Post by G on Jan 11, 2008 21:59:14 GMT -5
I have to admit, I havent been the greatest Jim Lee fan although I do see his talent and admire many works he has done, I havent always had a great fondness for his work. There is a couple of reasons for it.
One, when he 1st took over the X-Men and people started discovering who he was, there was an overnight big deal made about him. I agree, the man can draw and there was plenty about his art was pleasing. But one gripe I had on him in the early days of the X-Men is I thought a lot of his art was too busy many times. I remember seeing so much in many pictures, it became kind of hard to look at and know what was actually going on. It really kind of bothered me.
The other area of concern came when he left Marvel and helped form Image. He was a regular Image artist with that House Style. Even though he was an obvious talent and I must admit, he is a great penciler, he also seemed like a lot of hype to me and not a lot of substance. I never found his art then to be something I could just look at and get a good idea or feel for what was happening. Yes, fight scenes were obvious. But otherwise, talking/fighting seemed to be about it. I grew to loathe some of his work.
I started softening on Lee when he took over my beloved Fantastic Four in 1996 for the Heroes Reborn Storyline. Believe it or not, this is one of my favorite FF visual period pieces. I rank it behind Kirby and Bryne. He may actually have my 3rd favorite time frame, although it was too short lived for it to actually be very memorable to me. What I do remember is a less busy Jim Lee who could put a lot of detail into whatever he wanted.
Over the years, I continue to evolve in my liking of Jim Lee artwork. To some he may not be as awesome to them as he was years ago. I feel he is cleaner and easier to visually understand. It appears the older we get, the more I like his work.
I dont think I will ever be one that its a must have with me because he drew it. But I do think I can buy his work without a 2nd thought these days and expect it to be pretty good. To some, he may have always been good. And in reality he has. But I think he has finally left some of the extreme flash stuff behind and gotten more into the substance of his art. And that is one reason, I consider him one of the greats.
groups.msn.com/artofjimlee
