The Studio was the name of a small artists' loft commune formed in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

by four

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

artists/commercial illustrators/painters in Manhattan's Chelsea district. These artists were Barry Windsor-Smith, Jeff Jones,

Michael Kaluta Michael William Kaluta, sometimes credited as Mike Kaluta or Michael Wm. Kaluta (born August 25, 1947), is an American comics artist and writer best known for his acclaimed 1970s adaptation of the pulp magazine hero ''The Shadow'' with writer Den ...

, and

Bernie Wrightson Bernard Albert Wrightson (October 27, 1948 – March 18, 2017), sometimes credited as Bernie Wrightson, was an American artist, known for co-creating the Swamp Thing, his adaptation of the novel ''Frankenstein'' illustration work, and for his o ...

— known colloquially as the "Fab Four".Daudt, Ron E
"Joe Barney Interview (Pt. 2),"
''The Silver Age Sage: A Tribute to the Silver Age of DC Comics''. Accessed May 18, 2013. The purpose of The Studio was to provide the group with a space where they could pursue creative products outside the constraints of comic book commercialism. The studio space was a converted

machine shop A machine shop or engineering workshop (UK) is a room, building, or company where machining, a form of subtractive manufacturing, is done. In a machine shop, machinists use machine tools and cutting tools to make parts, usually of metal or plast ...

with high ceilings. Industry journalist

Tom Spurgeon Thomas Martin Spurgeon (December 16, 1968 – November 13, 2019) was an American writer, historian, critic, and editor in the field of comics, notable for his five-year run as editor of ''The Comics Journal'' and his blog ''The Comics Reporter''. ...

commented on the broader significance and influence of The Studio in his 2011 obituary of Jones at '' The Comics Reporter'': :The legacy of that much talent doing what was collectively very good work at a point of almost monolithic and degrading corporate influence over the kind of art they wanted to do has provided The Studio with a legacy that can be embraced even by those that didn't particularly care for the artists' output. The idea of a dedicated workplace that would allow for coercive influence one artist to another has been carried over into very nearly ever cartoonists' collective space initiative since.Spurgeon, Tom
"Jeffrey Catherine Jones, 1944-2011"
''The Comics Reporter'', 19 May 2011. By 1979, the "Fab Four" had produced enough material to issue an art book under the name ''The Studio'', which was published by

Dragon's Dream Paper Tiger Books was a British publishing house which focused primarily on books of modern art, specifically the visionary, the fantastic, and science fiction, and an imprint of Dragons World Ltd. It was started in 1976 by Hubert Schaafsma and br ...

.Jones, Jeffrey; Kaluta, Michael; Windsor-Smith, Barry; and Wrightson, Berni. ''The Studio'' (Dragons Dream; First edition Apr. 1, 1979), . That same year the members of The Studio moved on to independent projects and separate work spaces.

References

External links

Information about The Studio
at BarryWindsor-Smith.com Communes American artist groups and collectives Comics groups and collectives Culture of Manhattan Chelsea, Manhattan 1975 establishments in New York City {{US-arts-org-stub

See also

References

External links