Post by defiant1 on Aug 23, 2010 21:30:48 GMT -5
This is a repost of a 'review' I did on my messageboard.
Legion of Superheroes #42
This issue of course features the return of Francis Manapul who draws cartoon art. A huge step backwards. Normally you don't see me scan the interior of a comic very much, but this one had a defect and I'm going to throw it away anyway. Here is a panel that I think is fucking pathetic.
This panel is just retarded. You have serious characters walking around talking serious stuff, and in the midst of it you have this cartoon face looking like a retarded person. He has no bottom lip. He has no eyelids. His hair is matted into triangle shapes. The newspaper cartoon "For Better or For Worse" is drawn better than this and I'd swear that is where he got his inspiration. If I was his dad, I'd want to know why his eyes are so glazed over like he's on some kind of drug.
Here is another horrible panel...
Another pathetic attempt to draw a serious story. Braniac looks nothing like he did in the last issue. He looks like some moron kid starting his job at Burger King like that's an accomplishment. He has no chest. Just curved lines with a pencil in the rough shape of a person. There are good Manga artists out there. This isn't even good. There should be a warning on all books that have art this annoying!
I'm going to go ahead and throw the comic away before I waste any more time scanning the things I don't like. I'll be scanning for another hour if I don't.
Back to the story. It was less entertaining because the art is so distracting. Too many WTFIT (What The Fuck Is That) moments in the art. It made it a lot harder for me to care what the characters are saying because I just want the reading experience to be over. Regardless, I could not help but feel as though this story has a subtext that relates to the comic indistry as a whole. It's almost like a commentary on veteran creators getting work, but I haven't quite pinpointed the analogies. I've felt that there was more to the plot than was clearly stated. The panel where they start talking about going to "Velmar V" was a bit too obvious. Vel-Mar swapped around is Mar-Vel... or Marvel. Without knowing the inner workings at Marvel, I can't really pinpoint what Jim is trying to say about them.
Again though, I detest the art. Dislike isn't the word... I detest it. The industry needs to quit using people like this. After reading an online article about EC comics and how they upped the ante with photo realistic art, I can't help but feel this is an insult to all the advancements that other people have brought to the hobby.
Cartoon style art in a serious tale is a huge turn-off to me buying a product. It's the reason I quit buying David Lapham's work. David Lapham is quite capable as an artist, but he seems intent on drawing in a style that I'm tired of seeing. This issue is an example of why I look at comics in the grocery store and reaffirm my desire to not buy any new comics. There are enough good comics out there that I don't need crap drawn like this in my collection. It's one of the reasons I don't go chase down Golden age comics. I expect better. I expect what a good artist is capable of doing. Save the cartoon art for cartoon projects. In the right genre, cartoon artists are fine. I'm not shopping for cartoon styled comics. If I do, I'll buy something like Space Ghost which was stylized by one of the artistic geniuses... Toth.
I had fully intended to quit buying this comic, but I keep buying it as a favor to retailers I know when I visit and they have nothing for sale that interests me. I'm just throwing a few bucks their way to support their business in case some day they do have something that interests me.
Defiant1
Legion of Superheroes #42
This issue of course features the return of Francis Manapul who draws cartoon art. A huge step backwards. Normally you don't see me scan the interior of a comic very much, but this one had a defect and I'm going to throw it away anyway. Here is a panel that I think is fucking pathetic.
This panel is just retarded. You have serious characters walking around talking serious stuff, and in the midst of it you have this cartoon face looking like a retarded person. He has no bottom lip. He has no eyelids. His hair is matted into triangle shapes. The newspaper cartoon "For Better or For Worse" is drawn better than this and I'd swear that is where he got his inspiration. If I was his dad, I'd want to know why his eyes are so glazed over like he's on some kind of drug.
Here is another horrible panel...
Another pathetic attempt to draw a serious story. Braniac looks nothing like he did in the last issue. He looks like some moron kid starting his job at Burger King like that's an accomplishment. He has no chest. Just curved lines with a pencil in the rough shape of a person. There are good Manga artists out there. This isn't even good. There should be a warning on all books that have art this annoying!
I'm going to go ahead and throw the comic away before I waste any more time scanning the things I don't like. I'll be scanning for another hour if I don't.
Back to the story. It was less entertaining because the art is so distracting. Too many WTFIT (What The Fuck Is That) moments in the art. It made it a lot harder for me to care what the characters are saying because I just want the reading experience to be over. Regardless, I could not help but feel as though this story has a subtext that relates to the comic indistry as a whole. It's almost like a commentary on veteran creators getting work, but I haven't quite pinpointed the analogies. I've felt that there was more to the plot than was clearly stated. The panel where they start talking about going to "Velmar V" was a bit too obvious. Vel-Mar swapped around is Mar-Vel... or Marvel. Without knowing the inner workings at Marvel, I can't really pinpoint what Jim is trying to say about them.
Again though, I detest the art. Dislike isn't the word... I detest it. The industry needs to quit using people like this. After reading an online article about EC comics and how they upped the ante with photo realistic art, I can't help but feel this is an insult to all the advancements that other people have brought to the hobby.
Cartoon style art in a serious tale is a huge turn-off to me buying a product. It's the reason I quit buying David Lapham's work. David Lapham is quite capable as an artist, but he seems intent on drawing in a style that I'm tired of seeing. This issue is an example of why I look at comics in the grocery store and reaffirm my desire to not buy any new comics. There are enough good comics out there that I don't need crap drawn like this in my collection. It's one of the reasons I don't go chase down Golden age comics. I expect better. I expect what a good artist is capable of doing. Save the cartoon art for cartoon projects. In the right genre, cartoon artists are fine. I'm not shopping for cartoon styled comics. If I do, I'll buy something like Space Ghost which was stylized by one of the artistic geniuses... Toth.
I had fully intended to quit buying this comic, but I keep buying it as a favor to retailers I know when I visit and they have nothing for sale that interests me. I'm just throwing a few bucks their way to support their business in case some day they do have something that interests me.
Defiant1
