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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2014 16:41:04 GMT -5
I cannot speak of the horror a few posts up. That is...wow. Romita's is far preferable, must agree. I wouldn't say McFarlane's characters are attractive, but I'm drawn to grotesque disfigured illustration as well. A handful of the comics I read have artists that draw everyone almost like monsters. Not sure if that was what McFarlane was trying to actually do though. |
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Post by fanboystranger on May 7, 2014 16:50:40 GMT -5
I cannot speak of the horror a few posts up. That is...wow. Romita's is far preferable, must agree. I wouldn't say McFarlane's characters are attractive, but I'm drawn to grotesque disfigured illustration as well. A handful of the comics I read have artists that draw everyone almost like monsters. Not sure if that was what McFarlane was trying to actually do though. I'm drawn to a lot of artists who work with distorted figures, too, but I find that those artists mostly do it in order to build a certain atmosphere, generally horror or humor. I don't get a lot of atmosphere out of McFarlane's work. Whereas in the work of Rich Corben, Ted McKeever, Kelley Jones, Sam Keith, Simon Bisley, etc, you have a ton of atmosphere.
I don't really mind McFarlane's work. It's not something I would choose to read, but I can roll with it if it's thrown in front of me. There's a slickness to his art that I do not enjoy, especially when Danny Miki came into the picture. (Feel the same about Greg Capullo, who everyone seems to love these days.)
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Post by thebeastofyuccaflats on May 7, 2014 16:56:04 GMT -5
i've said it before but because i'm a one trick pony i'll say it again. this...  I liked X-Men: Xenogenisis. Kaare Andrews artwork fit Warren Ellis' whacked out story. It was probably the best part of that, honestly. |
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Post by DubipR on May 7, 2014 16:59:16 GMT -5
I wouldn't say McFarlane's characters are attractive, but I'm drawn to grotesque disfigured illustration as well. A handful of the comics I read have artists that draw everyone almost like monsters. Not sure if that was what McFarlane was trying to actually do though. I'm drawn to a lot of artists who work with distorted figures, too, but I find that those artists mostly do it in order to build a certain atmosphere, generally horror or humor. I don't get a lot of atmosphere out of McFarlane's work. Whereas in the work of Rich Corben, Ted McKeever, Kelley Jones, Sam Keith, Simon Bisley, etc, you have a ton of atmosphere.
I don't really mind McFarlane's work. It's not something I would choose to read, but I can roll with it if it's thrown in front of me. There's a slickness to his art that I do not enjoy, especially when Danny Miki came into the picture. (Feel the same about Greg Capullo, who everyone seems to love these days.)
But Corben, McKeever, Jones, Keith and Biz have layers and textures to their work. It springs. Sure their anatomy is exaggerated in the stories they're telling; it works for them. McFarlane just put together pages of insanity of impossible poses of bendy backbones and Scott Williams-like over inking to each page. Capullo on the other hand, had a clean style back when he was on Quasar. When he was asked by McFarlane to take over Spawn, he fell into the McFarlane mold. |
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Post by DubipR on May 7, 2014 17:00:36 GMT -5
I liked X-Men: Xenogenisis. Kaare Andrews artwork fit Warren Ellis' whacked out story. It was probably the best part of that, honestly. Wouldn't argue with that, Beasty. His work currently on Iron Fist is insanely killer. |
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Post by fanboystranger on May 7, 2014 17:06:48 GMT -5
I'm drawn to a lot of artists who work with distorted figures, too, but I find that those artists mostly do it in order to build a certain atmosphere, generally horror or humor. I don't get a lot of atmosphere out of McFarlane's work. Whereas in the work of Rich Corben, Ted McKeever, Kelley Jones, Sam Keith, Simon Bisley, etc, you have a ton of atmosphere.
I don't really mind McFarlane's work. It's not something I would choose to read, but I can roll with it if it's thrown in front of me. There's a slickness to his art that I do not enjoy, especially when Danny Miki came into the picture. (Feel the same about Greg Capullo, who everyone seems to love these days.)
But Corben, McKeever, Jones, Keith and Biz have layers and textures to their work. It springs. Sure their anatomy is exaggerated in the stories they're telling; it works for them. McFarlane just put together pages of insanity of impossible poses of bendy backbones and Scott Williams-like over inking to each page. Capullo on the other hand, had a clean style back when he was on Quasar. When he was asked by McFarlane to take over Spawn, he fell into the McFarlane mold. Well, that's what I was getting at it. The distortion is an important part of the storytelling for those other artists. It serves to build an atmosphere of surrealism and otherworldliness. McFarlane's work has none of that. It's an empty stylistic choice.
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Post by fanboystranger on May 7, 2014 17:10:52 GMT -5
I liked X-Men: Xenogenisis. Kaare Andrews artwork fit Warren Ellis' whacked out story. It was probably the best part of that, honestly. Yeah, Andrews art on Xenogenesis was a self-concious choice to ridicule the exploitative figures and posing of women in superhero comics. It's really taking the piss out of bad '90s art. I'm not sure it was truly successful, though, as most people seem to miss it as a parody, probably because the story is largely Ellis collecting a paycheck. Andrews is capable of much better work. |
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2014 17:15:38 GMT -5
But Corben, McKeever, Jones, Keith and Biz have layers and textures to their work. It springs. Sure their anatomy is exaggerated in the stories they're telling; it works for them. McFarlane just put together pages of insanity of impossible poses of bendy backbones and Scott Williams-like over inking to each page. Capullo on the other hand, had a clean style back when he was on Quasar. When he was asked by McFarlane to take over Spawn, he fell into the McFarlane mold. Well, that's what I was getting at it. The distortion is an important part of the storytelling for those other artists. It serves to build an atmosphere of surrealism and otherworldliness. McFarlane's work has none of that. It's an empty stylistic choice.
Yeah I get that, and definitely wouldn't lump Corben in with McFarlane or his like either. In fact, doubt I'd ever buy a McFarlane comic. I can see him right at home illustrating TMNT in the old Kevin Eastman style though, probably. Also, I've been rereading some Silverwolf comics. Loved them as a kid. Rereading them it's some of the worst stuff I still have in my collection, but something still catches my appeal. Probably nostalgia. That early Tim Vigil stuff is so wrong, but at the same time exactly what I liked in the 80's when my shopping was restricted to the quarter bin. Funny thing is in Grips #1 they welcome newcomer Rob Liefeld to the staff  |
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Post by thebeastofyuccaflats on May 7, 2014 17:17:54 GMT -5
It was probably the best part of that, honestly. Yeah, Andrews art on Xenogenesis was a self-concious choice to ridicule the exploitative figures and posing of women in superhero comics. It's really taking the piss out of bad '90s art. I'm not sure it was truly successful, though, as most people seem to miss it as a parody, probably because the story is largely Ellis collecting a paycheck. Andrews is capable of much better work. Mmm-hmm. And I'd also agree with ya'll's comments re: McFarlane vs. Kelley Jones & the others. |
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Post by fanboystranger on May 7, 2014 17:22:44 GMT -5
Well, that's what I was getting at it. The distortion is an important part of the storytelling for those other artists. It serves to build an atmosphere of surrealism and otherworldliness. McFarlane's work has none of that. It's an empty stylistic choice.
Yeah I get that, and definitely wouldn't lump Corben in with McFarlane or his like either. In fact, doubt I'd ever buy a McFarlane comic. I can see him right at home illustrating TMNT in the old Kevin Eastman style though, probably. Also, I've been rereading some Silverwolf comics. Loved them as a kid. Rereading them it's some of the worst stuff I still have in my collection, but something still catches my appeal. Probably nostalgia. That early Tim Vigil stuff is so wrong, but at the same time exactly what I liked in the 80's when my shopping was restricted to the quarter bin. Funny thing is in Grips #1 they welcome newcomer Rob Liefeld to the staff Yeah, it's funny: I can totally overlook most of the artistic shortcomings of the books I loved when I was younger. This is painting on a target on me around here, but I loved Al Milgrom's pencils with Joe Sinnott's inks from WCA. I also loved Ron Frenz on DeFalco's Thor, at least the first few years. It's a complete nostalgic blindspot.
I'd probably feel similarly about the Image artists, but I wasn't reading comics at the time. I came back around '94, but even though I was still a total Marvel Zombie, I was enjoying artists like Alan Davis, Gary Frank, and Leo Manco, all of whom I'd still consider very good artists. Eventually, I'd expand my horizons and gain some critical reference.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 7, 2014 18:33:58 GMT -5
At a time when I wasn't regularly reading any other Marvel comics (and only a few DCs), I was reading Ron Frenz on Thor for several years. And I picked up a few issues of WCA during the Milgrom/Sinnott era. I always liked that art. The series was much better then than when Byrne was writing it. |
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2014 22:33:46 GMT -5
Rob Liefeld's half-acre chest look to make Chris Evans look like a real man...  |
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 7, 2014 22:46:55 GMT -5
Just for the record... I like Al Milgrom's pencils, too  |
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Post by crazyoldhermit on May 8, 2014 0:51:20 GMT -5
I'm not sure if I've ever seen a thigh that ripped on an actual human. Look at that torso, muscles bulging from everywhere, showing through clothing even. Get a bodybuilder, put him in a spandex suit, and you won't see that level of definition in his torso. Spiderman now has the body of this man. Yeah, but so what? It's a comic book, it isn't supposed to represent reality. Since when have comics ever represented reality? Being evocative of an idea is more important than being evocative of a reality. Even though I don't think McFarlane is a good artist I think the ideas behind his Spider-Man are clever and I like it when other artists go with that take, particularly Mark Bagley on Ultimate Spider-Man.  |
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Post by crazyoldhermit on May 8, 2014 1:13:22 GMT -5
Yeah, I understand that, but still.  Attractive lady  Ridiculously big haired big breasted long legged Playboy bunny. Forgive the double post, don't know how to multiquote. This is another thing I chalk up to McFarlane's crappy drawing. I hated MJ's giant 80s hair, the lines on her face make her look old (thats rule #1 broken right there Toddy!) and overall she looks much more trampy. I like Adam Hughes' take, which takes the Playboy bunny angle from McFarlane but with a classier Romita look:  Jackpot indeed. |
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