MIKE MIGNOLA:
(from the introduction to Murky World, Dark Horse Comics, 2023)
"Richard Corben stands among us like an extraterrestrial peak. He has sat in his throne for a long time, above the moving and multicoloured field of world comics, like an effigy of the leader, a strange monolith, a sublime visitor, a solitary enigma."
I wish like hell I'd written that, but that was Moebius on Corben, and it's as brilliant a summing up of Richard (artist and man) as I can imagine.
I'm pretty sure I discovered both Moebius and Corben on the same day, way back when, in one of the first issues of Heavy Metal magazine. I was a Marvel Comics fan, but even the cosmic wonder of Kirby's Fantastic Four and Thor didn't prepare me for the double shot of Arzack and Den. But why? Both strips were beautifully drawn, of course, but there was something more - and it's something I've given a lot of thought to over the years - personal vision. When you look at Den (or Murky World), you don't just see a world - his people, his places. There is no mistaking those images. There are a lot of wonderful comic book artists out there, but so often (especially in American comics) all I can see in their work is how well they can render a figure or a car... Impressive, but I get no sense of who that artist is, what's actually rattling around in his or her head. So many artists put their ability on the page but never quite put themselves on the page. Richard, pretty much from day one, was putting himself on the page - and it's hard to imagine a more fearless expressing of an artists singular vision. When I created Hellboy, that's what I was trying to do - put something out there that was pure me. But I was coming out of ten years of drawing mainstream comics, so my transition was a slow one; it took a long time to find my voice, create my world. I don't know that I ever thought of Richard specifically as a model for what I was trying to do, but looking back now I think he was certainly one of those creators that pointed the way for me, even if I didn't realise it at the time.
Eventually I got the chance to work with Richard, something the young me never could have imagined. I wrote The Crooked Man specifically for him, and I still consider one of the most successful Hellboy stories. It's my personal favourite. I cold tell some stories about what it wa like collaborating with Richard, but those are for another time - maybe the intro for an all-Corben Hellboy collection? I'd love to see that (hint, hint Dark Horse), but that's not what we are here for today. I remember asking Richard about doing more Hellboy stories and him telling me that he really needed to get back to doing his own stuff. Now at that time I believe he was around seventy years old, and here he was chomping at the bit to get back to doing his won stuff. I visited him around that time and while, yes, he was very much the "solitary enigma" there was also something almost childlike about his enthusiasm as he showed me the pages he was working on. I have known a lot of artists who lose that - the magic something that keeps them excited to get to the drawing table in the morning - and having done this stuff for almost forty years now, I get it - but I think Richard had it right to the end.
I did a signing some years back, and a kid asked me who this "new guy Richard Corben" was that was drawing Hellboy. I was a little taken aback. I mentioned a bunch of of earlier Corben work - Den, Arabian Nights, Bloodstar - the kid was unaware of all of it and, sadly, that day I realised how long it had been since any of that stuff had been in print. Finally I asked the kid if he was into music and if he knew that iconic Meatloaf Bat Out Of Hell album cover. He knew that (of course), and I said, "That's Corben". Now it was the kid's turn to be stunned as he realised that this "new guy" had actually been around for quite a while. And I just love that story because Richard, after all those years, still really could pass as one of the hot new guys. I mean, look (finally) at Murky World. Done a few years after his Hellboy work, something like thirty-five years after the stuff I first fell in love with in Heavy Metal, I think in just about every way it is as good as anything Corben ever did. Certainly the drawing is as good, if not better. I think his storytelling is better. And the story... Well, it's pure Corben, and for that I am very, very grateful.
Sadly the "strange monolith", the "sublime visitor", is gone, but what a body of work he's left behind. A big thank-you to Daniel Chabon and Dark Horse Comics for their support of Richard and their commitment to getting so much of his work back into print - and an even bigger thank-you to Dona and Beth Corben Reed for making it all possible.
I didn't really know Richard beyond our email exchanges, one phone call, and that one magic afternoon in his studio, but the creator he was... The inspiration he was and is... These days when I sit down at my drawing table, Richard is a huge part of whatever it is I'm trying to do there. I hope somehow he knows that.
FURTHER READING:
Corben Studios
Dark Horse Comics
