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Post by cyberstrike on May 24, 2010 8:14:54 GMT -5
John Romita Jr. is now of days reguarded as "The Marvel" artist, which I think is sad because he's an average artist, he can be great when he wants to or is presented with a high-profile writer and high-profile projects, but his style seems ulgy and dull to me.
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Post by bigw1966 on May 24, 2010 12:00:29 GMT -5
John Romita Jr. is now of days reguarded as "The Marvel" artist, which I think is sad because he's an average artist, he can be great when he wants to or is presented with a high-profile writer and high-profile projects, but his style seems ulgy and dull to me. I don't think I would call it ugly and dull at all. Sure it is not -aslick- like Jim Lee or any of those guys, but he draws circles around nearly the entire industry. He is actually looked up to by a vast majority of the pro's in the Industry. Also, unlike the entire Industry, he draws a whopping 50 pages a month on average. I think his art is highly consistent. Has outstanding storytelling capability and is full of energy. But that is just my opinion.
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Post by defiant1 on May 24, 2010 20:34:32 GMT -5
John Romita Jr. is now of days reguarded as "The Marvel" artist, which I think is sad because he's an average artist, he can be great when he wants to or is presented with a high-profile writer and high-profile projects, but his style seems ulgy and dull to me. I was looking on the recent posts and thought you wrote that about Sr. not Jr. When Shooter is in charge, he has a habit of putting green pencilers with heavy embellishers/inkers. That's why Miller at his best looks like Janson at his worst. That's why Romita is so overpowered by Layton in his early work. Layton is a damn good inker, but his pencils are a little weak. His own inking doesn't enhance his pencils. It did enhance Romita Jr's pencils amazingly so. Romita Jr's looks like he went for his own style in the vein of bad Frank Miller art. Romita Jr. draws better than Miller, but why even drawn in such a poor style anyway. Miller's only talent was very strong perspective to his panels and his use of noir (black/white). Romita Jr. doesn't have Miller's eye for shadow and light so you end up getting better linework than Miller with none of the emotion and mood. I can't classify Romita Jr. art good today in any way shape or form. His early traditional stuff with Layton... top notch. df1
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Post by G on May 25, 2010 20:25:11 GMT -5
As a fan, I think DF1 summed up JR JR extremely well. He does seem to be going after a style that isn't really flattering for the talent he has. I also agree the JR JR/Layton Iron Man's were just about pure classic and Layton's heavy inks had a lot to do with how great it looked. I further agree that Layton is only a so-so at best penciler. However, JR JR did seem a lot tighter then and over the years his style has loosened up to a degree that isn't so pleasing to a lot of comic fans.
On the other hand, as someone who likes to draw, I still appreciate what he can do. His positions and movement is still pretty excellent and he has appeared to accomplish what most comic artists aspire to be. Able to produce quick looking art that at this point looks easy to him while still having enough coolness left in it that he can still manage to sell comics and make money at a good clip. While the fan in me sees his looseness and doesn't find it appealing, the art side of me sees that he still does solid work in a timely fashion.
He's still a very legit artist. But his appeal only goes so far.
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Post by bigw1966 on May 26, 2010 10:41:58 GMT -5
when JRJR first started out, he followed very much the line that his father did. He used all of the then classic approaches to the art. As time went on and his adult responsabilities grew and grew, he had to start being able to produce art that could be consistent yet solid.
so when he was doing Daredevil he started to do the looser style. As Defient 1 said this likely had to do with the fact that he was following Miller on the book. Now Miller is an outstanding artist. Sure he has gotten a little to loose in recent years, but he had solid and dynamic figure work, outstanding use of camera angles, and great perspective. He used different inkers and it could be seen in his work. The reason he stuck with Janson, is because he felt that Jansons finishes gave his work a "gritty" feel that he felt fit the book really well.
Back to JRJR His NEW style continued into his run on X-MEN. His popularity also grew from that point on. Over the years, he has perfected his style to the point where all of his characters are distincy and provide very good acting. They all look indevidual from each other. What I mean by that is if you look at many artists, just an example would be...Steve Dillon, Linsner, Silvestri, Lee, Leifeld. these guys draw all of their people the same. All of the women no matter how old they are always have a hot body and look like a model. (LEE, SILVESTRI, Liefeld) Or they only have two or three faces they can draw and all of the characters they do in any book remind you of these characters. (Dillon makes everyone look like Jesse Custer) Linsners characters always look like Dawn and Darren Ashoka)
JRJR actually not only makes his characters look unique from one another, but he also gets the different ethnic groups perfect.
For an appreciation of Romita Jr's work, we have to look beyond our own feelings of what we consider to be "GOOD" art with its slick line work or massive rendering and actually look at what Jr puts on the page which is solid storytelling that is easy to follow.
This is why he is so respected by other industry professionals. along with his outstandingly genuine and nice personality.
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Post by bigw1966 on May 26, 2010 20:07:13 GMT -5
Hey I thought I would post these two excerpts from two different reviewers over at ign.com who were reviewing Avengers #1
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The issue itself is tasked with a fairly large duty: collect the members of the various factions of Avengers, and unite them under a single banner heading forward. Bendis uses Steve Rogers in his new role as S.H.I.E.L.D. big-wig to do so, and what comprises the first half of the issue is a joyous superhero reunion, interrupted abruptly by the arrival of Kang, bearing grim news from the future. In many ways it's a textbook Avengers-style story, filled with sci-fi influences and monumental importance to the universe. Really, there's no part of the book that isn't true to the themes of the team, or doesn't feel "right." John Romita, Jr.'s pencils clearly fall under that category. There's scarcely an artist in the industry better suited to this project than the man regularly referred to as "Mr. Marvel," and his distinct, round style is, of course, a perfect fit for this large-scale book. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Having John Romita Jr. pencil this issue certainly helps establish this book in the Avengers pantheon. As always, his sequential panels are a delight to behold. The issue truly comes to life in moments where Romita is allowed to cut loose, particularly in the scene where Thor dispatches Kang through several city blocks. Whereas the heroes marveled at the Mighty Thor, I found myself marveling at the Mighty Romita. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a lot of this in the reviews you see with books Romita Jr is on.
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Post by defiant1 on May 26, 2010 21:22:29 GMT -5
Hey I thought I would post these two excerpts from two different reviewers over at ign.com who were reviewing Avengers #1 ________________________________________________________ The issue itself is tasked with a fairly large duty: collect the members of the various factions of Avengers, and unite them under a single banner heading forward. Bendis uses Steve Rogers in his new role as S.H.I.E.L.D. big-wig to do so, and what comprises the first half of the issue is a joyous superhero reunion, interrupted abruptly by the arrival of Kang, bearing grim news from the future. In many ways it's a textbook Avengers-style story, filled with sci-fi influences and monumental importance to the universe. Really, there's no part of the book that isn't true to the themes of the team, or doesn't feel "right." John Romita, Jr.'s pencils clearly fall under that category. There's scarcely an artist in the industry better suited to this project than the man regularly referred to as "Mr. Marvel," and his distinct, round style is, of course, a perfect fit for this large-scale book. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Having John Romita Jr. pencil this issue certainly helps establish this book in the Avengers pantheon. As always, his sequential panels are a delight to behold. The issue truly comes to life in moments where Romita is allowed to cut loose, particularly in the scene where Thor dispatches Kang through several city blocks. Whereas the heroes marveled at the Mighty Thor, I found myself marveling at the Mighty Romita. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a lot of this in the reviews you see with books Romita Jr is on. Sorry. His stuff looks like crap and it distracts me from enjoying anything he draws. He's far more talented than anything he extrudes onto paper and I can't stand supporting mediocre work from talented guys. I scanned the covers on a long box full of my Marvel Comics. In the box was a bunch of late 90's and early 2K comics. I cringed turning the pages of that stuff in-between scanning the issues. When I got to an issue Romita Jr. had drawn, I saw character sketches he'd done and an offhand comment implying that his renditions were to be the model sheets that other artist were to use. At that point I realized why every other Marvel book in that period sucked so badly. You had a talented artist pushing out crappy work and every other artist doing poor copies of a crappy model sheet. I don't even want to look at his work anymore. I'd rather read Scooby Doo or any cartoon character than look at his cartoon renditions of the Marvel characters. It's a half ass use of his talent that he can pump out with little or no effort. He delivers less work and the same number of pages. Inexcusable as far as I'm concerned. df1
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Post by bigw1966 on May 27, 2010 8:53:21 GMT -5
Defient 1 you are entitled to your opinions obviously. But I have noticed one overriding fact in the time that I have been her.
You are a fucking Hater of the highest order. I mean there is very little you have a positive comment about. and you seem to be a pretty knowledgeable guy. But you are negative about way to much.
This is just an observation mind you not an argument starter because I have my own quirks that annoy people.
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Post by defiant1 on May 28, 2010 11:34:41 GMT -5
Defient 1 you are entitled to your opinions obviously. But I have noticed one overriding fact in the time that I have been her. You are a fucking Hater of the highest order. I mean there is very little you have a positive comment about. and you seem to be a pretty knowledgeable guy. But you are negative about way to much. This is just an observation mind you not an argument starter because I have my own quirks that annoy people.
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Post by defiant1 on May 28, 2010 12:19:23 GMT -5
Defient 1 you are entitled to your opinions obviously. But I have noticed one overriding fact in the time that I have been her. You are a fucking Hater of the highest order. I mean there is very little you have a positive comment about. and you seem to be a pretty knowledgeable guy. But you are negative about way to much. This is just an observation mind you not an argument starter because I have my own quirks that annoy people. I am a strong believer that if you settle for crap, you get crap. Too many people in my life want to hand me the short straw and expect me to smile and say thank you. On the other hand, I've had people whisper in the background "David's been eating at the Chinese restaurant every day this week... they must have good food." It really has nothing to do with "hate", it has to do with quality of life. I don't like using sports analogies, but sports analogies are a language people seem to understand. Would you take pride in watching the best hitter in baseball deliver half his effort? Do you want the defense on your favorite team to look at getting the quarteback sack as "too much effort?" Romita is definitely a talented artist. I want to see the guy's best. The work he did with Layton was his best. There are too many mediocre artists working their asses off and giving better output than Romita Jr. Frank Brunner has his Howard the Duck character which is fine. He still puts out top notch layouts and pencils when he draws more serious stuff. Artists have a tendency to phone it home after they've been in the business for a few years. They make the same whether they put out their best work or their worst. To me, I don't praise someone for doing the bare minimum. I don't even praise my own art. You have more talent drawing than me in your left pinky. I'm still not going to look at you and say something is perfect or good enough. I know you can still take it to a higher level. If winning the baseball game is someone's goal in life, their ambitions are pretty small. Games are won and lost everyday at every level. I want to see the best. The more I encounter the mediocre, the more I like to see the best. Right now I'm dating a girl I consider to be a 10 on a scale of 1-10. Evidently the magazine that flew her out to a beachfront mansion in California for a photo shoot felt the same way. The photographers taking a calendar photoshoot nearby were more interested in trying to get photo's of her than the 12 models they had already lined up. That being said, we took pictures of ourselves together and I told her the pictures were great, but she needed to do better than the guy she was with in the picture (me). I judge every situation based on the potential. If more people did that, the world would be a better place. Perhaps I got that from my dad. His mom was thirty years old when the great depression hit. People who lived through the great depression would save rusty bent nails for fear they might need it one day. My dad grew up despising things that were half-ass thrown together. He vowed not to settle for crap. When most people could barely afford a 13 inch color TV, he went out, bought a 25 inch Heathkit color TV and built his own from the individual components. When other people were happy with a nice stereo, he bought a Quad system. When people were happy with a Camaro. He bought a Porsche 944. I didn't grow up around crap, so I have a huge appreciation for things that are a little nicer. If you like mediocrity, that's fine. Just understand that low expectations are why appliances are made of plastic and break instead of metal that will last your lifetime. That's why some football teams will never make it to the Superbowl. That's why we have an oil spill poisoning our water instead of ocean water generating pollution free power through nuclear fusion. Each purchase we make of crap propagates it's existence. If you water the weeds, you get weeds. If you water tomatoes, you get tomatoes. That's not being negative. That's not being a hater. That's being a visionary and an eternal optimist. I don't complain about things that are hopeless. Those things are beneath me. I ignore them entirely. df1
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