Don't gauge Mike Barr's Batman by his Outsiders comic, which I got wonder was kinda wacky as Jim Aparo might have really liked doing those crazy Bob Haney Brave and the Bold stories. Duke of Oil? Nuclear Family? Oddball villains and I got to think some of that was Aparo might have been designing some of the characters.

Son of the Demon is not like those at all, it is a pretty straight and true to the original O'Neil/Adams Ra's Al Ghul. I think the choice of Jerry Bingham was pretty on the nose as he even had a definite Neal Adams style. It was intended to be a stand alone tale, but has seemingly held up a bit over the years as Grant Morrison's creation of Damian is pretty much a nod at the tale. I loved it as a teenager back in the 80s and thought it held up pretty well when I read it a few years back. The sequel of 'Bride of the Demon' is ok and also spawned an origin of Ra's graphic novel by O'Neil - all three of which have been compiled together in a trade.

Mike Barr also has at least one other definite classic Batman tale in Batman Special #1 which featured The Wraith and had awesome Mike Golden artwork.

Concrete was so different from everything out there and done in such a gentle style that you had to take notice. On the surface, you look of it and think Ben Grimm. then, you read it and it is a character study of real people, with real emotions and it is so delightful and engaging and well done, from a name you had never heard of, in most cases.

Space Ghost was a perfect love letter to Alex Toth and the cartoon series, which was a favorite of a generation.

In 1987-88, in fan press, you kept hearing Dark Knight, Watchmen, Love & Rockets, Grendel, Maus, Concrete, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Paul Chadwick, Los Bros Hernandez, Art Spiegelman. If you paid attention beyond superheroes, there was stuff like Neil the Horse, Ms Tree, Eddy Current, Airboy and related, Scout, Jonny Quest, Lone Wolf & Cub, Mai the Psychic Girl, Miracleman, Grimjack, the Turtles, etc.

Dark Horse was just that; a sleeper company who snuck up on you. Concrete got them critical acclaim and The American and Aliens got them some commercial success. I loved the American, though Chris Warner's art wasn't consistent and Grant Miehm was less polished. It was a great little twist on Captain America, not far off what Chuck Dixon attempted with Strike!, at Eclipse. A government funded and controlled patriotic hero, who wasn't much of a hero and reflected a certain cynicism about the Reagan Era Patriotism, with a certain reactionary base to it. America the Great, while propping up fascist dictators and selling arms to antagonistic countries that supported terrorists. It is a definite satire of that and 50s nostalgia, giving you a nice kick in the pants when they reveal the history of the American project. problem was, the idea was a short term one, at best. Once the whole initial plot was played out, there really wasn't a place to go with it and they struggled to move on, before laying it to rest. They had a few more issues of a regular series and one special, then the 4 issue Lost in America mini. Similar problems with The Mark, another superhero attempt, about a super soldier, created from fascist experiments on "undesirables," which results in a revolutionary hero. It struggled through 6 issues, the 4 issues of the anthology, Mayhem, and a mini-series where the hero comes to America.

Rio is a thing of beauty, even if you aren't a western fan. It's a damn good story and gorgeously illustrated.

The Eisner's tended to eschew the industry standard comics, so it is interesting to look at the nominated titles and creators. In Best Single Issue, the lone mainstream book is Justice League International #1 (actually just Justice League #1). It was pretty damn different, at the time, than what had come before or was on the stands. A superhero comedy, yet it still has an adventure story within it. People tend to forget that the comedy was mixed with action, during that run, especially at the start.

Best Finite Series has Elektra: Assassin, Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters, and Watchmen. Elektra was Miller & Sienkiewicz, going totally gonzo bat-@#$%! It subverted Elektra, yet reinforced the character from daredevil, with a visual style that was like an acid trip. Longbow Hunters is an urban crime story, with Green Arrow played as a hunter, rather than a gimmick. It totally revamped the character into an urban vigilante, rather than a batman knock off/crossed with Robin Hood. It further launched a long run for Grell, on the character and set the tone for every Green Arrow comic to follow and the Arrow tv series. It was "grim & gritty" done well. Watchman was the deconstructionist masterpiece, a psychological study of masked vigilantes and their psychoses and the tropes and cliches of superhero stories laid against Cold War politics and Reagan/Thatcher Society. It wasn't the average Avengers or Superman comic.

Best Graphic Album has Batman: Son of the Demon, which is pretty much Batman as done by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams, in the early 70s. it has a James Bond plot and villain, but more mature approach than most Batman comics. It seems less than it is, as it follows dark Knight, but that is Batman at the end of his game,. This is prime Batman. One notable nominee is Night and the Enemy, from Comico. it features Harlan Ellison stories, adapted by Ken Steacy. Steacy was such a tremendous artist and this fed right into his strengths; but, he wasn't prolific enough to develop a superstar name and it was sold solely on the basis of Harlan Ellison's name. It didn't help that Comico was sinking a lot of money in trying to distribute on newsstands, pushing things like Elementals and Justice Machine, which were traditional superheroes. What was selling in comic shops was Grendel, Jonny Quest (for the first year) and Robotech (to the burgeoning manga/anime audience).

Best Writer gets Alan Moore for Watchmen, which is no surprise. Moore and Gibbons are the lone nomination for team, from the mainstream. best Artist brings more DC/Marvel nominations, with Todd McFarlane and George Perez.

Best Art Team gets into a cult world at DC: Denys Cowan and Rcik Magyar, for The Question and Kevin Maguire and Al Gordon for Justice League. They are really opposite ends of the spectrum, yet they were also outliers, for DC art. Justice League was really built on the strength of Maguires facility for facial expressions and body language, which really helped sell the jokes. He was a fair hand at action, too; not quite a Joe Staton level (with a similar lighter, but expressive style). It wasn't Perez and it wasn't Steve Lightle or Don Newton or Jerry Ordway. Cowan & Magyar were doing something that had more in common with the proto-Vertigo titles, like Swamp Thing and Doom Patrol. It was a scratchier, harsher line, which lent atmosphere to the very dark and grim world of Hub City. These were urban crime stories, with a philosophical bent to them, dressed in superhero clothes. It had more in common with Eisner's The Spirit, in that it looked like a superhero, but read as anything but a superhero. It was by far the best non-Ditko take on The Question and one hell of a read, during the period.

If you examine the Comic Buyer's Guide Awards, which were fan voted awards, the lists are vastly different, though things like Watchmen feature quite heavily, as does Love & Rockets. However, you see fewer things like Zot or Rio. The Harvey Awards had the opposite end, with almost an entire focus on independent comics, blanketly excluding DC or Marvel books, with rare exceptions.

I recall fans getting bent out of shape that Art Adams was doing Gumby comics and not more X-Men related titles. They desperately wanted him on the regular series, yet he wasn't fast enough. I think similar things were said about Brian Bolland and, later, Adam Hughes. They wanted them to do whole titles, regularly; but, they could make better money and hit deadlines with covers and single issues or short works.

It's interesting to look at the landscape of the industry, in 1988 vs 5 years later. There is a boom in independent companies, but most would crash and burn within 5 years. Some others sprung up to replace them, but died similar deaths. Between 1984 and 1987, the industry went from 10 regular independent publishers to about 170, with the various self publishers and quickie cash ins on the Black & White Boom, spawned by the TMNT. Most of those were gone by the following year; but, several publishers launched in 1987, with color and/or black & white. That was probably the height of the Direct Market, in terms of industry sales across thebaord, rather than dominated by a select few companies, though it was still dominated by the bigger players. dark Horse was the real success from the class of publishers that arose out of that time, with Fantagraphics as one of the few still going, in some form.

1989 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards
Winners and nominees

1988 was the year I began reading comics. You wouldn't think a whippersnapper like me would be reading Eisner nominated comics in 1988, but Excalibur, Daredevil and Amazing Spider-Man received nominations, and those were books that appealed to me off the racks in 1988. What's up with McFarlane being nominated for an Eisner two years in a row? There were a lot more nominees this year, particularly from Kitchen Sink Press. I'm not sure if there was any friction between the Eisners and the Harveys, but it seems like the Eisners was giving Fantagraphics the cold shoulder. Concrete remains a critical darling. Alan Moore and Brian Bolland win a ton of awards for The Killing Joke, not only in the Eisners but across the industry. I know TKJ isn't the most popular Batman story around here, but I thought it was a nice piece of work. Maybe not the best comic of the year, but an excellent companion piece to the rest of Moore's DC work. Nice to see William Messner-Loebs get a nomination for Best Writer. 

Some of the new series mentioned had been around for a few years, like Xenozoic Tales and Omaha the Cat Dancer. I don't know if they were better or worse in 1988, but I like both books. Xenozoic Tales has a Sunday strip feel to it. I was surprised by how critically acclaimed Kings in Disguise was. Now there's a title you never hear about anymore. A lot of the art on these late 80s indy books is rough as guts, but Kings in Disguise has decent cartoon work. The art in Scarlet in Gaslight almost ruins it for me. Speaking of art, am I the only one who dislikes the Pander Brothers? 

The graphic novel category is probably the most interesting. You have work by Charles Burns and Moebius. Quite a bit of reprinted work but interesting nonetheless. 

Did Stan Lee actually write that Moebius Silver Surfer story or was it ghost written?

There were no Eisner Awards awarded in 1990 due to a series of stuff ups with the nomination process. After that, Jackie Estrada took over the awards, and I believe they switched from an open ballet approach to a judging panel. Even though the awards were cancelled, a quick look at the Harveys that year gives us some idea of the work that may have been nominated -- 1990 Harveys

The Harveys tended to favor Fantagraphics books more with Love and Rockets and Eightball taking home several of the awards, but I suspect that Dan Clowes and Peter Bagge, who was working on Neat Stuff at the time, would have at least been nominated for Eisners. Eightball could have potentially won the Eisner for Best New Series. I don't really see what else came close to Eightball in 1989. 

Best Writer is an interesting one. Moore had left DC by this point. I don't think he produced any comic book work in 1989 that would have seen him nominated for an Eisner. He began From Hell in the pages of Taboo, but From Hell didn't gain traction til around 1991 in terms of being nominated for awards. It feels too early for Gaiman to win it. Gilbert Hernandez won the Harvey, but I can't see him winning the Eisner as well. Grant Morrison isn't quite the critical darling that Moore and Gaiman were. Perhaps it goes to a dark horse candidate?
 
I can see Arkham Asylum receiving several nominations. I'm not a big fan myself. Personally, I'd take Killing Joke if I had to pick between the two. I can see McKean taking home best artist, however. Harvey winner, Mark Schultz is another possibility.

Best Series would have been another interesting one. I feel like there would have been some Kitchen Sink nominees for the Eisners. I like that Yummy Fur gets some recognition with the Harveys voters. The first Concrete series ended in 1988, so something else would have taken home the Best Continuing Series. Does Love and Rockets get its due? How about Cerebus? Sim was smack in the middle of Jaka's Story in 1989.

It's interesting how the Eisners go to the trouble of breaking down Best Series into four different categories, but they lump any sort of trade paperback collection or reprint collection in with the graphic novel category. The Harveys separate these books into separate categories. 

I'm thinking if Marvel was going to get any love, it would be for Byrne's She-Hulk. I could see PAD sneaking in too with Atlantis Chronicles. Flipping though what can out in 1989, nothing else other than what was mentioned jumps out.. V for Vendetta was finishing I suppose, but seems like that should have been part of the year before.

I'm pretty sure Big Numbers was published in 1990, so wouldn't have been eligible for the Eisners that year. 

The definition of a graphic novel is a bit murky at this stage. Ed the Happy Clown was serialized in Yummy Fur, which presumably would make it a trade paperback collection, no? Am I wrong in thinking that graphic novels should be original pieces of work?

There does appear to be a bias against non-Epic Marvel titles, however the Harveys do feature a number of nominations for Marvel inkers, letterers and colorists. It wasn't the most creatively fertile time for The House of Ideas, though it does hold a lot of sentimental value to me given those were the best years of my comic fandom. 

Peter David won an Eisner for Best Writer/Artist or Writer/Artist Team with Dale Keown in 1992. He was also nominated for Best Writer that year. It was quite an impressive field that they beat out. The Hulk was also nominated for Best Continuing Series, and Mark Farmer was nominated for Best Inker. Someone on the panel really liked The Hulk that year.