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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 22, 2022 12:15:45 GMT -5
Mike Grell following Gil Kane following Russ Manning on the Tarzan newspaper strip. Each had a different style, but each made the weekly page a thing of beauty.
I never really saw the Gray Morrow pages that followed, but damn... talk about a great roster.
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 22, 2022 12:35:14 GMT -5
May I offer the Counter-Earth version of commond's question, which unfortunately yields many more examples: What is some of the worst work that followed legendary or critically acclaimed runs? If you want to read "worst" as disappointing or unbelievable drop -off, that's fine, because it isn't so much to disparage an artist as it is to say, "Really? This guy?" as you opened the first issue without the great art. I nominate Andru and Esposito taking over the Flash from Infantino.
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Post by Graphic Autist on Sept 22, 2022 14:40:41 GMT -5
Edit: See next post.
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Post by Graphic Autist on Sept 22, 2022 14:41:08 GMT -5
May I offer the Counter-Earth version of commond 's question, which unfortunately yields many more examples: What is some of the worst work that followed legendary or critically acclaimed runs? If you want to read "worst" as disappointing or unbelievable drop -off, that's fine, because it isn't so much to disparage an artist as it is to say, "Really? This guy?" as you opened the first issue without the great art. I nominate Andru and Esposito taking over the Flash from Infantino. Erik Larsen taking over Amazing Spider-Man after McFarlane left. Just looked like a sloppy, sub-par imitation of what McFarlane had been doing.
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Post by tarkintino on Sept 22, 2022 15:47:04 GMT -5
May I offer the Counter-Earth version of commond 's question, which unfortunately yields many more examples: What is some of the worst work that followed legendary or critically acclaimed runs? If you want to read "worst" as disappointing or unbelievable drop -off, that's fine, because it isn't so much to disparage an artist as it is to say, "Really? This guy?" as you opened the first issue without the great art. I nominate Andru and Esposito taking over the Flash from Infantino. Andru following the collective, historic Romita and Kane eras on The Amazing Spider-Man. Romita defined the appearance (and a good deal of plotting) of the entire Spider-Man world, while Kane brought his own high-flying theatrics to the title. I've said this before on the board, but Andru was one of the most severe drops in quality--the very heart of all that Spider-Man had ascended to be as a character and property overall that Romita and Kane (individually and as pencil/ink team) were so chiefly responsible for, that if not for the strength of the stories, the art would have made reading TASM a task, which no comic should ever do to a reader.
Rich Buckler, Chuck Patton and José Luis García-López following Perez on Tales of the Teen Titans. Like the situation with Andru coming in after a title/character-defining run, Buckler, Patton & García-López simply were ill-equipped to carry on the game-changing, thrilling work and care Perez brought to his title. While some might point to Romeo Tanghal's inking of Patton and García-López as some sort of visual consistency (since he inked Perez on this title under its original name), I was not a fan of his thin, far-too indistinct inking, always finding Dick Giordano to be Perez's best inker (not a shock, as this towering talent was Neal Adams' best inker as well). Wolfman was the only strength remaining on that title after Perez's departure.
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Post by MDG on Sept 22, 2022 16:10:12 GMT -5
On the original question: Murphy Anderson following Joe Kubert on Hawkman.
(This one might be a little divisive): Frank Robbins following Mike Kaluta on The Shadow.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 22, 2022 16:36:17 GMT -5
(This one might be a little divisive): Frank Robbins following Mike Kaluta on The Shadow. Some people just want to watch the world burn!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 22, 2022 16:39:10 GMT -5
In the glory days to ghastly disappointment category: from Michael Golden to Howard Chaykin on Micronauts. Oh, the pain... the pain.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 22, 2022 20:43:53 GMT -5
On the plus side, Mike Grell following Dave Cockrum on Legion of Superheroes. Picked up what Cockrum had been doing and then added his own touches.
Not exactly immediately following; but, Marshal Rogers on the revival of Mister Miracle, after Kirby. Rogers just made that a thing of beauty and Englehart had some interesting ideas for the series.
On the negative side, I stopped reading the Will Payton Starman not too long after Tom Lyle left. Dave Hoover did a decent job; but, not long after he took over the art, Roger Stern left the book and Len Strazewski took over and it just wasn't the same. Lyle had that dynamic, lean look that gave it visual excitement and Stern did solid superhero stuff; not always epic; but, entertaining. By a similar token, Rafael Kayanan following Pat Broderick on Captain Atom. Broderick gave that series such power and excitement and Kayanan wasn't bad; but, again, not the same kind of visual flair or anything that distinctive in his own right.
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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 23, 2022 4:11:14 GMT -5
Andru following the collective, historic Romita and Kane eras on The Amazing Spider-Man. Romita defined the appearance (and a good deal of plotting) of the entire Spider-Man world, while Kane brought his own high-flying theatrics to the title. I've said this before on the board, but Andru was one of the most severe drops in quality--the very heart of all that Spider-Man had ascended to be as a character and property overall that Romita and Kane (individually and as pencil/ink team) were so chiefly responsible for, that if not for the strength of the stories, the art would have made reading TASM a task, which no comic should ever do to a reader. Wow, we could not disagree more, mon amie. I thought Andru's Spidey run was incredible. His intelligent layouts, expressive characters (a bit too cartoony at times, I'll concede), and background work made for great storytelling. He's easily my favorite artist on the character after Ditko. By contrast, I'm not at all impressed by Kane's work on ASM. Yeah, the fight scenes are powerful but his art has never lent itself well to the kind of character ineractions that make up a huge part of Spidey's appeal.
Now, if you want to talk about disappointing art changes, the switch from Andru to Pollard does it for me.
Cei-U! I summon the study in contrasts!
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Post by EdoBosnar on Sept 23, 2022 5:05:26 GMT -5
Andru following the collective, historic Romita and Kane eras on The Amazing Spider-Man. Romita defined the appearance (and a good deal of plotting) of the entire Spider-Man world, while Kane brought his own high-flying theatrics to the title. I've said this before on the board, but Andru was one of the most severe drops in quality--the very heart of all that Spider-Man had ascended to be as a character and property overall that Romita and Kane (individually and as pencil/ink team) were so chiefly responsible for, that if not for the strength of the stories, the art would have made reading TASM a task, which no comic should ever do to a reader. Wow, we could not disagree more, mon amie. I thought Andru's Spidey run was incredible. His intelligent layouts, expressive characters (a bit too cartoony at times, I'll concede), and background work made for great storytelling. He's easily my favorite artist on the character after Ditko. By contrast, I'm not at all impressed by Kane's work on ASM. Yeah, the fight scenes are powerful but his art has never lent itself well to the kind of character ineractions that make up a huge part of Spidey's appeal.
Now, if you want to talk about disappointing art changes, the switch from Andru to Pollard does it for me.
(...) I fully agree about Andru, i.e., he's one of my top Spidey artists (part of a pentumvirate that includes Ditko, Romita Sr., Kane and Sal Buscema). However, we in turn disagree about Pollard - I'm rather fond of his work on both Spider-man and FF during that period.
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Post by tarkintino on Sept 23, 2022 5:35:32 GMT -5
Wow, we could not disagree more, mon amie. I thought Andru's Spidey run was incredible. His intelligent layouts, expressive characters (a bit too cartoony at times, I'll concede), and background work made for great storytelling. He's easily my favorite artist on the character after Ditko. By contrast, I'm not at all impressed by Kane's work on ASM. Yeah, the fight scenes are powerful but his art has never lent itself well to the kind of character ineractions that make up a huge part of Spidey's appeal. I hear you, but I also found Andru not only unfit for Spider-Man, but often, his figures appeared to be positioned as if they were broken or in pain, and I was not fond of his Peter Parker with the long jaw better suited for Harry Osborn. *shrugs* Pollard was not my favorite artist by any stretch of the imagination, but his Spider-Man art was interesting from time to time, with a style that was not evocative of his predecessors, but had some sort of edge to it. A couple of his covers featuring Spider-Man were memorable-- The Amazing Spider-Man #202 (March, 1980) - with Rubinstein inks. The Official Marvel Index to Amazing Spider-Man #8 (November, 1985).
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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 23, 2022 6:27:45 GMT -5
That index cover *is* very nice. I don't hate Pollard's work by any means, I'm just not usually impressed by his storytelling (I say "usually" because his work on Thor #300 just knocked me out).
Cei-U! I summon the lesser light!
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,568
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Post by Confessor on Sept 23, 2022 9:43:22 GMT -5
Like Cei-U! and EdoBosnar, I too love Ross Andru's work on ASM. I mean, yeah, he's not quite up to the high standards of Steve Ditko or John Romita, but I prefer him as a Spidey artist over Gil Kane. I've sung the praises of Andru's Spider-Man artwork many times before in the forum: I love his dynamic layouts, his realistic (and often architecturally and geographically accurate) backgrounds, and his fantastic facial expressions. He also drew Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane as every bit as sexy and beautiful as Romita had. Also, no artist before or since has managed to capture the precarious, vertigo-inducing nature of Spider-Man's daredevil, rooftop webspinning as well as Andru. Whenever he drew Spidey high above the New York City streets, he really captured the danger of that situation and conveyed just how high above the pavement Spidey was. When Andru drew Spidey swinging among the skyscrapers, he made me feel the vertigo and nobody else has ever captured that as well, IMO.
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Post by kirby101 on Sept 23, 2022 10:23:49 GMT -5
I am in the Andru was a down turn camp. I remember how disappointed I was when he took over. Almost every figure of Spider-Man looked weird or awkward. I know people like his backgrounds, but that didn't make up for the way he posed Spidey. YMMV
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