My impression is that the artists who work for Marvel, DC, or even Dark Horse should be capable of drawing whatever they put in their comics. Especially on the assembly line books. I can't figure out how a piece of lousy art can make it past a penciller, an inker, a colorist, a letterer, and a cadre of editors. And because I think it should be within the realm of expectation that this shouldn't happen, I am taking it upon myself to make of them when it does.
I figured that I might be able to find a good example in this week's big book, the Justice League of America 1, but Ed Benes has really made strides from his early days in the Wildstorm bullpen. This new issue is consistently well drawn and shows a significant leap from the Jim Lee lifts of the past. I'd bet that he is still using a little too much comic book source material for reference, but the finished product is polished enough. I did find a few small flubs, and this was my favorite:
If you look carefully at that right hand the fingers are all too big for the hand as drawn. The palm is not nearly wide or tall enough to justify those manhands. And the cranium, as drawn from that admittedly tough angle, worm's eye view and three quarter angle, is about 20% shorter than it needs to be. But again, minor quibbles in a book packed with page after page of talking heads, it's just that expect more from a Major Leaguer, like I said above.
My favorite panel this week in the bad panel sweepstakes this week is from New Avengers 23. Olivier Coipel is a fine artist, but this panel is just bad:
Jessica Drew, in this panel, is about two feet tall. Against the scale of the hall to the doorway, which for the hotel room shown, is probably about four feet wide and seven feet tall, and she's just a tiny bug in the corner of it. Maybe I'm not aware of her shrinking powers, god knows I've not committed my Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe to memory, but this just looks out and out goofy.
I don't care how rushed your deadlines are, I don't understand how an editor can let such a silly panel get to print. Your in-house art team could fix this with a quick scan and enlarge in about 15 minutes.
The rest of the issue is nice enough, Coipel's unique style still shines through the house style that Marvel doesn't acknowledge but we can see exists. I do wonder how much of the last two pages inker Mark Morales had to take care of, but still the issue is nice. One little tweaking of scale and it would be even better.
4 comments:
She's looking down a hallway at the door. Notice the perspective of the ceiling there.
Just trying to help.
Actually, If you look again, you'll see that the opening to the hallway is intended to be only slightly larger than the door. And she will nearly fit between the top of the opening and the ceiling, which would only be about a foot and a half.
And, if you consider that the door is locating down the receeding hallway, perspective would dictate that the door would appear even smaller. Which means that that door is twice the size of poor Jessica.
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