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Post by crazyoldhermit on May 3, 2023 21:28:15 GMT -5
Todd McFarlane...
I respect his work a lot more than I actually like it.
Todd seemed to be one of the first guys to really reconsider the way characters were drawn. For better or for worse, he is an aesthetic milestone. I don't really like his actual work, but I like that he reimagined Spider-Man as a double-jointed spastic. He pulled Spider-Man back towards the Ditko roots, then injected even more of the character's personality into it (in this case, the character's neurosis). He did the same thing with Hulk - I think the actual work looks weak, but the conception of it, drawing inspiration from rhinos and elephants and other huge mammals, really works.
Really I just think Todd is technically weak, and has ideas that far outstrip his ability. Even Greg Capullo, who became Todd's right-hand artist, was appalled at McFarlane's success given his technical weakness, and it was only when he started working on Spawn that he came to appreciate the style.
I'd say of the big three of that boom - McFarlane, Liefeld and Lee - McFarlane was the most inspired, while Lee was by far the technically strongest, and Liefeld really just sucked in both aspects.
And personally I will take Jim Lee over Toddy any day of the weak. I think Lee is fantastic.
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Post by spoon on May 3, 2023 21:34:28 GMT -5
One of the first two comics I ever bought was the Dr. Fate origin story McFarlane drew in All-Star Squadron, so he has a place in my personal comics history.
I read a bunch of his Infinity Inc. stories recently and it was a mixed bag. I don't know if the variation was due to inking or rushing, but some of it was much better than others. I thought his Hulk run was solid.
It had been a long time since I last read his Spider-Man work, until maybe last year I read the Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection that reprinted his earliest issues. The first few issues weren't that good, and I was thinking it aged pretty poorly. But it turned out that the quality of the art drastically improved partway through the TPB (maybe around #304 or #306).
At the time his Amazing run came out, I read it sporadically. But then when he moved over to adjectiveless Spider-Man, I bought most of his issues. I love the art at the time, but his writing underwhelmed me. I remember during the Wendigo, there was some disturbing story element (maybe a child molester).
I did buy Spawn #1, but I may not even have stuck around for #3. That was typical for me with the original Image books. I realized that the characters and writing were big parts of what I liked about the books the Image founders worked on at Marvel, so the Image titles weren't nearly as good.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2023 5:23:12 GMT -5
So, was Image the “ECW” of the comicbook world? Was Marvel the WWF, and DC akin to WCW? Or was Marvel “WCW” and DC “the WWF”? Discuss. Just joking… He did the same thing with Hulk - I think the actual work looks weak, but the conception of it, drawing inspiration from rhinos and elephants and other huge mammals, really works. That’s an interesting way of looking at it, I hadn’t considered that. If I was going to own any grey Hulk artwork, I feel there’s a good chance it’d be from one of McFarlane’s pages. I also like the proportions. I don’t want the Hulk to look like he’s been pumped full of air at a petrol station, I want a solid physique that looks big enough to be true to the fantasy nature of comics, but not a caricature I can see in any broadsheet cartoon. |
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Post by badwolf on May 4, 2023 10:23:19 GMT -5
At the time his Amazing run came out, I read it sporadically. But then when he moved over to adjectiveless Spider-Man, I bought most of his issues. I love the art at the time, but his writing underwhelmed me. I remember during the Wendigo, there was some disturbing story element (maybe a child molester). There was a child molester in one of the early Spawn stories. |
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on May 4, 2023 12:15:41 GMT -5
Don't know much about the man outside of as a writer or artist. I know (because at the time I was still buying them) he made some excellent and quality action figures. I purged a lot of what I had over the year and gave to my boys when they were younger. But of the few I kept the majority were figures his studio made.
I liked his Spider-man issues. I never read any of the ASM because by the time I got to them they were going for a lot and I was kind of green about what TPBs were. I liked his take on Spider-man proportionally. I liked the style of his poses and the way he drew Spider-man's webbing. Within the stories that he did write, I liked that the villains of those stories played well to his artistic style. Lizard, Hobgoblin, Wendigo, Morbius, Calypso and Kraven all drawn like the monsters that they are. Then guest starring Ghost Rider and Wolverine; all to me played to his style.
Now I will agree with most people his writing isn't the best. Not the worst I have read either. But it is definitely not one of his strong suits. But still I remember liking them fairly well for what they were. I think Torment was his best plot out of all of them. And the light-hearted finish up of his run with X-Force starring had a lot of good one-liners and banter.
I also agree with driver1980 on his work on Hulk. I liked that he drew Hulk like an actual monster. Because Hulk/Joe FixIt is pretty much a monster. One that you had little or no sympathy for. So his visual appearance matching what was the inside made it easier to him as a villain. So I thought he did good on that.
The only Spawn I have read is any appearance by Angela. I bought the Angela mini series off the shelf and thought she was an interesting characters so I snatched up her appearances. Most recently the story leading up to Spawn #100 back in 2000, but I have never had any inclination to get into the series itself. I will buy an occasional one shot or crossover appearance but that's about it. I don't dislike the character just haven't really had to dive into a series that's been going on that long.
I really liked Invasion! but I thought it was one of the weakest of McFarlane's artistic en devours. His humans almost looked as grotesque (if not more) than the alien races in the story. I don't know the reason; rushed, the inker, bad day? I dunno but that one is hard to look at but I really like the scope of the story and outside of the human characters he did well with the aliens and backgrounds.
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Post by spoon on May 4, 2023 17:34:43 GMT -5
At the time his Amazing run came out, I read it sporadically. But then when he moved over to adjectiveless Spider-Man, I bought most of his issues. I love the art at the time, but his writing underwhelmed me. I remember during the Wendigo, there was some disturbing story element (maybe a child molester). There was a child molester in one of the early Spawn stories. I may have confused the two stories. I think maybe the Wendigo story in Spider-Man might've involved Wendigo eating children. |
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2023 4:55:19 GMT -5
I also agree with driver1980 on his work on Hulk. I liked that he drew Hulk like an actual monster. Because Hulk/Joe FixIt is pretty much a monster. One that you had little or no sympathy for. So his visual appearance matching what was the inside made it easier to him as a villain. So I thought he did good on that. Thank you. There’s a real mean streak to McFarlane’s Hulk, and I find myself really noticing the Hulk’s expressions. Jeez, just looking at him, I fear he’ll jump off the page and ask me what my problem is. I was never a fan of Herbe Trimpe’s Hulk, particularly the face. His Hulk looked like he always had his eyes closed, perhaps because he’d got sand in them or something. There wasn’t anything menacing, so I definitely appreciate those who can showcase Hulk’s mean-spirited nature facially. |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
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Post by Confessor on May 5, 2023 8:40:25 GMT -5
I only really know Todd McFarlane from his work on Spider-Man in the late 80s and early '90s. As I said recently in another thread where his work on Spidey came up, he's not my favourite Spidey artist by a long chalk, but I do enjoy his Spider-Man art, which is very dynamic and rather Ditko-esque at times. I also love the look of his so-called "spaghetti webbing" -- which might be the most important and influential addition to the look of Spider-Man since the Ditko and Romita days. But again, as I said elsewhere recently, the thing I dislike most about McFarlane's Spider-Man is that he turned Mary Jane Watson into little more than generic T&A, and not even T&A that looked terribly like Mary Jane had in the past, other than she had red hair, of course.
As for his other work with Marvel or at Image, I can't really comment because I have never really sampled any of it. Likewise, I can't speak to what he's like as a person or even comment on any controversial remarks he might have made because I have never heard them.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on May 6, 2023 18:12:07 GMT -5
Jim Valentino was the odd-man out as he was the elder statesman and came from an entirely different comics background. His non-superhero work is pretty solid, and he played a big role in the editorial side of Image. was amazing. Very much the antithesis of Spawn and W.i.l.d.cats. That title made me realize that Image could be more than gnashing teeth and belt pouches. |
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Post by Prince Hal on May 7, 2023 14:23:00 GMT -5
With Mcfarlane in mind what is the consensus for any of the original Image founders? Me personally none were especially memorable. I'm not a fan of any of them. I was reading zero of the Marvel books they worked on before Image was founded. The only Image book I read before they changed their business model was 1963. Me, too. |
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2023 14:46:57 GMT -5
I actually liked Pitt which started initially at Image, in fact I didn't realize until just now that Dale Keown was almost an original founder.
And then in '95, Astro City started at Image and that became my favorite book of pretty much the decade.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
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Post by Confessor on May 8, 2023 5:59:00 GMT -5
And then in '95, Astro City started at Image and that became my favorite book of pretty much the decade. Yeah, Astro City was the only Image book I ever gave a s**t about and actively collected. |
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Post by commond on May 8, 2023 7:28:21 GMT -5
When Valentino took over from Marder, they started bringing in titles like Bone, A Distant Soil, Strangers in Paradise and publishing titles like Age of Bronze, The Walking Dead, and Powers. The founders didn't like the direction Valentino took the company in, but it paved the way for the success story they've become under Stephenson.
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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2023 8:12:47 GMT -5
When Valentino took over from Marder, they started bringing in titles like Bone, A Distant Soil, Strangers in Paradise and publishing titles like Age of Bronze, The Walking Dead, and Powers. The founders didn't like the direction Valentino took the company in, but it paved the way for the success story they've become under Stephenson. I forgot that Bone had moved to Image, that's actually around the time I discovered it, fantastic series. This is totally an aside, but a good friend of mine at work was also a Bone fan and went to Ohio State the same time Jeff Smith did, and had a copy of the Thorn: Tales From the Lantern trade he bought as a student there (The Lantern is OSU's student newspaper where Smith's pre-Bone work "Thorn" was published). He let me borrow and read it even though it was already quite the valuable collectible, a great friend indeed. As I reflect on the path Image took such as with the examples above, and bringing it back to McFarlane, I don't know how much this aligned to his original vision for the start-up, but it certainly seems like Image shook things up and found it's groove along the way. It was others besides Todd that ultimately made that happen it seems as I'm learning more by following this thread, but kudos to Todd for having the vision and drive to take such a bold step to begin with. |
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Post by kirby101 on May 8, 2023 8:40:53 GMT -5
Image was very lucky that David Olbrich of Malibu agreed to do all the administrative and production work for Image. I don't know if they could have handled all that and create comics at the same time.
I will say that I don't know how much of a gamble this was. I give them all due credit for making it a success, but the down side is they would return to marvel and DC with open arms.
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