The Canadian-born, California-bred cartoonist Chris Bachalo (buh-CHA-lo) is one of the most visually energetic and inventive cartoonists working, infusing every project with an overabundance of detail and passion. A breakout star of the 90s, Bachalo successfully transplanted his Vertigo aesthetic to Marvel comics. His style is constantly evolving, becoming more exaggerated and abstract over time, but is always recognizable as uniquely “Bachalo.”
Despite not being much of a superhero fan by his own admission, Bachalo’s outside perspective and dedication to pushing his craft has made him one Marvel’s A-List artists. He’s most closely associated with the X-Men, characters he’s returned to time and again over his 30+ year career and helped define many of their most iconic looks.
Bachalo began his career filling in on Sandman just before relaunching Shade the Changing Man with writer Peter Milligan. Citing early influences like Michael Golden and Bill Sienkiewicz, Bachalo quickly developed his signature aesthetic in those first few years. In 1993, he reunited with Gaiman to make the perennial classic Death: The High Cost of Living.
While still on Shade, Bachalo began to receive work from Marvel, including Ghost Rider 2099 and the first issue of X-Men Unlimited – a job he initially turned down. Working with X-writer Lobdell would lead directly to the creation of Generation X at the end of his regular DC work. Bachalo eventually moved up to an ill-fated stint on the flagship Uncanny X-Men. In 2000, he devoted his attention to creator-owned work, returning to DC again to do The Witching Hour and co-create Steampunk.
Bachalo has since worked almost exclusively with Marvel, adding his distinctive touch to titles like Spider-Man, Captain America, Doctor Strange, and Deadpool. He also returned to the X-Men, drawing runs written by Chris Claremont and Brian Michael Bendis, among others. Recently, Bachalo has done a lot of cover art but is more selective what interior work he takes on – the Emma Frost issue of X-Men Black, kicking off Kelly Thompson’s Deadpool. He’s currently wrapping up Non-Stop Spider-Man with Steampunk collaborator Joe Kelly.
Bachalo’s evolution from up and coming Vertigo artist into the pristine Generation X creator on into his more cartoony and anime influenced work to his most recent Spidey stuff that can be downright scribbly are one of the most satisfying runs of any artist in comics. His signature character designs combine the aesthetics of Tim Burton and a punk vitality that seems effortless until you see other artists try to take on those designs. Regardless of the era, Bachalo’s work is visually captivating. His page layouts draw your eye in and guide you along a page like no other. He’s not afraid to take risks, whether it’s using design elements or filling page borders with tiny gnomes. Sometimes, his pages are so chock full of fun stuff you could even call them busy. But no one could describe Bachalo’s work as unengaging. His contributions to the X-Men, the Vertigo line, and his own creator-owned work are all unique in their own way, but tied together by the linework of a modern master.
Gold
Generation X
November 1994 – August 1995
- Generation X #1-6
- Generation Next #1-4
- Scott Lobdell
- Chris Bachalo
- Mark Buckingham
- Steve Bucellato
- Richard Starkings & Comiccraft
The Plot
The next generation of mutants are here, and they may be the strangest teens yet. Chamber, M, Husk, Skin, Synch, and Jubilee are the charges of Banshee and former villain Emma Frost as they prepare to defend a world that is grossed out by them. These issues see them facing down the vampiric Emplate and his escaped captive Penance, the underground terrorist group Gene Nation, and an alternate reality where the kids embark on a suicide mission to rewrite a world that never should have been.
Why We Love It
This is an iconoclastic exclamation point in X-Men history on par with Bill Sienkiewicz’ handful of New Mutants issues, and like that earlier run is a defining moment for the namesake generation. Largely designed by Bachalo, the characters of Generation X pushed the mutant metaphor into the grotesque while Lobdell’s scripts undercut the self-seriousness of super hero comics with a perfectly 90s smirk. Bachalo and inker Mark Buckingham cover every square inch with scratches, swirls, and smudges, bleeding over Buccelato’s saturated color work. The art vibrates off the page during even the quiet scenes.
Bachalo follows up his impressive, career-defining opening arc of Generation X with a detour into the Age of Apocalypse. Generation X becomes Generation NeXt, led by a vicious versions of Colossus and Kitty Pryde on a suicidal quest to rescue Colossus’s sister Illyana from a human death camp run by the disgusting Sugar Man. Bachalo adds gravitas to Lobdell’s scripts, and leans hard into the Vertigo/Tim Burton stylistic flourishes and the result is a dark vision with monstrous characters and savage consequences. The end of Generation NeXt is the darkest, most scarring moment in all of X-Men, and Bachalo’s single panel of Paige Guthrie glaring out from the grasp of her attackers will haunt you until the end of your days.
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Silver
Death: The High Cost of Living
March – May 1993
- Death: The High Cost of Living #1-3
- Neil Gaiman
- Chris Bachalo
- Mark Buckingham
- Steve Oliff
- Todd Klein
The Plot
As established in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, once every hundred years, Death spends a day with the living, enjoying herself and all Earth has to offer. The High Cost of Living follow Death as an orphaned goth girl named Didi as she assists a suicidal teenage boy named Sexton in finding the value of life.
Why We Love It
Death: HCOL is quintessential Chris Bachalo. This book catches him at his peak in 1993 just before he begins work on Generation X for Marvel. His depiction of Didi/Death is iconic, as is the unbridled joy beaming from the character as she strolls unfazed from street vendors to minor antagonists, not allowing a single thing to get in the way of enjoying the mundanity of daily life. Gaiman’s story, written a year before Kurt Cobain took his life in 1994, feels like a time capsule of a bygone decade. The book bottles up the emotional angst of the actual Generation Xers and reassures them there’s more to life than this. A foreword by Tori Amos and a short safe sex education comic in the trade paperback plant this firmly in the 90s canon.
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Supernovas
July – October 2006
- X-Men #188-192
- Mike Carey
- Chris Bachalo & Clayton Henry
- Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza, Jon Holdredge, Mark Irwin, Victor Olazaba, Al Vey, Chris Bachalo, Jon Sibal, & Mark Morales
- Antonio Fabela & Christina Strain
- Corey Petit
The Plot
The Children of the Vault, artificially-evolved super-humans, have been released from their time capsule much too early and are eliminating anyone who knows about their existence. One witness who has so far escaped destruction at their hands is the villain Sabretooth, who makes his way to the sanctuary of the X-Men’s doorstep.
He’s just in time to join Rogue’s new strikeforce made up of equal parts reliable X-Men and untrustworthy villains. They’ve been assembled to respond to unpredictable threats with whatever works. This is the team that answers when the Children inevitably come calling with an expanded edict – to wipe out the “obsolete” mutant race and inherit the Earth.
Why We Love It
Out of Bachalo’s many runs with the X-Men, Supernovas is one of the most iconic due to the story’s construction. Carey and Bachalo hit the ground running with the action exploding off the page. Bachalo has honed his talent for depicting mayhem, with figures always caught midway through tumbling in the air as debris goes in every direction. At the same time, he uses white space to astonishing effect, particularly the spread in the middle of X-Men #188 with Rogue (Bachalo’s favorite X-Man and the star of this series). The climax of the story involves a flying oil tanker hovering over the Xavier Mansion, for a sense of scale.
These comics are a perfect mid-career sampler of Bachalo’s work, combining many of the best qualities of his style as it shifts toward a more economical phase. Collaborators like long-time inker Tim Townsend and colorist Antonio Fabela make the drawings look as good as ever. The volume is also a showcase for Bachalo’s skill at character design, responsible for each of the Children and the new costume for Cannonball, which the artist has said best embodies his aesthetic.
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Steampunk
April 2000 – August 2002
- Steampunk: Catechism, Steampunk #1-12
- Joe Kelly
- Chris Bachalo
- Richard Friend
- Richard Starkings
The Plot
Cole Blaquesmith exchanges knowledge from the future with the evil Dr. Absinthe for the life of his beloved Fiona, accidentally creating an alternate Steampunk 19th century. Blaquesmith’s heart is a furnace and his arm a giant metal claw. He must get used to the new London, all while evading Dr. Absinthe’s henchmen (including Victoria of Kent, the woman who would have been queen) and inspiring the Uprising against Absinthe’s rule.
Why We Love It
Though it only ran for 12 issues, Bachalo fills every page with busy, crowded layouts, building the complex world of Steampunk one inch at a time. Even the character designs are filled with nuts and bolts and flowing scarves, the stuff other artists might avoid like the plague. Some have complained that the artwork here is so jam-packed it detracts from the story. But for fans of Bachalo, Steampunk represents the work of an artist operating at the peak of his powers and willing to experiment in a world of his own making. It’s unfortunate that Steampunk lacked the sales to finish its final arc, and while Bachalo himself has called this his favorite work, the odds of a return are slim. All the more reason to savor this oft forgotten classic in all its glory.
Bronze
Off the Road
February – July 1992
- Shade the Changing Man #21-26
- Peter Milligan
- Chris Bachalo & Brendan McCarthy
- Mark Pennington & Brendan McCarthy
- Daniel Vozzo
- Todd Klein
The Plot
Shade is an interdimensional alien with reality-altering abilities who has come to Earth by inhabiting the body of an unrepentant serial killer. He hits Route 66 to cruise the USA with his lover Kathy and her friend Lenny – Kathy’s parents were killed by Shade’s host body, and she and Lenny have begun an affair unbeknownst to Shade. It’s complicated.
Things get more complicated when the trio pull over to a roadside attraction – a monument to broken down cars – and find themselves unable to leave. No matter how much they drive, the Road takes them back to the cars. They begin to suspect it has something to do with something that Shade saw, something so terrible his subconscious would rather split into multiple entities than remember what it was. Until he confronts the truth, they’re all prisoners of the Road.
Why We Love It
This series is Bachalo’s first major gig, and “Off the Road” is where his work begins to be recognizably “Bachalo.” His draughtsmanship goes beyond competent and starts to radiate a distinct style, while he experiments with expressive layouts and xerox effects. It’s evident with this story that Bachalo is the perfect artist for a comic that deals with madness, paranoia, and dreamlike states. When Shade uses his madness powers, all adherence to “reality” falls away and solid color shapes break free from their outlines.
Beyond Bachalo’s distinctive pencils (polished off by Mark Pennington on inks), Daniel Vozzo’s restrained color palette also makes this comic gorgeously unique by leaving things mostly black and white with punches of color where appropriate. This reserved approach allows the character work to take center stage, and the acting of Kathy, Lenny, Shade, and his alter-egos are the main attraction to this story. Bachalo has come across in interviews as having emphatic respect for the female characters he draws, and it’s especially clear in early work like this.
(Though #26 is not officially part of the storyline, “Lenny’s Story” serves as fitting coda, viewing the previous issues from the Lenny’s perspective and what it tells us about her affair with Kathy and her character in general. Content warning for implications of child sexual assault)
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The Witching Hour
November 1999 – March 2000
- The Witching Hour #1-3
- Jeph Loeb
- Chris Bachalo
- Art Thibert
- Grant Goleash & Digital Chameleon
- Richard Starkings
The Plot
A small coven – each named after a color – set out in present-day New York to correct injustice and help those in need. White subtly confronts a Bluebeard bartender while Red is out West with the poor guy who’s been hired to dump the body. Black offers a destitute addict another shot at life, Blue responds to a young woman suffering from her father’s infidelity, and Gray is too invested in dining with celebrities to heed a friend’s cries for help. Their assistance – their magic – is indirect, however, and not always predictable, pretty, or kind.
In a number of therapy sessions, White recounts her life story as Amanda Collins, an Irish woman who was burned in Salem. We learn how she came to be under the protection of Gray, and the abiding laws of the Wiccan Rede and the Three-Fold Rule which govern their actions throughout the series.
Why We Love It
Despite the tarnish of his collaborators’ reputations, Bachalo’s work on this series is too outstanding to ignore. The Witching Hour is a fully realized and complete graphic novel under the artist’s hand. The layout work is inspired and evocative, amplifying the mystery and interiority surrounding the characters. The grid breaks open to let time and place intertwine when magic is afoot, particularly during White’s therapy sessions. The use of halftone throughout helps set the dramatic tone, blurring the line between drawings and xeroxed photographs. Everything feels perfectly considered, from the crisp lines, the reserved palette, and the wispy bits of text floating in the margins that tell a subliminal story of their own.
The Way of the Weird
October 2015 – February 2016
- Doctor Strange #1-5
- Jason Aaron
- Chris Bachalo
- Tim Townsend, Al Vey, Mark Irwin, John Livesay, Wayne Faucher, Victor Olazaba, & Jaime Mendoza
- Chris Bachalo
- Cory Petit
The Plot
Dr. Strange finds a new apprentice in Zelma Stanton when she comes to him suffering from a magical malady. As Zelma learns about the mystical realm beyond what the ordinary eye can see, Strange begins to notice things are a bit off and that his magic hasn’t been working the way it should. There is a cost to every spell cast, and the Sorcerer Supreme’s tab is coming due.
Why We Love It
One of the best from Bachalo’s recent work, this run gives him the opportunity to tap into the weird imagination that has been in the veins of his work since the beginning. Hulking monsters, pounds of minutiae, striped tentacles, and the opportunity to color his own work make this pure Bachalo. Some of the best moments are when Strange is walking across a black and white background that’s swimming with brightly colored magical critters. Like his other collaborations with Aaron, the humorous tone also suits Bachalo’s sense of timing and staging.
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Wolverine & the X-Men
December 2011 – February 2012
- Wolverine & the X-Men #1-3
- Jason Aaron
- Chris Bachalo
- Tim Townsend
- Chris Bachalo
- Rob Steen
The Plot
After Logan and Scott split the X-Men in two in Schism, Wolverine forms the Jean Grey School on the site of the old Xavier Mansion. It’s opening day and the inspectors from the New York State Board of Education have arrived to be properly horrified by the school’s ramshackle start. But no one is prepared for the kids of the new Hellfire Club to attack with . . . Frankensteins?
Why We Love It
WatXM was a huge launch as part of the Regenesis branding of X-Men. Jason Aaron took his book (the foil to Kieron Gillen’s Uncanny X-Men) in a comedic direction, going all-in on the “kids in school” theme. And who better to help define this new pocket of the X-Universe than Chris Bachalo, whose cartoony style elements help sell the wacky hijinks of an out of control X-campus.
While the title is better known for the talents of Nick Bradshaw, it’s Bachalo’s strong start (even doing his own colors!) that defines the designs for Toad the janitor, the Krakoan grounds, a leveled-up Iceman, and more. The other central character to WatXM was Quentin Quire who was just starting to transition from gaseous potential terrorist to the lovable jerk he is today, and Bachalo’s styling of the Omega-level punk helped to move that transition along. While imperfect, these three issues are another outstanding example of why Bachalo was on speed dial to launch a new X-series.
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Assault on Weapon Plus
August – October 2003
- New X-Men Vol. 1 #142-145
- Grant Morrison
- Chris Bachalo
- Tim Townsend, Al Vey, & Aaron Sowd
- Chris Chuckry
- Chris Eliopolous & Rus Wooten
The Plot
Wolverine, believing he will find answers to his past, teams up with Fantomex and recruits a down and out Cyclops to enter into the wild and weird environment known as The World. Secrets come fast and furious, like the reveal that the X in Weapon X is a 10, and that an entire Weapon Plus program exists, including the dangerously powerful Weapon XV.
Why We Love It
While Morrison started thier New X-Men with the talents of Frank Quitely, their run was also saddled with less talented artists working in a hurry to keep up with a monthly schedule. When it was time to enter The World, Morrison teamed up with Bachalo who fleshed out the time-addled and bizarre creatures that populate it. Bachalo’s take on Morrison’s mopey Cyclops is a far cry from the Scott Summers he draws in Bendis’s Uncanny, but it fits the story, especially in the silly opener to this arc where Scott gets drunk at the Hellfire Club. The World is a fascinating location that factors into many key X-runs, but all refer at least in part to what’s developed here by Bachalo & Morrison.
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