This is another of those posts that were part of a larger topic, that I feel really deserved its own topic:
Originally Posted By: Wonder Boy
Anyone interested in Budd Root's work who isn't already familiar with it.
Bud Root began CAVEWOMAN in 1994-1995 as a 6-issue series. His art from 1994-2001 has more of an early John Byrne look to it.
The other series in order are CAVEWOMAN: RAIN 1-8 (1996-1997) CAVEWOMAN COLOR SPECIAL 1 (Nov 1999, only 12 pages)
After that, Budd Root's art started to change. He was hanging out with Dave Stevens, and whether on his own or because of Stevens' influence, his art began to evolve in a beautiful way.
And it was about the time Budd Root started improving his art that he began CAVEWOMAN: PANGAEAN SEA (2000-present).
If you were to begin reading Cavewoman, I'd skip the earlier stuff and go right to this PANGAEAN SEA series. At this point, 11 of 12 issues have been released, and he's taking his sweet time producing the last one. Once you've seen this run, then I think you can go back and enjoy the earlier issues, and how Root evolved up to this point. Also showing Root at his peak are the shorter nudity-laden series:
The first 6-issue 1994 series was a few years ago re-released in a new "director's cut" type reprint series, as CAVEWOMAN: RELOADED 1-6, where Root added about 10 pages of new scenes to each issue. I guess this is a good starting point too. But while it starts you at the beginning and has some nice new pages, it's kind of a warts-and-all package that forces you to read his cruder early work that is far below what he's doing now.
Aside from that, you have CAVEWOMAN:PREHISTORIC PIN-UPS 1-7 (or so) that aren't stories by Root, but 32 pages each of pin-up pages and convention sketches. I think he stopped these, and now just does annual convention books.
The other Cavewoman books are all by other artists, and may have Bud Root covers, but are either by Devon Massey (most of them) or Paul Renaud (the last 5 years or so of new CAVEWOMAN titles). And, like Mignola's farming out HELLBOY, I've mostly hated any CAVEWOMAN titles that Root didn't write and draw himself.
The one exception was Devon Massey's first effort, in [url=]CAVEWOMAN: ONE-SHOT[/url] (2000). But his art got much looser and out of proportion after that. With huge boobs flopping everywhere, akin to a black and white comic version of a Russ Meyer film.
You can probably find the cheapest price on these from the source, at http://www.amryl.com
Regrettably, Bud Root hasn't produced a new issue in a few years now, but I've been promised "Soon, soon! No, we really mean it this time!" in my inquiries with its publisher, Amryl. That the final issue of PANGAEAN SEA will be out in the near future. Bud Root seems to make a lot of money doing convention sketches and other commission work, that apparently pays better than doing the actual series he began with. His publisher told me that he is very backed up with commitments to do commissions that he has to take care of before he can do more series work.
But regardless, Budd Root is among the best of the smaller independent-publishing comics artists, and his occasional covers (on new Cavewoman limited series, with interior art by other artists) and new Bud Root pin-ups are both fun and beautifully rendered.
Root has created a character and fanbase over 25-plus years comparable to Dave Sim's CEREBUS, Wendy Pini's ELFQUEST, Colleen Doran's A DISTANT SOIL, Jeff Smith's BONE, Mike Mignola's HELLBOY and other independent publishers who have presented a similar long-term vision and consistent but sporadic run on a series over many years.
Another variant cover for CAVEWOMAN: MONSTER DREAMS, incorporating Root's sexy good-girl art combined with his love for classic Hollywood monsters and Warren magazine type material. Interior art by Devon Massey.
Amryl Entertainment, for 20 years has offered complete runs of CAVEWOMAN series available through them. They first display their newest books, then you can scroll down and see the titles for the older series, and click on them. As small as the runs are on these titles, I'm surprised they still have complete runs. Because of a change in the format of their site, I initially thought they were no longer available. But they are.
Here at Lone Star, they at least list all the series and show the covers for each issue, whether or not they're in stock. If they become unavailaable from Amryl.
The last page of CAVEWOMAN: PANGAEAN SEA # 0, August 2001. (That continues in PANGAEAN SEA 2, Dec 2001). It's particularly across these early issues you can see Budd Root's art evolve.
A variant cover for CAVEWOMAN:CASTAWAY by Budd Root. Interior art by Devon Massey. This is a black and white version, possibly a pinup or convention sketch, before it was colored and used as a cover.
Cavewoman sunbathing with the dinosaurs, in a color version of a page from CAVEWOMAN PREHISTORIC PIN-UPS 2. Reminiscent of the old Coppertone suntan lotion ads.
From CAVEWOMAN: PREHISTORIC PIN-UPS 4, Sept 2004. Root has done several versions of this particular image, as both a cover and as pin-ups. The view of Cavewoman from more than one angle from a reflection is something Root has pulled off well in a number of images.
Some days urg makes me proud to be his friend. Then there are the days that he steals my beer and fucks my woman. Somedays he gets that backwards.-Lothar
"Those were good days. Sitting around the campfires, eating dinosaur meat, and clubbing our wimmens in the head. I dream of those days sometimes. When Urg would make speeches and lead us to victory over the neighboring tribes. Good days, man. Good days." -Grimm
From CAVEWOMAN COVER GALLERY 2, one of the titles I haven't picked up yet. I assumed they were reprints of covers, so I initially skipped them, but might be worth it for the new covers alone.
I was just going through my Budd Root collection, and found JAMES GANG 1 (and only), Bud Root's first published work from April 1993.
38 pages, and better work than I remembered, recognizable and consistent with his CAVEWOMAN work, and most of it actually better and more detailed than some of the early CAVEWOMAN issues. Like virtually everything from London Night Studios, typical bad-girl stuff, leather, motorcycles and blazing guns. But a thick sampling of early Bud Root.
The interior contents are all by artist Devon Massey, the first of many he has done, and I think this issue was his best. There's another cover by Massey as well.
Budd Root's primary affections clearly include 1960's, 1970's and 1980's Marvel and DC, classic Hollywood monsters, FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine, Warren's other CREEPY, EERIE and VAMPIRELLA magazines, the Beatles, and other 1960's pop culture.
Budd Root also did some similar nostalgic pop-culture pages in other issues. The ones that stand out for me are two pages in his 10th anniversary special, BUDD'S BEAUTIES AND BEASTS 1, out in 2005, with two pin-ups of Root's versions of the Thing and the Hulk (with a little Frank Miller DARK KNIGHT RETURNS tossed in). This was also the issue I first discovered Budd Root's CAVEWOMAN work, the first one I purchased off the stands. All other issues I mail-ordered from Amryl itself.
I found a larger image of this Budd Root cover from CAVEWOMAN MONSTER DREAMS. I was going nuts trying to recall who the hairy character in the derby hat is in the lower left. It's "Cousin Itt", one of the fun but creepy relatives on The Addams Family tv series. With some other family members framed on the wall in the background. https://www.cbr.com/addams-family-members-ranked/
Some might not recognize "Rat-Fink", the signature character of Ed "Big-Daddy" Roth, who did cartoons for t-shirtss that evolved into hot rod monster trading cards in the 1960's and 1970's, and spray-painted similar stuff on actual hot rod cars, and built hot rod cars. I love the way Budd Root inserts these bits of nostalgia and popular culture in his interior art and covers.
One of those blank comic book covers, that you can have an artist draw in at a comics convention. And someone had Budd Root draw a one-of-a-kind FF cover (despite that Root has never worked for Marvel).
And a great rendition he did, of an excited and very happy looking Thing, with an always sexy Cavewoman in his arms.
This one is Bud Root/Arthur Adams art. I love how she's riding the diosaur like a wild bronco.
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EDIT: I looked to find this elsewhere to identify it. On Arthur Adams' own website, it's titled as "Jonnie Future", and (my eyes were bleeding, to try and read print that small) done maybe in 2001. I thought it might be a John Carter:Princess of Mars variant cover, but from what I could find it's not, and is apparently a new character by Arthur Adams. On Adams' own site, I also saw nothing to indicate it's a Budd Root/Arthur Adams collaboration, just Adams by himself, apparently miscredited where I first saw it. Here's a slightly larger image, to see the detail : https://i.pinimg.com/originals/93/6a/8c/936a8c7f97774e8427f275876e790d0c.jpg
( Also from Budd Root's 2013 convenion skechbook. )
Budd Root does a lot of pages and pseudo-covers of Marvel, DC, Warren and characters of other publishers. It would be nice to see him do actual covers or interior art for one of those publishers. But after 30 years of comics work, at this point I don't see it happening. I think Budd Root makes a lot of money just doing covers and commission pages, and doesn't have the incentive at this point to even do another CAVEWOMAN story.
But I'd love to be proven wrong, and see it happen.
( From CAVEWOMAN: PREHISTORIC PIN-UPS 5, July 2007 )
Budd Root seems to have a special affection for classic Hollywood film monsters, the Warren magazines, including Warren's FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine, Silver Age Marvel and DC, the 1933 King Kong movie, the 1949 Mighty Joe Young movie, and 1960's popular culture, including the Beatles.
This is another of many humorous versions of classic Hollywood movie posters he's done, in the pin-ups he includes in various CAVEWOMAN titles.
It was interesting to look through this book on Frank Cho, and how similar Cho's work is to Budd Root's art, a lot of shared spirit. I've seen Budd Root over the years do collaborative pages with Frank Cho, and Cho has also done several variant covers for CAVEWOMAN issues.
Budd Root has also often mentioned Cho in editorial text pages in his books, they're friends and often cross paths at comics conventions in cities nationwide. They have a lot of crossover in their playful good girl art, as well as favoring dinosaurs and monsters in their stories and pin-up pages. Frank Cho's LIBERTY MEADOWS has some obvious shared themes and content to Budd Root's CAVEWOMAN titles and covers.
I guess you could describe them and several other comics artists such as Adam Hughes, Paul Smith, Arthur Adams, and the late Dave Stevens, as representing something of a "school" or a sub-genre of comics illustration. But Frank Cho is, I think, for whatever reason, more prominent and mainstream than Budd Root, though I see them as equally talented.
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