Joe’s Comix by The Hutchinson Bros. coming to Phoenix Productions

I formally announced it over at FANzine Live on YouTube earlier this week, but let’s make sure to commemorate it here: Phoenix Productions is THRILLED to present the collected works of Joe and Daryl Hutchinson, the legendary brothers behind 80s insanity shop Anthrax Press, in remastered and collected form…often colored for the first time!

Let’s check out the big announcement:

Because both The Hutchinson Brothers and Steve Willis come out of the 80s small press/nuwave comix scene, and because Phoenix has been busy for the past year remastering Willis’ incredible Cranium Frenzy series for release in four volumes, I’m sure the comparisons between the two projects will be inevitable.

But oh, they could not be more different.

The Hutchinsons have ripped their minicomics apart and reformatted them for full magazine-size presentation. Willis’ work reverted back to sometimes long-unseen original sizes – half-legal and half-letter digest.
Willis presented his work in period-correct black and white. Daryl Hutchinson has recolored everything (so far) with incredible digital color using every modern tool available.
Cranium Frenzy gets a little crazy here and there, but the meta-text of the project is to show the growth and maturation of the cartoonist as he winds through his life (and career). Joe’s Comix is a snapshot in time from an oft-insane age, created by a truly wild mind.
Thematically, Willis leans into safe and comfortable. The Hutchinsons are edgy. Both unpredictable, but entirely different in the presentation.

And I LOVE both of their works. In my mind, there are precious few cartoonists that deserve a place on my Mount Rushmore of small press cartooning legends. Willis and The Hutchinsons are automatic qualifiers, each for their own reasons.

(And this reflection really only talks about Joe Hutchinson’s creative work that Daryl is remastering. Daryl’s work by itself — his amazing artwork recreating the likes of Poe and Lovecraft — lordy lordy! And that’s coming, too!)

Yeah, this is exciting. Real exciting. So as Daryl, Joe and I wind our way through the back half of this project, perhaps you can get yourself mentally prepared for what’s to come by checking out a couple videos that I’ve done on some Anthrax Press minicomics with Joe’s work. Enjoy!