Panel Discussion: Definitive Artistic Achievements!

Redartz: Good day to you, and welcome! Today we present a challenge for you. I was recently looking over some favorite comics featuring some exemplary artwork, and the question occured to  me: What is the crowning achievement in artwork for your favorite comic artists? In other words, if you could only pick one single comic to showcase the talents of a given artist, what book would that be and why? 

It's a double bonus topic, because it gives us the chance to both discuss the artistic merit of some fine comics and also to leaf through some books just looking for examples! And though there are so many artists to work with, no limits will be set today- all companies, all genres, all eras.. Aaaaand, as this could get rather lengthy as a post (I could talk about artists all day), I'll limit my selections to three.  Here they are...

John Byrne:  Marvel Team-Up 79

I'll preface this with a salute to the obvious influence of inker Terry Austin. Our focus today is on the pencillers, who basically design the  page and determine the flow of the story. But in all cases, the inker has huge influence over the finished quality of the work.

As for John Byrne, he offers countless candidates for a 'best work'. So picking just one is nigh impossible; but I went with a personal favorite, MTU 79. Starting with this incredible opening splash page, the whole book is a showpiece of spectacular composition, gorgeous detail and dramatically portrayed action. Everything he draws just looks...right. From the close-ups of Mary Jane's eye to the stunning full page of Sonja leaping into action, literally every panel is a visual feast for any comic art aficionado.

 

Ross Andru:  Amazing Spider-man 136

Like Byrne, Ross has quite a few fine artistic 'performances'. But in his case, my choice was easier. ASM 136  is a classic, giving us Andru's first go at the Goblin. And he aces it. The facial close up in the third page shown below is excellent. And that spectacular double page spread is fantastic; Gobby almost literally flies off the page.

Equally important, this issue shows Andru's talent for architectural drawing. His rendering of the church below is truly striking, and shows his attention to accurate detail. T

Then there's that great page with the explosion in Peter Parker's aparment. The characters' expressions on this page are perfect, and the dramatic impact of the explosion is palpable. In short, this particular comic really displays Andru's strongest traits, and came immediately to my mind upon considering today's question.

 

Marshall Rogers:  Detective Comics 475


Marshall, in this case, is the beneficiary of the talents of inker Terry Austin; as integral is those talents were for Byrne in the above example. But  Marshall Rogers was a  master storyteller too, as seen in the pages below. The sequence illustrating Silver St. Cloud takes a challenging subject- basically a monologue- and plays it out into a varied series of panels, with varying viewpoints, which serves to maintain the reader's interest. 
It's effective, as is the panel progression showing the grisly effect of the Joker's gas upon his victim. And that iconic page depicting the Joker's entrance- absolutely perfect. The Joker is portrayed perfectly, both physically and by personality. 

And like Andru, Rogers showed his bountiful skills at cityscapes. This splash page intro is stunningly detailed. What a poster this page would make...

So, those three books are the ones I'd pick to represent Byrne, Andru and Rogers in a Comic Art Hall of Fame.  But somehow I just can't leave it at that, so  here's a few other 'quick picks':

Carl Barks:  "A Christmas for Shacktown" (Walt Disney's Christmas Parade 2)
Keith Giffen:  "Within the Darkness"  (Legion of Superheroes 293)
Joe Staton:  "There Shall Come a Gathering" (Showcase 100)
Walter Simonson: X-Men and Teen Titans

 All right, it's time you all had a turn. What do you think of these selections? What other artists  (and there are COUNTLESS) come to your mind, and what comics best exemplify their talents? Have at it, friends...

Chew the Fat: " ...Like it was Yesterday..."

Redartz:  Greetings! As another occasional departure from our usual "Follow the Leader" tradition, we have a topic today prompted by some discussions I've recently read on Facebook.Also inspired by a current project at our house: going through boxes of photos and negatives, scanning and sorting all those images. Seeing some of those photos for the first time in 40+years helped trigger this flashback.    Specifically, it's one of those "a favorite book and how I got it" stories. 

The book is Amazing Spider-Man 146, and the story takes us back to April 1975. It was a school day, but it was to be a short day: we were starting Spring break at our middle school, and they were letting us out after lunch. Actually, after a lunchtime presentation in the auditorium, wherein a local magician was performing to the accompaniment of then-current pop music. Additionally, it was also the day that our local comics shop got the new books in. So it was a red-letter day all around!

Anyway, after the program ended, my comic collecting buddy and I left the school: with Earth, Wind and Fire still ringing in our ears. We were determined to walk downtown to the the comic shop and see what was in. Walk, because the school buses didn't run to that location; besides it was a fine, warm Spring day. So walk we did, about a mile and a half, past the graveyard, past the park, over the river, and downtown to our destination. 

Our rather small town was blessed with the existence of a comic book store; an uncommon thing back then. My pal and I were there each week, religiously. And this week held a bonus: my favorite title was in, Amazing Spider-Man. Grabbing a copy, I opened it up to find another surprise: this issue had inks by John Romita Sr.! I liked Ross Andru's version fine, but Romita was always my favorite. So it was great to see  him inking Andru this issue, giving the book that classic Romita polish.

Then there was the story. Continuing the Scorpion story from issue 145 , and the Gwen Stacy return; plus an appearance by the Jackal! Top all this off with  a dramatic Romita cover (what kind of creep is Scorpion anyway, threatening a helpless old lady in a hospital bed?), and you have a real winner. So waiting to read it was impossible. My buddy lived a short distance from there, so while walking to his house, I eagerly read the comic (and somehow managed to avoid walking off a curb or into a tree). 

Ah, to be 14, out of school for a week, in the sunshine, and carrying a beloved comic- doesn't get much better than that. And there you have it, many thanks to you all for patiently allowing a bit of reminisce today. Feel free to comment about this issue, or about any such special comic /day you might recall!
 

This & That: Our ...Somewhat Less Than Favorite Covers...

Redartz:  Hi folks! Not long ago we did a post about our favorite comic covers. In the interests of balance and full coverage, it seems natural to consider the other side of the coin: covers that, shall we say, didn't light our fires. And this is not to disrespect any particular title or artist; it's just that these covers failed the 'cover would make me buy it' test by a long shot.

First off:  This cover for Avengers Annual 10. For the most part, I like Al Milgrom's work, but this cover is just way too cluttered. All those panels, unevenly spaced. An overabundance of text certainly doesn't help. And this doesn't even address the "Columbia" banner across the top. As great as the interior was, the cover wasn't.

 Next up are two covers from Ross Andru, featuring the banner characters of each of the Big Two. As with Milgrom, I usually like Andru's work. At least, his interiors. Somehow, though, I always felt he lacked something when it came to his covers. On Superman, it just looks blocky- there were numerous such covers about that time. Kind of an uncomfortable viewing angle; good thing Supes wasn't turned a bit or we'd have gotten a Super booty shot. As for Spiderman 157, again we have some rather clunky figures; along with a flat background. Coming during the heyday of John Romita covers, seeing this from Ross was dismaying...

Turning to a couple of my favorite artists, here are examples that just go to show that nobody's perfect. Avengers 162 by George Perez? Not a bad cover, certainly. But as good as he usually is, this seems a bit unremarkable. And the action is difficult to follow; the composition seems rather scattershot. And Ultron looks a bit cartoonish, strangely.

 My other bronze age favorite: John Byrne, of course! But not because of this cover, I'm afraid. Byrne could do wonders depicting Ben Grimm, so what happened here? Fantastic Four 274 is the book, and our rocky friend Ben is the subject. But he almost gets lost amongst the rubble and bricks. Even the Thing's look seems off. Strange, as Byrne provided some fabulous cover art during this same era. Again, nobody's perfect.















Speaking of perfection, many folks would consider Jack Kirby the perfect comics artist. He's always the King in my book, but even he has some clunkers. This cover for Fantastic Four 78 always struck me as off; especially Ben Grimm's human face. That's quite a nose he's got there.  As for his later work, some of it was incredibly cool. However this cover for 2001 issue 2 looks like an ad for Max Factor mascara. Kirby could get pretty loose with some of his later drawing, but this cover was a bit too loose for my tastes. 
 

And how about this cover for Daredevil 69 by Sal Buscema? For one thing, that's a lot of prominent word balloons. Especially distracting against that black background. As for the art itself, Daredevil looks like he bulked up quite a bit. He almost resembles one of Carmine Infantino's famous DC apes. And it's a minor thing, but it bothers me: DD's mask has that sharp black shading, but the rest of the figure just looks flat...

 

And here are some more general cover comments. Photo covers can be quite effective: the classic cover to Submariner 7 for example: Namor looks amazing as John Buscema depicts him rising above the streets. On the other hand, this Spider-Man cover (from ASM 262) just looks a bit cheesy to me. Perhaps it's the combination of hand-rendered art and photography that works for me; the photo alone just lacks punch.

 

 Finally, this cover for Justice League of America 23 (2006 series) exemplifies one of my pet artistic peeves. Specifically, it has no sense of design. It's an over-rendered mess. Fine linework is great, but not when it gets totally lost in Too Much Detail. Everything in this cover mushes together visually, with the exception of the logo and Wonder Woman. And really, I don't mean to be critical, but it is a problem way too common with comic cover art in the modern era. This cover could have been more effective if, say, they took out half the characters and blacked out the background. Then you could actually make out individual figures and actions. It reminds me of my first year drawing class in college: what you leave out is as important as what you put in. 

Okay, I've pontificated enough. I'll turn the mike over to Marti; let's see what he's got for us...
 

Martinex1: Thanks for getting us started Red!  There are a number of comics that rub me the wrong way.  And it is not necessarily because the art is bad, some of my selections will actually be from some of my favorite artists who are definitely superstars.

Martinex1: My first choice in this rather dubious post is for Avengers #228.  Al Milgrom pencilled this piece.  I think the cover would have been one-thousand times better if he actually had Hank Pym in costume.  It is the "Trial of Yellowjacket " after all, and the cover can be symbolic if he doesn't wear his fighting togs in the story itself.  That choice really diminished the cover.  On top of it, I have never liked that Hank is very indistinguishable from Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, and Donald Blake when out of costume (which is probably why those characters are fully suited up in the background).  I believe this should have been corrected by editorial.  This cover just was not good enough.

Martinex1: I really admire John Byrne's art.  He is definitely one of my favorite artists of all time.   I know some people don't like his style, but I have always found him to be an enjoyable and clear storyteller.  I also think that many of his covers are iconic - just take a look at Uncanny X-Men #141 or almost his entire run of Fantastic Four covers.  It is a bucket list type dream to own original cover art from Byrne.  But I would not want to own one of these.  This particular FF cover does nothing for me.  I have commented before that I am really turned off by "civilian" covers when I am looking for super-heroes. It is of course rendered quite well, but thematically it does nothing for me.   This Alpha Flight cover is a miss for me also.  I think the extreme close-up works against the layout - it wants to be "in your face" but it comes across as strange and unshapely.  If he had pulled back just a bit, it may have been more effective.  Having said that though, it may not be the pencil art at all but rather the color that is off-putting.  The pink header does not work well at all against Sasquatch's orange fur and it actually seems to cut off the top of his head.  I am not sure if the whole thing would have looked better if the entire panel was orange.

Martinex1: George Perez is another favorite of mine.  But I have never liked covers that put the characters in a distant shot.  Covers should be bold in my mind; the characters should be larger than life. Something about the size of the characters diminishes the cover for me.  It would have been a perfectly fine internal panel, but for the "marketing" of a story, I thought this was a miss.  This cover is actually famous in a sense as it is well-known that the graffiti on the train car includes the names of many comic creators and co-workers from Marvel.  It is a novelty in a way, but I felt that the touching tribute to his peers actually minimized the action because he needed to pull back to use the space on the train car.   I am torn on this one, but it does not work for me and back in the day I delayed buying this issue from the spinner rack for a long time.

Martinex1: Bob Layton is just fantastic and he had an iconic run on Iron Man along with writer David Michelinie.  I like his work even more now as I have recently been looking back at his key run on the book. Layton also shares some of his work on Twitter, and I always check it our because it is fantastic.  This cover however always seemed rushed because of the strangely proportioned characters.  I know it is supposed to be a forced perspective to indicate the characters "coming at you," but it is just too much.   Wolverine's lower leg is much too large and Spider-Man looks fat.  It always strikes me as weird, like a fun house mirror version of the characters.  I don't like it.

Martinex1: Metal embossed covers never did anything for me.  I found it very hard to see the art.   The Avengers had an intermittent series of this type of cover during the Gatherers story arc.  I preferred the second print  or newsstand versions so that I could actually see the art.  Steve Epting and Tom Palmer were a great team, but I could not even distinguish the characters in the embossed version; the art was just lost.

Martinex1: Archie Comics and Harvey Comics are spectacular and we don't discuss them enough here. And I know you are going to say, "What?  How can you criticize this classic art?"  And I would respond that it is not at all the art that bothers me about these covers.  My beef with these publishers though is that I can never recall what is inside a particular issue because the cover does not tie to the stories.  There are old Archie tales that I remember so fondly.  A beloved cousin gave me a ton of Archie issues when I was little, and after losing them decades ago to childhood wear and tear I wanted to recreate the collection.  It is impossible  For the life of me, I cannot recall a single issue cover to try to source the comics.  I have absolutely no point of reference.  That was never true for super-hero tales back in the Bronze Age.

Martinex1: On the other hand, more modern comics have embraced the poses and poster shots for covers and I hate it.  Take a look at the comics below.  They may indicate what heroes are in the issue (maybe) but there is absolutely nothing about these covers that indicates anything about the story inside.  I really dislike that immensely.  In the future, any collectors will have the same concern with Marvel that I have with Archies and Harveys.  The embracing of these stock shots is misguided I think.

Redartz:  Marti, I so agree with your thoughts about those 'poster shot' covers. Once in awhile is fine, but almost every issue? No, give us some reference to the interior contents to entice us to buy. But hey, it's time for you all to chime in. What do you think about these covers we've chosen, and what covers can you think of that left you cold?

Panel Discussion: John Romita, Sr.!

Is this iconic, or what?

Redartz:  Happy Monday, everyone! Recently we took a look at one of Martinex1's favorite (and many others' favorite as well) artists, Sal Buscema. Well, today we will look at one of my faves: John Romita, Sr. "Jazzy Johnny" is probably best known as the artist behind many of Spider-Man's greatest tales. He also,though, had stints on Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Captain America, and more. And he produced a veritable mountain of covers for Marvel throughout the Bronze Age, exceeded only perhaps by Gil Kane. And as Marvel's Art Director, Romita was responsible for keeping the 'house style' consistent over a long period of time. This was a task he was perfectly suited for; Romita could draw anyone in the Marvel Universe and they would look Just Right.

John Romita and Jack Kirby were the first  artists I learned by name, and Romita was my favorite. Of course,as the artist on my number one book (yes, you all have heard that before, Spidey's my number one) he defined the character for me. I love Ditko, Kane, Andru, Frenz and McFarlane, but Romita's version is my Spider-man. His clean dramatic style. His iconic Peter Parker. His beautiful Gwen and Mary Jane. His flawless, abrasive Jonah Jameson. His menacing Doc Ock. His maniacally grimacing Green Goblin. He did it all so well...

First, a look at some examples of Jazzy Johnny's (non-Spidey) jewels: 

Here is is on Conan, inking Kane on the left and Buscema on the right (Belit never looked better). These, flanking a classic Cap cover.

That cover painting of Son of Origins is phenomenal. Iron Man and the Surfer just shiiiine...

 

Now we see two versions of the same cover. Aside from the reversal of Spider-Man's position, Romita has slightly shifted the position of Mysterio's grip and highlighted the foreground more. Also, darkening the sky above the action emphasizes the 'closing in' aspect of the threat.

And now, a selection of some of my favorite Romita Spider-Man covers. Some classics, some not. That cover to issue 59, with Mary Jane- just terrific. Love how the scene is split by the stage curtain. It just displays, again, Romita's expertise with  dramatic design and composition.

 

Issue 135, below, is perhaps my all-time favorite ASM cover. The characters, the drama, Spidey's perfect pose, the black spider motif: matchless. I have a repro of this cover hanging in my workplace...

The Spectacular Spiderman cover on the right is an example of Romita's more recent work. He still rocks the Goblin. And speaking of the Goblin, Romita's painting for the magazine issue is another classic.

Finally, a look at some pages showing Romita solo, and with others. Different styles, yet John's sharp, clear look always comes through.

Ron Frenz pencils, Romita inks

An example of John's early work on Amazing, from issue 45. Still showing some touches of Steve Ditko here...

Romita pencils and inks

Romita pencils, Jim Mooney inks

Much as I enjoy color comics, there is an undeniable appeal to black/white art. Here we have a page from the first Spectacular Spider-Man magazine from 1968. Jim Mooney's inks are often pretty heavy, but I feel his style meshes well with Romita's...

Romita pencils, Jim Mooney inks

This page shows us the work of two generations of Romita artists. John Jr. pencilling, with his dad inking.

John Romita Jr. pencils, JR Sr. inks

A cool page from Spider-Man Annual 3. Good thing Romita left the top third of the panel open, any art would have been obliterated by all those dialog balloons...

Romita layouts, Don Heck pencils, Mike Esposito inks

Here, Ross Andru with Romita. John adds a nice smoothness and polish to Andru's rendering.

Ross Andru pencils, Romita inks

Last up, a powerful page by Gil Kane with Romita inking. This artistic combination is nothing short of spectacular (or should I say amazing). Kane's off-the-page energy and action, with Romita's finesse. Now this is Comics!

Gil Kane pencils, Romita inks

Thank you all for letting me gush a bit today. But then again, if anyone deserved a column full of gushing admiration, it would be John Romita. Nuff' said.

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