I first laid eyes on Kieth's work when I spied Marvel Comics Presents issue 90 on a spinner rack in 1991. I was 20 years old. I flipped through it, marveling at the work.
I did not buy the comic.
This was because it was 1991 and I had recently vowed never to buy any more mainstream superhero comic books again due to the wildly stupid speculator market that I believed had destroyed my beloved comics. So I put it back down, commenting to a friend "That's pretty rad."
Anyway... I eventually picked up a few Maxx issues and got the TPB of the Wolverine story. But to this day I have not really dived into Sam Kieth.
Oh... I nearly forgot... I was a HUGE fan of Sandman (still am) and so of course I saw Kieth's work in the first issue and loved it. But that was after 1991 for me. And he didn't stick around in Sandman to woo me.
What I love about his work is the - dare I use this overused word?? - visceral nature of it. Hair and exaggerated muscles and wild layouts. It's just an explosion of ID on the page (within Comics Code guidelines, of course). If you look at scans of original works you can see his brush strokes and copious use of white out. I love it.
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