Bob Hall
If there is anyone whom I would like to meet at a New Mexico Con by Tall Tales Productions, it is none other than Bob Hall. He was the writer and artist of one of my favorite titles in the 90s. And no, it wasn't a Wonder Woman related DC title, it was Shadowman. My first introduction to Shadowman was Chaos Effect Alpha, which was a company wide cross-over a la Crisis on Infinite Earths. The entire Valiant Universe was introduce to me. I had missed the 1992 Image, Malibu and Valiant explosion because I was in graduate school. I had already finished my Masters and was finishing up the coursework for the Doctorate. I thought I needed a break and should get back into comics, besides Zero Hour was in full force over at DC and Superman had just died and risen, Artemis was now Wonder Woman, and Batman had broken his back and just come out of retirement. The status quo of comics was different, would I read other comics from other companies. Fortunately, American Entertainment was around and you could buy the back issues of Valiant and Image cheaply. Of all of these new series, I loved Shadowman!!! And I loved Bob Hall's work. I was familiar with his work from Marvel's Squadron Supreme and West Coast Avengers.
Shadowman outsold many longtime industry heavyweights such as Fantastic Four, Justice League, Batman, Hulk, Captain America and Thor!!! It was an exciting time. The original and best Shadowman was Jack Boniface, who was a Cajun Creole that played Jazz Saxophone. I always identified with Jack, probably because his hair was like mine and in the 90s I wore long hair. Also, I love the Cajun and Zydeco cultures. It was an amazing run with the best artwork, especially during the 90s where comic book characters, both male and female, would stand in impossible poses.
