The Studio Artists at the 1978 NY Comc Con

In 1978 the four artists from The Studio (Jeff Jones, Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Berni Wrightson) were guests of honor at the 1978 New York Comic Con. The program that year featured profiles on each of the artists. Looking at these today, the write-ups seem a little pretentious: "The Composer," "The Poet." However, at the time these guys were trying to make the leap from comic books to paintings and art for art's sake. All four of them produced stunning illustrations, prints, and easel paintings. With the exception of Jeff Jones, all of them eventually returned to comic books on a regular basis at one time or another.

To help balance out the "high art" tone of the profiles, at the bottom of this post is a Bernie Wrightson drawing of an axe murderer with a bag full of heads.