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, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...
artists/commercial illustrators/painters in
Manhattan's Chelsea district. These artists were
Barry Windsor-Smith,
Jeff Jones,
Michael Kaluta, and
Bernie Wrightson
Bernard Albert Wrightson (October 27, 1948 – March 18, 2017) was an American artist, known for co-creating the Swamp Thing, his Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein, adaptation of the novel ''Frankenstein'' illustration work, and for his other ho ...
— 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 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 tool (machining), cutting tools to make parts, usua ...
with high ceilings.
Industry journalist
Tom Spurgeon 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.
[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.
See also
*
Upstart Associates
*
Fab Four
References
External links
Information about The Studioat BarryWindsor-Smith.com
Communes
American artist groups and collectives
Comics groups and collectives
Culture of Manhattan
Chelsea, Manhattan
1975 establishments in New York City
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