Paul vs. Cow mid 1990’s. Who won?
Paul had steak that night. ’nuff said.
Paul Marhue, the guy behind the covers.
By Kenneth Gallant
I’ve always been obsessed with words and pictures so on the day I was asked to join Tic Toc Tom and be a part of a creative team with the wonderful Paul Marhue, was the opportunity of a lifetime for this writer. I met Paul through the Ontario College of Art and Design in the mid 90’s, and he was an excellent artist with a penchant for bringing gritty realism into his story telling. I was really into Noir films at the time, so it was Paul who suggested we work out a very noirish take on the character. Again, great idea and since Tom was a ticking time bomb, we devised a seedy character trait of him having an incestuous link to his sister Jackie.
Tom attempts leaving the city to free himself of all those incestuous thoughts, but of course his fate is permanently sealed with big city life. He reluctantly finds himself returning to the city he most despises and in doing so must also face up to the dirty and trashy looking inner city he was trying to leave behind. Paul did a fantastic job of bringing this seedy imagery to life and if I dare say, perhaps a hint of Frank Miller’s Sin City comes to mind. Anyhow, the comparisons might be slight, but Paul’s artistic vision certainly helped make this a unique take on the character – and one that I love to revisit every so often.
Paul is still kicking ass today artistically and is doing all the covers for vol 3 of Tom. I think it was a smart move that Mr. Patel assigned Paul to do the covers and you can check out all three volumes posted online. I know I’m still marvelling over the wonderful Paul Marhue’s work!
