Ravage 2099 #26, page 11m Joe Bennett and Greg Adams, Marvel Comics, 1995

This is page 11 of issue 26 of “Ravage 2099”, published by Marvel Comics in 1995.

I boycotted Marvel Comics from about 1983 until 2001. I could lie and say this was a principled decision stemming from Marvel’s treatment of Kirby and Ditko, Jim Shooter goading Mike Fleisher to sue Harlan Ellison and Fantagraphics, and a slew of other odious corporate behavior in the 80’s and 90’s. The truth is, they simply weren’t publishing anything that interested me. In the 80’s, Marvel was the incubator for Image; in the 90’s they tried to emulate the upstart company’s success; in other words, out-Image Image, at least to my dismissive, disinterested eyes. So I never laid fingers on a “Marvel 2099” title or any other of their pathetic Image-wanna-be proliferations during this period.

So imagine my surprise when this page caught my eyes on the Heritage Sunday Weekly Auction site in mid September, 2016. I had no knowledge of the character or the artists, but I liked this page. To be precise, I like the way  Bennett and Adams abstract the shadow/shading patterns on the homo-erotically posing full figure on the right half of the page. (Does one call this “good boy art”?) 

I find the inset panels one and two on page left almost unreadable, though I rather like the graphicness of the spotted blacks. 

I checked on Bennett on line and I didn’t see anything I liked as much as the page-right pin-up shot. His other work is too Image-y for my tastes.