I was with Silver in the beginning…”
-Neill Brengettsey
Artist Neill Brengettsey, aka paime (Pay Me the artist) was a busy guy about the time Silverwolf Comics got started. Although he was never published by Silverwolf Comics, he worked on several titles including Stech, Guillotine, and The Deadly Dungeoneer. And thanks to the generosity of Mr. Brengettsey, Moby’s! has the original pages to prove it.
Neill’s unpublished Silverwolf art…
Still, there is enough here to know that Neill was ready for his shot, it is a real shame he was not published at the time. His work still stands up after all this time, and the quality in evidence is certainly better than what later became the average for Silverwolf art.
But what of the early average for Silverwolf? That would have to be the artwork of Ron Lim, the artist who delivered The Eradicators #1 for Silverwolf before quickly moving up the food chain.
Ron (Lim) was working on the second issue when he started getting interest from other companies…Ron and Chris (Tsuda) left (and) there was just Gary Amaro and I…after Ron left I really wanted to take over the Eradicators.”
-Neill Brengettsey
And among the stack of originals Neill has shared with us is indeed a cover recreation and what appears to be his take on part of the story in issue #1 of The Eradicators. You can click on any image below for a slightly larger image.
Neill’s version of the cover to The Eradicators #1
And interestingly, there is also this page. It is clearly is a condensed version of two pages published in issue #1. Could this have been a tryout piece for the Eradicators job? Well, no. Neill explained in the interview:
“After Ron left, I thought I would get to draw the Eradicators, I was learning how to draw on big paper, learning how to use zip a tone, I had some definite ideas of how to use black and white. My learning curve was fast, the Guillotine stuff was early, the Stech stuff was when I really started to get a feel for what was possible with the art form.”
First, the original published pages from issue #1, art by Ron Lim:
And next, a page by Neill that appears to be the same story from the two pages above, condensed into one page:
“My drawing of the Eradicators was not a tryout that was me showing him that, you know, that I had some ideas for the characters going forward. But I was also already knee-deep in 2 books so I guess he figured I wouldn’t do.”
Too bad, in Moby’s opinion. Who knows how things might have turned out? Here’s one last page from the stack, another example of Neill’s version of the characters.
Well, that’s it for this start into the stack of art Neill sent, but there’s A LOT more to come.
In case you missed it, please check out this previously posted interview with Neill Brengettsey for more background and information. Stay tuned fans, and a huge thanks as always to Mr. Brengettsey for sharing all this with us!
