All throughout July we’re crowdsourcing an Extra Eisners Reading List from comics journalists and critics. Each weekday throughout the month, we’ll post a new pick we would have liked to have seen nominated for an Eisner. There are so many great comics, it’s impossible for the Eisners to recognize them all. This list is to honor and diversify the pool of work praised by the industry.

Today’s pick comes from Harry Kassen…enjoy!

If anyone reading this also read Ritesh Babu’s article on the Best Lettering category, you saw his thoughts on both that category and the Best Coloring one, which I largely agree with. For those who didn’t read the other article, the point was that calling the categories Best Lettering or Best Colorist value the process over the person, and delegitimize the professions of letterer and colorist (compare to the Best Writer or Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker team categories). While I do think it’s important to recognize artists who do their own coloring or lettering, which was, I assume, the intention behind those names. While we should value those artists and their contributions, these categories should primarily be places to lift up and celebrate people who are dedicated fully to those professions and work constantly to push them to new places. One such colorist is Brad Simpson.

If you were following indie comics in 2019, especially the ones with a flavor of the weird in them, you probably read something colored by Brad Simpson. The standouts to me were Black Stars Above and Coffin Bound, two of last year’s finest examples of a very good year for weird horror. 

The first word I can think of to describe those comics is “bleak,” which is also a word that can be used to describe Simpson’s coloring. In an industry where colors are praised for being lush, or vibrant, or juicy, bleak may not seem like a compliment, but that is how I mean it. These books find beauty in bleakness. That’s a hallmark of weird, cosmic horror. And Simpson’s colors fit into that setting perfectly. Which isn’t to say they can’t be vivid or bright. They often are, at least in Coffin Bound, with flashes of bright green and orange, and pages drenched in purple and turquoise. At no point, however, does he ever step outside of the bleakness of these worlds. From the stippled, sickly seeming textures to the washy edges of shapes, Simpson’s colors give off the sense that the world is coming undone. If that’s the case, then why is it all so beautiful? It’s a question that sticks with you, like many similar ones arising from every part of these books. They’re questions that beg answers, yet evade them. And if Brad Simpson can do all of that with color, isn’t his work worth recognizing and celebrating? -Harry Kassen

Harry Kassen writes the Comics Anatomy column for Comics Bookcase.

Learn more about Brad Simpson’s coloring work on his website.

Visit the full Extra Eisners Reading List!

Check out the official Eisner Nominations for 2020.