This is an introduction for this series of blog posts.
Ever since I read his, albeit limited, work on Man-Thing, I have been a Gray Morrow fan. Later, when I first encountered his work for Warren Publications, is when I became a bit more of a devotee of his work. It would be disingenuous for me to say that I have devoted as much of my time to Morrow’s work as I have Steve Ditko’s, but he ranks right up there in my pantheon of favorite artists with others like Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, and so on. Truly an unsung great.
So, being a huge fan of Morrow’s work, you can imagine my excitement when I learned that Gray and I hail from the same city. Gray Morrow grew up in the city of
Fort Wayne,
Indiana. I grew up in very nearby Churubusco, but the rest of my family and my social life existed in
Fort Wayne and that is the city that I now call my home--basically, if you're from 'Busco, you may as well be from Fort Wayne. It’s difficult to not be excited by the fact that someone whose work you admire so much shares your home town. In big cities, it likely has a far less significant impact than what the majority of us, that exist in small cities and communities, would experience. It’s a point of pride in many ways. Someone whom I admire, in a medium that I’m passionate about, has a common heritage. It’s cool.
