Comic Artist Steve Dillon Merges With The Infinite

God.  Dammit.  2016.

Comics artist Steve Dillon has passed.

Dillon was one of the finest comics artists of the past few decades, mixing an illustrative quality with cartooning and pitch perfect sense of tone and a moment.  Not only did he have one of the deftest pencils when it came to capturing the exact, perfect expression for every character in a panel - something I assume he did effortlessly as he did it in every panel - but his ability to change pacing, to whip between romance to horror to comedy within a single page remains unparalleled and may never be matched.

His pairing with Garth Ennis was a boon to the medium, from Hellblazer to Preacher to The Punisher.  I don't just consider Preacher a seminal comics work of its era - I consider it a seminal work of its era - full stop.  That said - not recommended for all audiences, Mom.



When people talk about visual storytelling, Dillon re-wrote the book.  Preacher arrived monthly, but had the occasional offshoot single issue special that would appear here or there, and it never felt quite right.  The Saint of Killers, Herr Starr, Arseface... if they weren't coming from Dillon's pencil, it always felt off, even when the script was pure Ennis.

This isn't even a small fraction of what I'd like to scan and share.  It's what was available online when I read the news.  And I didn't include the Bill Hicks scene, the "Fuck Communism" scene, or any of the deeply NC-17 scenes I would like to include.  But I will tell you to go read the series.