/ Iron Fist. Particularly between Jo Duffy / Kerry Gammill's run and the Owsley / Bright run.

It seems to me that in the '80s there were some books without pre-existent large fanbase that got gradually big because of great quality and good word of mouth like Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, Frank Miller's Daredevil and Claremont's X-Men. In these cases quality won over "Prevailing Wisdom".Nowadays though (let's say in the last decade) I can't remember a previously "small" title that made it very big even if it was good. For example I loved Dan Slott's She-Hulk series, it got usually excellent reviews, yet it was always on the verge of cancellation.From DC's relaunch I am very interested in Jeff Lemire's Frankenstein series, since I loved his "Essex County" graphicpreviously hadn't noticed in Chaykin's art.

Chaykin couldn't handle a monthly title at that point, and so his work on Star Wars turned into a team effort in which Chaykin produced layouts, which then were turned into mass-produced sludge. And that's not a swipe at Steve Leialoha, who I think has done some very good work over the years, including a Chuck Jones/Moebius pastiche in Quack, around the same time as Star Wars, that I liked a lot.

Within a few years, Chaykin was able to write, draw, and ink an interesting monthly title, American Flagg. He had learned shortcuts.

As far as films that were adapted into comics masterpieces, or at least decent comics, how about Steranko's Outland? Or Goodwin and Simonson's Alien? Or Russ Heath's Rocketeer? Or Frank Thorne's