shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,512
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Post by shaxper on May 4, 2015 5:59:36 GMT -5
I wouldn't. If you are going to argue for creator rights and comics as art and then put forward a product that is commercial and interchangeable despite who draws it, it's a hypocritical proposition. As much as I like George Perez, I don't want to see another artist trying to do a Perez pastiche for the artwork (or a Kirby pastiche, or a Kubert pastiche, or a Garcia-Lopez pastiche, etc.). Some artists may be influenced more and imitate another's work at various points in their development as artists, but that's part of the growth process and finding their artistic identity. Being forced to do so, is another matter altogether. If you are going to have a house style, you might as well do art for each issue by committee and not credit the work, because even if one artist is doing it, it's not an expression of themselves or their creativity, it is them consciously swiping another's style to meet the commercial desires of the client. I don't want generic product churned out to meet a predetermined style standard. I want creators exploring storytelling to the best of their ability and inspiration. House styles enable people like Bob Kane to put their name on other's work and get away with it. And that's not something I want comic companies to strive for or aspire to. -M I think you might be reading a tad to deeply into this hypothetical, mrp. No one's advocating that a company actually do this, and there'd be no commercial viability in such a decision in today's market. |
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Post by Cei-U! on May 4, 2015 7:31:42 GMT -5
My Top 5Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez Darwyn Cooke George Perez Jerry Ordway Dan Jurgens These five artists are my top five in order!  This is my favorite picture of Garcia! You have exquisite taste, sir! But why do they always leave Hawkwoman off these group shots of the satellite-era JLA? I have a tin sign with a similar shot of the League by Ross Andru and she's left off that too. She joined before Zatanna or Firestorm. Cei-U! I summon the injustice! |
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Post by Paradox on May 4, 2015 8:51:11 GMT -5
John Buscema all day long. This was my immediate, without hesitation, no question at all, answer as well. |
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Post by fanboystranger on May 4, 2015 9:15:44 GMT -5
My initial thought is that I wouldn't, but then I thought about the Mignola-verse. While I'd say that each artist Mignola employs on his books is distinctive enough on their own, they also fit in well with Mignola's overall aesthetic, perhaps due to Dave Stewart's coloring. The only artists who truly stand out from the Mignola style are Corben, Scott Hampton, and Alex Maleev. Even legends in their own right like Guy Davis, Mick McMahon, Duncan Fegredo, and Kevin Nowlan (plus future legends Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon) fit so perfectly into the overall Mignola aesthetic.
I'm not saying this is necessarily the house style I'd want for a line of books, but that it's interesting that Mignola's line developed into a sort of house style organically through his choice of colaborators. |
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Post by Pharozonk on May 4, 2015 9:16:11 GMT -5
Curt Swan would be my other choice.  |
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Post by thwhtguardian on May 4, 2015 9:55:59 GMT -5
My initial thought is that I wouldn't, but then I thought about the Mignola-verse. While I'd say that each artist Mignola employs on his books is distinctive enough on their own, they also fit in well with Mignola's overall aesthetic, perhaps due to Dave Stewart's coloring. The only artists who truly stand out from the Mignola style are Corben, Scott Hampton, and Alex Maleev. Even legends in their own right like Guy Davis, Mick McMahon, Duncan Fegredo, and Kevin Nowlan (plus future legends Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon) fit so perfectly into the overall Mignola aesthetic.
I'm not saying this is necessarily the house style I'd want for a line of books, but that it's interesting that Mignola's line developed into a sort of house style organically through his choice of colaborators. I was going to bring that up in response to MRP, and it goes further than aesthetic as they adopt Mignola's style of lay outs as well. |
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Post by MDG on May 4, 2015 10:48:05 GMT -5
of people currently working, probably someone like Darwyn Cooke or Bruce Timm; their styles are based on clear action and storytelling and make it hard to fake your way through.
It seemed in the 70s, it was more an inker who would define a house style: Girodano at DC and Sinnott at Marvel.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 4, 2015 11:50:16 GMT -5
I absolutely agree with MRP. But for the sake of the question...
J. L. Garcia-Lopez is number one with a bullet.
More contemporaneously, after reading the Darwyn Cooke issue of Solo, I'd happily give him the keys to the DCU. Bruce Timm would be fine as well. And probably Cliff Chiang and Michael Lark.
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Post by crazyoldhermit on May 4, 2015 16:27:01 GMT -5
Not a classic (yet), but Chris Samnee has a look that can tackle a lot of genres.
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Post by berkley on May 4, 2015 16:50:10 GMT -5
The only way I can see something like that being useful is if you had so many books to put out that you couldn't find enough good artists to work on them. Then the right house style might help the weaker artists produce better work than they might without such a helpful guiding hand. What happens now is that the weaker artists tend to imitate whatever look is trendy at the time, which is why I find so many superhero books unreadable - they all look like Jim Lee or whoever is the best representative of that 90s-superhero sort of style.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2015 20:44:45 GMT -5
I wouldn't. If you are going to argue for creator rights and comics as art and then put forward a product that is commercial and interchangeable despite who draws it, it's a hypocritical proposition. As much as I like George Perez, I don't want to see another artist trying to do a Perez pastiche for the artwork (or a Kirby pastiche, or a Kubert pastiche, or a Garcia-Lopez pastiche, etc.). Some artists may be influenced more and imitate another's work at various points in their development as artists, but that's part of the growth process and finding their artistic identity. Being forced to do so, is another matter altogether. If you are going to have a house style, you might as well do art for each issue by committee and not credit the work, because even if one artist is doing it, it's not an expression of themselves or their creativity, it is them consciously swiping another's style to meet the commercial desires of the client. I don't want generic product churned out to meet a predetermined style standard. I want creators exploring storytelling to the best of their ability and inspiration. House styles enable people like Bob Kane to put their name on other's work and get away with it. And that's not something I want comic companies to strive for or aspire to. -M I think you might be reading a tad to deeply into this hypothetical, mrp. No one's advocating that a company actually do this, and there'd be no commercial viability in such a decision in today's market. I still see a house style for the majority of Marvel and DC output. And the few titles that don't fit into a house style are usually the B and C tier titles that are given to someone to do something with before cancellation, which is what was always the case with Marvel and DC with their most creative talent. New Mutants, Daredevil, She Hulk, these were all junk, which in a last ditch effort were saved by creativity. I don't know why they haven't decided to see what that creativity could do for X-Men or Spiderman, but they'll be sure to try it on their least popular property just to see if it can be rebooted into a valuable movie IP later. Manga Ghost Rider anyone? |
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2015 20:51:38 GMT -5
I think you might be reading a tad to deeply into this hypothetical, mrp. No one's advocating that a company actually do this, and there'd be no commercial viability in such a decision in today's market. I still see a house style for the majority of Marvel and DC output. And the few titles that don't fit into a house style are usually the B and C tier titles that are given to someone to do something with before cancellation, which is what was always the case with Marvel and DC with their most creative talent. New Mutants, Daredevil, She Hulk, these were all junk, which in a last ditch effort were saved by creativity. I don't know why they haven't decided to see what that creativity could do for X-Men or Spiderman, but they'll be sure to try it on their least popular property just to see if it can be rebooted into a valuable movie IP later. Manga Ghost Rider anyone?They've been there done that...   -M |
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Post by DubipR on May 4, 2015 21:38:57 GMT -5
Personally, I'd go for "No House Style" but if we're playing the game, I'd have 5 house styles
1. Wally Wood
2. Jose Luis Garcia Lopez
3. Steve Rude
4. Michael Lark
5. Darwyn Cooke
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2015 21:45:59 GMT -5
To play the game, I would design my house style as such....
look to Will Eisner for your page designs...
look to Joe Kubert for how to compose dynamic action in your panels and covers...
look to John Buscema and John Romita for your Marvel model sheets or Jose Garcia-Lopez for your DC character model sheets...
look to Kevin Maguire on how to vary your facial expressions for emotional impact and variety of faces...
look to Mignola to give your art tone, mood, weight and tension...
look to Kirby, Steranko and Ditko to give it a taste of the exotic and cosmic...
then synthesize something new from these elements, make it our own and put it onto the page...
-M
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Post by MWGallaher on May 5, 2015 7:41:31 GMT -5
I'd say a Kubert-based house style would be among the most versatile and least boring. We've already seen a bit of what such a line would look like, between the legions of Kubert school graduates who started out their pro careers with very obvious Kubert influences and with the many, many DC comics that Kubert anonymously laid out (I'm thinking of Rima, Ragman, and several other comics finished by Filipino artists, as well as many war comics--I'm reading Showcase Presents Unknown Soldier Volume 2 and it's quite obvious that Joe did all the layouts for at least the first part of Dick Ayers' run).
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