A Memoriam In Four Colours: Jackson ‘Butch’ Guice
Jackson ‘Butch’ Guice passed away late last week becoming another who is pulling his chair up to the great drawing board in the sky. Guice first came onto my radar with the 2008 Ultimate Origins mini-series. Much to my embarrassment, I assumed he was a hot new talent, as at the time the Ultimate Universe was a tight-knit group of creators. I later discovered his varied career in comics across the board of creators with a strong body of work in the 80s and 90s. Guice is another in the long line of creators who broke into comics via the fanzines, as well as designing patches, badges and the like for a company based out of North Carolina. The early stepping stones at Marvel saw him land gigs on ROM and Micronauts, the latter of which he would contribute an 11-issue run on. Both of these series had and continue to have huge cult followings, thus ensuring the legacy of his work will continue to be enjoyed for many years to come. With his foot in the door, a strong line of work would follow. A special portfolio in Marvel Fanfare #9, an Indiana Jones Adaptation and four issues on Dazzler as inker. By the end of the 80s, he was working much more consistently at The House of Ideas. He worked concurrently on X-Factor and New Mutants at the height of X-Men dominance. Working on six of the first seven issues of X-Factor sees him with a creator credit for Apocalypse. In 1987 he made the move into indie comics at First Comics on Nexus and Badger before teaming again with Mike Baron (Badger) at DC. He would pencil the launch of the new Flash series coming out post-Crisis before seeing out the decade back with Marvel pencilling Iron Man and Doctor Strange. Whilst at Marvel and DC his career took in two major fan favourite projects. Those being The Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe and DC’s Who’s Who.
In the 90s Guice would again zig-zag between The Big Two, as well as being on the ground floor for the big independent explosion at Valiant with work on Eternal Warrior and X-O Manowar. Looking at his bibliography, you spot a pattern of being on books when they have major moments. After his early days at Marvel took in a tour of duty in Claremont’s X-Verse, he repeated the trick again whilst pencilling Action Comics for 30-odd issues, a run which coincided with the Death of Superman arc. He also worked on The Adventures of Superman series in 1994, circling around the same storyline with the Reign of the Supermen arc, creating the Eradicator character in the process. His bibliography also tells a story of working on some of pop culture’s biggest characters. Terminator, Alien, Predator and Sliders outside of Marvel and DC. Wolverine, Captain America, Flash and Birds of Prey among the heavy hitters. Guice’s body of work speaks volumes. A sign of a reliable and well-respected creator. He leaves behind a legacy of work with so many classic characters, in so many classic story arcs. Because of this, his work will continue to resonate while being enjoyed by the old school fans and being there to be discovered by the new generation.
Lastly Guice is responsible for one of the most bad ass Wolverine images in comics history. The cover to Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D #29 just speaks to me on so many levels. Firstly, seeing these two men’s, men of a duo is brilliant. It is Cold War goodness in the modern age. It is playing with your action figures in the garden and letting your imagination run wild. For me, there are shadows of Windsor Smith as well as European artists like William Vance of XIII fame.
My thoughts are with the family and friends of Jackson Guice at this time.
