fi stories and for stories inspired by them.
June 8, 2008
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