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Post by kirby101 on Oct 28, 2024 21:21:10 GMT -5
I considered them all comic book artists. YMMV.
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Post by berkley on Oct 28, 2024 21:49:08 GMT -5
I have nothing against any artist doing whatever they prefer but to nitpick one point, if all they do is covers, can we still call them comic book artists? Yes, I suppose - but only in the trivial sense that they draw for the comic book industry. For me, "comic book artist" implies that they're producing sequential, storytelling art in some form. If a writer wrote nothing but cover blurbs and no stories, would we still call him a comic book writer?
All the aforementioned artists have produced sequentials as well as covers, but primarily do covers now because of their slowness and the unforgiving nature of monthly deadlines. There are very few artists who have only done covers and never sequentials. -M
So once they were comic book artists and now they're artists who draw covers for comic books. I can go with that.
OK, OK, I'm half-kidding. It really doesn't mean anything to me what anyone wants to call them, I just thought it might be an amusing little point to wax pedantic over.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 28, 2024 23:23:17 GMT -5
Lest we forget, there was a period where Gil Kane, a quintessential comic book artist, was churning out covers to earn more income, to pay alimony, after a divorce. You'd be hard pressed to find a great comic book cover artist who didn't have a pretty good body of sequential work. Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (PBHN) primarily worked covers and style guides/licensed art, because he was too slow for monthly books, but too damned good not to exploit. Everybody who worked for DC, in the Bronze Age, gushed about his work, in any form, sequential stories, covers, or model sheets.
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Post by rich on Oct 29, 2024 4:09:47 GMT -5
I love comic book art. But I merely like the covers. I have infinitely more interest in storytelling than in pin ups. I see why artists do covers, as they pay more and as original art they sell for MUCH more to collectors. With there now being so many variant covers I suspect a lot of very good artists (maybe most) will be tempted to just to do variant covers as a career. Seemingly, covers are all that really matters now at the big two.
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Post by driver1980 on Oct 29, 2024 4:28:04 GMT -5
I love comic book art. But I merely like the covers. I have infinitely more interest in storytelling than in pin ups. I see why artists do covers, as they pay more and as original art they sell for MUCH more to collectors. With there now being so many variant covers I suspect a lot of very good artists (maybe most) will be tempted to just to do variant covers as a career. Seemingly, covers are all that really matters now at the big two. I know today’s world is about selling comics to existing readers who have a pull list, but it is still disheartening to see so many character pose covers. From the Big Two at least, it seems we have no desire to do covers featuring action, speech bubbles, captions, etc. Years ago, the Mandarin appeared in a Punisher comic. Fifty years ago or so, we’d have seen an action-packed cover, perhaps with a speech bubble (“No-one defies the Mandarin, Castle!”). This cover was simply a character pose for the Punisher, with no indication that the Mandarin was inside. As it was being sold and marketed towards guys with pull lists, who had read about the Mandarin’s appearance in Previews, then I guess they believe there wasn’t a need for an action cover, but it’s still a shame that they couldn’t do an action cover which showed the Mandarin. |
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Post by rich on Oct 29, 2024 5:02:17 GMT -5
I love comic book art. But I merely like the covers. I have infinitely more interest in storytelling than in pin ups. I see why artists do covers, as they pay more and as original art they sell for MUCH more to collectors. With there now being so many variant covers I suspect a lot of very good artists (maybe most) will be tempted to just to do variant covers as a career. Seemingly, covers are all that really matters now at the big two. I know today’s world is about selling comics to existing readers who have a pull list, but it is still disheartening to see so many character pose covers. From the Big Two at least, it seems we have no desire to do covers featuring action, speech bubbles, captions, etc. Years ago, the Mandarin appeared in a Punisher comic. Fifty years ago or so, we’d have seen an action-packed cover, perhaps with a speech bubble (“No-one defies the Mandarin, Castle!”). This cover was simply a character pose for the Punisher, with no indication that the Mandarin was inside. As it was being sold and marketed towards guys with pull lists, who had read about the Mandarin’s appearance in Previews, then I guess they believe there wasn’t a need for an action cover, but it’s still a shame that they couldn’t do an action cover which showed the Mandarin. Fully agree. I never liked character pose covers. Someone does though- Bolland has spent 40 years predominantly churching out dull character pose covers. 🤷🏼♂️ Today's insane variants take it to another level- there's no guarantee that the characters on the cover will even feature in the comic! |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 29, 2024 6:17:21 GMT -5
I love comic book art. But I merely like the covers. I have infinitely more interest in storytelling than in pin ups. That's why I disliked the work of a certain artists from the last few decades: they would do pin-ups on every page. Lots of posing, little storytelling. Not for me. |
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Post by rich on Oct 29, 2024 6:20:07 GMT -5
I love comic book art. But I merely like the covers. I have infinitely more interest in storytelling than in pin ups. That's why I disliked the work of a certain artists from the last few decades: they would do pin-ups on every page. Lots of posing, little storytelling. Not for me. Now you need to tell us which artist(s) you're talking about! 😅 Though I could certainly have a few guesses  |
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Post by rich on Oct 29, 2024 6:55:58 GMT -5
There are comic book artists who's work, in both personal preference and scope of work, is better suited for covers. They most likely prefer spending a great deal of time on a single image than drawing pages and panels. I think it is a good thing that the industry was able to accommodate the art of Adam, Hughes, Arthur Adams, Brian Bolland, Alex Ross and others. I hear people bemoan that they would rather they do interior pages, but I thing the quality of their output shows they are in the niche they should be. The 'sad' thing about cover artists over the years has been the money it takes away from the interior artists- the creators who are much more important than the cover artist. Maybe their covers aren't as pretty, but it takes away the most saleable page of original art from them for every issue. They'd also probably be less included to draw endless character pin ups with covers not so generic that they could be reshuffled in any order and still apply just as well to the comic in hand. |
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Post by driver1980 on Oct 29, 2024 6:58:44 GMT -5
I know today’s world is about selling comics to existing readers who have a pull list, but it is still disheartening to see so many character pose covers. From the Big Two at least, it seems we have no desire to do covers featuring action, speech bubbles, captions, etc. Years ago, the Mandarin appeared in a Punisher comic. Fifty years ago or so, we’d have seen an action-packed cover, perhaps with a speech bubble (“No-one defies the Mandarin, Castle!”). This cover was simply a character pose for the Punisher, with no indication that the Mandarin was inside. As it was being sold and marketed towards guys with pull lists, who had read about the Mandarin’s appearance in Previews, then I guess they believe there wasn’t a need for an action cover, but it’s still a shame that they couldn’t do an action cover which showed the Mandarin. Fully agree. I never liked character pose covers. Someone does though- Bolland has spent 40 years predominantly churching out dull character pose covers. 🤷🏼♂️ Today's insane variants take it to another level- there's no guarantee that the characters on the cover will even feature in the comic! It’s a moot point given what I posted about pull lists and who these things are marketed to, but I do sometimes wonder about *occasional* casual readers (or parents) picking up a comic with a cover that isn’t representative of what is inside. I may have mentioned this previously, but about a year or so ago, I saw a picture of some Batman ‘66 villains in a bank vault - with Superman having ripped apart the vault door. I presumed they’d done a Superman/Batman ‘66 crossover, which appealed to me; but then I discovered it was a variant cover. I don’t get it. Each to their own. But suppose there might be at least *some* times where a parent might head into a comic shop to find a comic for someone’s birthday - and if he/she sees, say, Spider-Man on a Deadpool comic cover, he/she might pick it up thinking it’ll be a Spidey/Deadpool adventure. Yet when the comic is given to a young person, he/she might be disappointed to find Spidey isn’t in the story, it’s merely a variant to celebrate the latest Spidey movie. I know someone here might say I’m missing the point given the whole argument about pull lists and how people buying comics are people who have pre-ordered. I get that. I know how the land lies. I’m just referring to the above scenario being a possibility with some comic buyers, whether that be the woman buying a comic for her son, or a person who casually passes Forbidden Planet and decides to go in and look for a comic because he’s seen some MCU movies. I guess that goes to a wider point about spontaneous and casual buyers. I don’t have figures to hand, I’m sure the majority are the pull list folk and those who have pre-ordered. But there must be some people on the planet who might be casual/lapsed readers. And this is where I think variant covers are disingenuous. I mean, I’ve learnt my lesson with the Superman/Joker ‘66 “fiasco”, but I wonder how many might have been misled just a little. |
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Oct 29, 2024 7:54:26 GMT -5
I have known of people who have bought monthly periodicals - and then read 5-6 in one go months down the line. I have done that! Being enslaved to the monthly release schedule seems bizarre in this day and age. Back in the 90's into the 00's Travis Charest is a prime example of a person's whose art couldn't fit the monthly deadline and ended up doing mostly covers. All of his covers and interior art are amazing. But the amount of time that he would want to put into each page meant he couldn't make said deadlines. Which is why he was quite sporadic with interior art in Wildcats (Vol. 1). It took him just under a year to do Wildcats/X-Men: The Golden Age but damn does his efforts show. Good story too.    |
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Post by kirby101 on Oct 29, 2024 8:09:26 GMT -5
I agree about the "pose covers" and the variants that have nothing to do with the book. But as far a different artists for the cover than the interior, that goes back to the Golden Age.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 29, 2024 8:15:49 GMT -5
I agree about the "pose covers" and the variants that have nothing to do with the book. But as far a different artists for the cover than the interior, that goes back to the Golden Age. As do the “pose covers.” This thing I’m going to complain is new had been a thing from the beginning of the industry. (Not aimed at you, Kirby) |
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Post by driver1980 on Oct 29, 2024 8:16:21 GMT -5
I agree about the "pose covers" and the variants that have nothing to do with the book. But as far a different artists for the cover than the interior, that goes back to the Golden Age. It probably goes back to caveman times. Who’s to say that the art on the inside of the cave walls was done by the same caveman who did the art on the exterior of the cave? And I doubt there were any creator credits back then! |
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Post by Chris on Oct 29, 2024 8:51:51 GMT -5
Right page, Wolverine looks like he's waiting for the other members of Supergrass to arrive at the gig. |
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