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Post by brutalis on May 15, 2020 8:13:22 GMT -5
My apologies if my thread title's pun has anybody thinking this is a wrestling thread. It is not. Instead, what I hope to see is all of you internet picture browsing maniacs who love to post pictures taking the ball and running for the touchdown in showing pictures from all the great (and not so great) comic book artists showing off their own individual and unique art style specifics. Inspired from talk in another thread about how artists have their own shorthand or way of drawing things which is instantly recognizable as to knowing who the artist is that drew it, I thought this might make for an interesting subject. Since I cannot post images (thanks to my hospital's incredibly strong blocking/protection system) I shall throw out occasional thoughts and replies while the rest of you post magnificent images showing examples of artistic flair (woooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh). To start you all off, I have several suggestions but feel free to explore and express your own findings!
Ditko: his wild and crazy jazz hands for characters, his rubber bandy legged poses, his fantasy/magical/other worldly scenarios and so forth.
Kirby: who doesn't know and love Kirby Krackle? Squared fingers, imaginative machinery which nobody but the King knows what it does if anything, Kirby monsters and more.
Gil Kane: the upshot face/head staring into the nostrils of the soul, heroically powerful posing (wrestlers must study Kane), the impact and follow through flow of a spectacular punch utilizing the entire body, Kane clothing and other such.
Infantino: the lunge forward with fists/arms ready to strike, the falling backwards run/stop posture, angular faces, emptied/shaded city background with only windows showing, futuristic cityscapes and more.
This is just the tip of a Titanic Iceberg (yes I went there) of artistic endeavors in which ALL artists drawing comic book/sequential art will adapt and stylize. Every artist from the early days of newspaper strips and through today's comics and graphic novels have their own unique sense of design, style and anatomy which so many of us can easily or not so easily identify, even when the artists name isn't there. Whether you like or loathe (yes, even the so called "bad" artists have traits we can recognize (looking at you Liefeld no feet in the panel) and can talk about. So let the image posting and discussions begin! Enter the fun...
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Post by rberman on May 15, 2020 9:06:37 GMT -5
In the 80s, Infantino loved drawing the philtrum, the little indentation between the nose and mouth, on every face.  I've spoken before about Sal Buscema's stereotypical trapezoidal mouths, which I've seen others notice as well.    He also loved the head-over-heels punch. I'm not actually sure the below image is Sal's pencils, but it still illustrates a pose he used frequently.  Barry Windsor-Smith loves long faces, often colored half a pale tan and half a sickly blue/grey.   |
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Post by brutalis on May 15, 2020 9:54:16 GMT -5
oh yes, you can always tell a Sal drawing from the mouths! Which you should recognize in that Hulk panel, even through the Ernie Chan inks over our pal Sal.
I also think Windsor Smith tends towards the long/lean/skinny/thinner body type as his art became more Rapheolitic (my own made up word!) in his representations.
I also see in your pics that Infantino has Han and Leia sporting the same eyebrow style! Intergalactic laser trimmings maybe?!? The Jedi's found a new undercover job for their light sabers while hiding out from the Empire!!!
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Post by rberman on May 15, 2020 10:08:35 GMT -5
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Post by rberman on May 15, 2020 10:12:59 GMT -5
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Post by MDG on May 15, 2020 11:43:11 GMT -5
I can never point to (or more accurately "describe") specific artistic quirks to identify artists, but there are dozens I can spot. In 1979 or so, there was a Superman cover on Sunday Parade magazine and my roommates immediately said "Swan and Coletta." I came into "fandom" through ECs, Warren, and Undergrounds, so I was like "How can you tell? all those superhero artists draw the same!" I knew I'd cracked the code, though, when I was looking through back issues and immediately identified this as Gil Kane:  |
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Post by Prince Hal on May 15, 2020 12:55:16 GMT -5
How many nostrils can Gil Kane give us a tour of on one cover?  |
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Post by Phil Maurice on May 15, 2020 14:12:03 GMT -5
How many nostrils can Gil Kane give us a tour of on one cover? The nostrils were the reason I always assumed Kane was a short man, possibly even a dwarf. But he was actually rather tall, which makes them even more baffling. |
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Post by Prince Hal on May 15, 2020 14:17:17 GMT -5
How many nostrils can Gil Kane give us a tour of on one cover? The nostrils were the reason I always assumed Kane was a short man, possibly even a dwarf. But he was actually rather tall, which makes them even more baffling. Right, he was very tall. Maybe he tried those poses at first for variety's sake and found he was good at them and drew them out of habit. The way Colletta fell into not inking backgrounds. |
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Post by MDG on May 15, 2020 15:34:33 GMT -5
I think he found that angle dynamic, partly because it was unusual. When movie director Edward Dmytryk visited my film class, he talked about his crews would laugh 'cause he would squat down or stand on boxes when lining up shots because what was unusual kept audience interest.
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Post by badwolf on May 15, 2020 15:36:46 GMT -5
How many nostrils can Gil Kane give us a tour of on one cover? The nostrils were the reason I always assumed Kane was a short man, possibly even a dwarf. But he was actually rather tall, which makes them even more baffling. Perhaps the fact that he could never see anyone's nostrils made him want to draw them all the more. |
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Post by electricmastro on May 15, 2020 16:38:05 GMT -5
Jack Cole drawing body parts multiple times close to each other with shaky lines and circles to indicate his fast movement.   |
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Post by rberman on May 15, 2020 16:43:34 GMT -5
Jack Cole drawing body parts multiple times close to each other with shaky lines and circles to indicate his fast movement. Good one! I had to explain this convention to my son when we were reading Broderick-era Legion of Super-Heroes together earlier this week. "Why does Braniac 5 have two heads?" he asked.  |
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Post by brutalis on May 15, 2020 17:04:28 GMT -5
Jack Cole drawing body parts multiple times close to each other with shaky lines and circles to indicate his fast movement. Good one! I had to explain this convention to my son when we were reading Broderick-era Legion of Super-Heroes together earlier this week. "Why does Braniac 5 have two heads?" he asked. Since Brainiac is smarter than everyone else you should have explained it must be the literal representation that 2 heads are better than one! |
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Post by codystarbuck on May 15, 2020 19:49:46 GMT -5
To me, nothing says Wally Wood faster than belts & ammo pouches, and Hal Foster chain mail......     For Frank Robbins, on Invaders, it was belts and straps, usually on boots and gloves and Sam Brown-style holster belts (waist belt with a single leather shoulder strap, across the chest, as seen on police officers of the 20s and 30s)   Wood had been a paratrooper and paratroops strapped their gear on for a jump and carried a lot of equipment in the field. It made sense and he never took it to Liefeldian extremes. Also, holsters were slung low like a gunslinger. With sci-fi, you could add bubble helmets and hoses, with each flexible fold indicated. He also tended to draw spacesuits like early pressure suits for jet pilots; but, then again, that is how NASA developed them. The chain mail was just swiping from Foster. Robbins was using historical detail, as Army boots had a cuff at the ankle that buckled on the side. Paratrooper jump boots were different and highly prized; so, of course, the rest of the Army moved to something similar. Army gloves also had a wrist strap on the leather shell (which went over wool gloves); so, you can see where he was coming from. Sam Brown holster belts were common with police and military dress uniforms. With Warrior Woman, if was just pure fetish, as she is meant to be the Nazi Wonder Woman, with the S&M element taken to the extreme of dominatrix, which Nazi regalia is a common feature of BDSM imagery. Robbins also had his own style for doing the buccaneer boot cuffs, with the material flexing around in action scenes way more than real ones probably wood (more like loose cloth than the heavy leather of the actual boots). With Kurt Schaffenberger, it's the eyes....   |
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