Really sad that Steven Hughes, who drew Lady Death, passed away before his time. One of the top talented artists out there from the 90s.

Interestingly, Pulido's Hellwitch is close to the original Lady Death with a splash of Purgatori while Lady Death has become more of a heroine.

Everybody's Jersey dream girl 😂😂😂

Stephen Hughes is a legend. I met him at a small comic con in Albuquerque, NM and he was a real nice dude. He autographed a few things and gave me a chromium Lady Death bookmark.

I was the dude who had commented about Glen Hammonds and RAW Distro in a previous video. He was the dude who originally coined the term “outlaw comics” to describe the stuff the Vigils and the like were doing. How I got in touch with him is shortly after Kayfabe began, after seeing your initial video on Outlaw comics, the Kayfabe effect struck me deep. I made it a goal to track down every comic you showed on that episode (which I did, and the full runs of each). But at that one point I had the first 8 or 9 issues of Faust and Dog #1-2, but needed to compete the runs. I found one lone copy of Dog #3 on eBay and bought it, and it turned out it was being sold by Glen. I started up an conversation with him online and learned that he was good friends with the Vigils and had the biggest collection of Vigil artifacts in the world (not just comics, but ANYTHING their art appeared on/in). He started RAW distro to help them and the other outlaw guys he met when he’d table with them at con’s back in the day. He told me some great stories through email and we got to know each other a bit. But sadly he was only selling these Vigil comics on eBay to help pay for his cancer treatment. When I learned about his cancer and him selling off his collection, I started buying as much as I could to help him out. Only thing was he liked me and didn’t want to rip me off so he charged me WAY less than the going price for all the rest of the Faust books, including the variants, and all the rest of the Tim and Joe books I needed. They were all signed. I did several big orders with him and kept chatting with him, and one day I sent him a care package of music and swag from my band as a thank you. But he never got it. No further emails came in and the package was returned to me unopened, marked “no longer at address”. I looked it up online and he had indeed passed away from cancer. Glen was a really nice guy and very passionate about outlaw comics. There is an interview with him in Indy Magazine, the “outlaw” issue. He also compiled a massive checklist of everything that Tim and Joe Vigil ever did. It’s bound in a binder and signed by Tim. Really neat artifact.

Dawn and now Lady Death.. that was my jam for sure. Hughes was super underrated and everything post him never sat as well with me. I cant help but imagine the fall of Chaos was in part due to not finding another talent to keep up the quality.

So glad you're covering this. Lady Death was my introduction to the bad girl comics. So glad it's still going strong on the indie scene, but oh how i miss Steven Hughes' touch. It was instantly recognizable.

Nice! Definitely should get Pulido for an interview.

The promo cutting on Lady Death is hysterical 😅

This wasn't a bad series or character. I remember the animated movie and it just wasn't that good. I personally like seeing other stuff besides superheroes get popular.

Pulido and Hughes make me feel good about my skills and ability to maybe finish a comic one day.

I love Lady Death one of my favorite characters

I enjoyed Lady Death back in the 90s. I should take them out, I haven’t read them in quite a while.

When i was 12 or 13 and Lady Death was all over Wizard it looked so cool. So Metal. I couldnt get it at the only comic shop in my small Minnesota town and in my mind i think it developed into something so much more mythical. When i finally got an issue I think i was somewhat let down. I probably shouldn't have been. But it was built up so much that nothing could have lived up to how totally insane i thought it was going to be.

Regardless of whether this is good or bad, it's still worth covering because it was big part of comics for a moment. I'm honestly surprised at the art here, though, not what I was expecting at all, in a positive way.

I love this so much haha and Brian Pulido grew up in Jersey (so the Hair cut comment had me dying) but as far as the colorist its Jason Jensen, his colors were so striking the chaos fans knew if you got those three together the comic was gonna be sick!! and yea straight Heavy Metal influences to this day Metal heads support Brian. Also EVIL Ernie the Resurrection is the sequel to the original series. and Francisca Pulido is still el presidente 🤘🏼SWORN!

Lady Death Artwork is phenomenal skill and quality .. Ill be keeping my pristine comics for my kids..

Only problem with the plague scene is it didn't spread by rat bites. It was the fleas carried by the rats.

yes

I appreciate the thoughts on ownership or equity for artists who are potentially freelancing and getting nothing out of the deal.

I had a crush on Lady Death as a kid. I'd draw her in class and risked getting in trouble for drawing her big boobs. 80s Eastman and Laird is a good call for Hughes' art style, especially the original black and white Evil Ernie issues. It had that independent comic book style.

Happy that you covered this material. I love Hughes art so much in this and Evil Ernie. I met Pulido once and he was very nice and I had a good conversation with him. I created a 3D process that allows you to see pages/covers in 3D without significantly obscuring the art. Brian was kind enough to actually look at my samples and he was impressed enough to consider a small run of 3d covers. I dropped the ball on getting back with him tho. :-( Ping me if interested.

RACK & PAIN! Some of Greg Capullo's early work. I'd forgotten all about it! Also, I've always hated the "Don't ink yourself" line. That's why I like Joe Kubert's/Kubert School's approach, do a bit of everything because it all improves your pencilling.

Sweet

Don't know why, but for some reason early Lady Death panels kinda looks like she might have been inspired by Kirstie Alley as a face model back in her heyday. :) of course they keep changing lady deaths face/bust size over the years but, the archetype usually remains the same, busty metal chick. XP

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I think I would have liked Lady Death and Evil Ernie alot more had they come out a little earlier in my youth. But by the time I was 18 and 19, I was neck deep into indie outlaw stuff by Tim Vigil, Vince Locke, And Drew Hayes. This stuff seemed way too safe at the time. You mentioned Everett Hartsoe. I wanted so bad for Razor to be good. But, it wasn't.

My problem with Hughes is that his art is way too detailed, and it robs the comic of a sense of depth. His art is lacking in some basic art principles: foreshortening, line-weight variation, cross-hatching, and composition. Even the main colorist seemed to be lacking in his knowledge of color theory. Don't get me wrong, the minor faults of the comic are what gives the comic its bootleg charm; this comic feels like a labor of love created in the basement of a self-taught artist who loves the comic medium. Still, the art became a lot better when the series went monthly and Brian had to hire more artists. The writing was top-notch when you consider that the entire series from 1994 - 2000 was Lady Death's origin story. The entire lineup of Chaos's different titles came to a massive climax in 2000 that rivaled the MCU's Avengers: Endgame. Lady Death is not a waste of time, and her comics are well worth the time and money. Her adventures live on through Coffin Comics, which is owned by Lady Death's creator and original Chaos publisher and founder, Brian Pulido. You should hop over to their main site and check out her latest issue if you are interested in the greatest femme fatale in the history of comics.