Paul Gauguin

Few comic characters carry the weight of a real historical legend, yet here is Paul Gauguin stepping onto the page in Max Hopper's Art in Shambles #1 in 1990, brought to life by creators David Bromley and Jim Hall at the dawn of the Copper/Modern Age. Across a surprisingly eclectic publishing run stretching all the way to 2017, this fictionalized version of the Post-Impressionist master turns up in titles as varied as Gauguin the Other World and — delightfully — The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, sharing adventures along the way with none other than Vincent van Gogh. A small but genuinely curious corner of comics history, Paul Gauguin is the kind of offbeat find that reminds collectors just how wide and wonderfully strange the medium's imagination can run.