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Most Overrated Comic Artist?


asurmac

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I think the point of this thread is just to list names of artists who you think is overrated and why. Even though, it didn't come to become a heated debate, I decided to write this comment just in case. I understand that some may be offended when someone lists an artist they like, but truth be told, virtually any artist who is known can be overrated. I am suprised no one mentioned Alex Ross even though I like his art. I can imagine someone adds him to the list of saying how he draws his characters in their 50's.

 

Heck, an artist I like is listed here. Just that he all have different taste in art.

Yep, its all about taste.

Liefeld, for all his warts, sells comics. He's got an audience of fans that LIKE his work as much as he's got an army of critics.

Heck, the drawing of his shown above is actually very nice, shows good volumes and sound enough anatomy. I wish we could see more work like that from him.

 

There have been guys whose work I've loved, and who have turned out awful stuff.

Carmine Infantino has the distinction for me of drawing one of the very classic, iconic Silver-age images of Batman and Robin, a posed pic of them on a rooftop that graced a hard-bound book of some reprint Batman stories. Beautiful drawing, its my absolute fav of those two characters. But Infantino did some really awful flat, twinned images later on in his career--the skill he once showed appeared to be gone.

 

Liefeld is the same animal. He can do that nice Wolverine drawing, but craps out a weird Captain America two-page spread where Cap appears to be wearing a ORTHOPEDIC SHOE!

You doubt me? Check out Liefeld's first Heroes Reborn issue of Captain America--there on pages 2&3, shows Cap jumping in amidst some Nazis, the soles of his boots visible.

One foot has a heel, the other does not.

 

Its boggles my mind how a guy with that kind of artistic street-cred can goof up something like that. Trouble is, he's done that kind of thing A LOT!

 

Todd McFarlane is ( rather was) a sweetheart of a guy--having worked with him for a very short period of time, he was both kind and considerate towards me--but he's not a very good artist.

Assisting Todd, I got an eye-opening firsthand look at just how another artist works--not Todd per se, but an inker of his.

Alfredo Alcala is a Philipino artist of very high regard, his Voltron ( not the anime) work is considered an amazing tour-de-force of cross-hatching skill. Really beautiful stuff. Yet Alcala did a brutal butchering of Todd's pencils on Batman: Year Two--I saw the pencils with my own eyes, even worked on some of those pages. Todd had to ink the last book of that storyline just to save his own work and sanity.

Todd knows what to look for, can see the stuff clearly--he knows his stuff, but his own work comes across as ugly.

Somehow, he can make something appealing out of all that line-work......but alot of his characters are just grostesque. His Mary Jane Watson often looked like a heroin addict to my eyes, so heavy was the "mascara" on her eyes they way she was drawn.

Todd's motif on art was put more lines on the page-and for a time it worked for him.

That's where the endless debates start, what is the better kind of art? Style versus draftsmanship.

Someone like Alex Toth can put down rock-solid, supple silhouettes and poses, and use minimal lines to convey powerful ideas and stories, and guys like Travis Charest can draw pretty looking stuff, but maaaaaaaaan are his poses stiff. Then someone like Todd comes along and slaps down enough lines on a two-pages spread to make a Where's Waldo fan freak out.

 

I guess if someone likes it, that's no skin off the back of my nose.

 

True. Just that this thread may be asking for it if someone's artist is listed. For me, it is all good since it is their opinion. The artist I mention that was listed eariler that I like is Jim Lee. However, I can understand why ppl hate his art since it is considered outdated because of the constant cross hatchings and he is mentioned quite often. It doesn't bother me if he is listed, but I realize someone ppl may get offended when an artist is mentioned after we said McGuinness.

 

I am not a fan of Liefeld myself. In the reborn series, he drew Captain America in such a weird matter where his chest is in one perceptive while his arms are in another. His chest is also pushed foward, makin the head look like it is too far back.

 

HeroesReborn.jpg

 

My friend laughs at that art everytime he glance at it since it appears Capt has boobs. As for myself, Liefeld's art hurt my eyes, seriously. The rough sketches and angles of his characters are an eye sore since some of them looks like they are on a different plane from the ground he drew.

 

An artist the most as of recent is Greg Horn. I know not a lot of ppl like artist drawing real ppl, but his looks great, especially the women. The men doesn't look "normal" like other artist who draws real ppl or old like Alex Ross.

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I'm glad I didn't see Billy Tan anywhere on the list otherwise I would've said #WTF# .

 

 

You might have jinx your artist. j/k

 

The poster who made this topic said in your own opinion so hopefully, someone doesn't get irate and starts a war after someone list a person in the comic industry he/she likes.

 

Except I don't hate any artist, I don't care if they draw badly or not good anymore, I appreciate art for what it is, someone's garage is another gold. You might like one's drawings, while someone else doesn't. I honestly care more about a story, if the story is great and the drawing isn't so what, the story was good. If the art is great also, even greater. But if the writing is bad, then the art can't really save it.

 

Just my opinion, though it probably doesn't matter. @sad@

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An artist the most as of recent is Greg Horn. I know not a lot of ppl like artist drawing real ppl, but his looks great, especially the women. The men doesn't look "normal" like other artist who draws real ppl or old like Alex Ross.

 

Yea, thing is, I love Alex Ross' work. I think he's done some definite versions of characters that people criticize him for "aging". I take no offense if someone else dislikes his work.

 

I'll never criticize someones choice for liking or not liking an artist, I'll just critique the work of the artist themselves.

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An artist the most as of recent is Greg Horn. I know not a lot of ppl like artist drawing real ppl, but his looks great, especially the women. The men doesn't look "normal" like other artist who draws real ppl or old like Alex Ross.

 

Yea, thing is, I love Alex Ross' work. I think he's done some definite versions of characters that people criticize him for "aging". I take no offense if someone else dislikes his work.

 

I'll never criticize someones choice for liking or not liking an artist, I'll just critique the work of the artist themselves.

 

I like Ross's work as well. His and Greg Horn's art style made me like realistic art in comics. His version Black Adam is my favorite. Black Adam doesn't look right if he didn't aged.

 

I mean here is Alex's Black Adam

black_Adam.jpg

blackadamarl.jpg

 

And here is John Watson:

403px-Jsablackreign.jpg

 

 

 

His Lex is pretty good too since I prefer him lookin like that as oppose in looking fat like how other artist depicted him. The only characters I think think of right now that seem aged to me are his Wonder Woman and Superman. I've always pictured Superman to look like John Bryne's art or Christoper Reeves. I want to say that Batman looks old too, but I don't remember how his non kingdom come Bruce Wayne looks like.

 

Besides, Alex's movie cotume of Spiderman rocks.

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His charcters look like they have all been bitten by a bees and they all look puffy and bloated.

 

Man that got a huge laugh out of me!!

 

But agreed, the whole buffness for no reason, blech!!!

 

I also agree on that Liefield used to be overated, but now is a big joke in the industry! I mean who in their right mind would have left that Captain America in?? WTF were they smoking, it's hideous!!

 

I don't know who was it that said it, but Jim Lee has a great sense of proportions and anatomy!! I think of of the best!! Sure he may have a few tired poses, but they always look great!

 

Toddy Mac is another used to be overated! Agreed with what was said of his women, they all do look like hookers!!

 

I think Michael Turner is currently overated, his girls are way too stacked to do any good! And all the men look the same, I mean come on, they all have the super square jaw!! I think the artist doing JLA is a hell of a lot better, and should be doing the covers instead of Turner!

 

IMO, Jose Perez is a bit overated! I don't like the look of his characters, too paint by numbers. I don't know, the shading, the overall look, is kind of blah. Sure he draws everything himself, but it just doesn't look as exciting as it can be!

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I think the point of this thread is just to list names of artists who you think is overrated and why. Even though, it didn't come to become a heated debate, I decided to write this comment just in case. I understand that some may be offended when someone lists an artist they like, but truth be told, virtually any artist who is known can be overrated. I am suprised no one mentioned Alex Ross even though I like his art. I can imagine someone adds him to the list of saying how he draws his characters in their 50's.

 

Heck, an artist I like is listed here. Just that he all have different taste in art.

 

 

Ah yes, but the point of a forum is discussion, I posted this to get opinions and discussion because I was bored out of my mind at work.

 

An artist the most as of recent is Greg Horn. I know not a lot of ppl like artist drawing real ppl, but his looks great, especially the women. The men doesn't look "normal" like other artist who draws real ppl or old like Alex Ross.

 

Yea, thing is, I love Alex Ross' work. I think he's done some definite versions of characters that people criticize him for "aging". I take no offense if someone else dislikes his work.

 

I'll never criticize someones choice for liking or not liking an artist, I'll just critique the work of the artist themselves.

 

I like Ross's work as well. His and Greg Horn's art style made me like realistic art in comics. His version Black Adam is my favorite. Black Adam doesn't look right if he didn't aged.

 

I mean here is Alex's Black Adam

black_Adam.jpg

blackadamarl.jpg

 

And here is John Watson:

403px-Jsablackreign.jpg

 

 

 

His Lex is pretty good too since I prefer him lookin like that as oppose in looking fat like how other artist depicted him. The only characters I think think of right now that seem aged to me are his Wonder Woman and Superman. I've always pictured Superman to look like John Bryne's art or Christoper Reeves. I want to say that Batman looks old too, but I don't remember how his non kingdom come Bruce Wayne looks like.

 

Besides, Alex's movie cotume of Spiderman rocks.

 

 

 

I never liked the Christopher Reeves Superman. He looks way to aristocratic. Like a spoiled rich kid. I think he should look like someone who was raised on a farm. Tom Welling, in all Smallvilles soapiness, does it better.

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i'm with the mcguinness haters...he's crap...no sense of anatomy or proportion...everyone looks the same...and they all look like they're made out of bubbles...it's like he went to art class the day they said to start with circles...then skipped the next day when they said to clean them up after...

 

also...that liefeld captain america is quite possibly the single worst piece of "art" i've ever seen...seriously...i doubt his mom would put that on her fridge...

 

...skott

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also...that liefeld captain america is quite possibly the single worst piece of "art" i've ever seen...seriously...i doubt his mom would put that on her fridge...

 

...skott

@loll@ yea

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I think the point of this thread is just to list names of artists who you think is overrated and why. Even though, it didn't come to become a heated debate, I decided to write this comment just in case. I understand that some may be offended when someone lists an artist they like, but truth be told, virtually any artist who is known can be overrated. I am suprised no one mentioned Alex Ross even though I like his art. I can imagine someone adds him to the list of saying how he draws his characters in their 50's.

 

Heck, an artist I like is listed here. Just that he all have different taste in art.

Yep, its all about taste.

Liefeld, for all his warts, sells comics. He's got an audience of fans that LIKE his work as much as he's got an army of critics.

Heck, the drawing of his shown above is actually very nice, shows good volumes and sound enough anatomy. I wish we could see more work like that from him.

 

 

 

Arrow, I must respectfully disagree with your opinion of Liefeld. The example provided (of Wolverine) is not (IMO) indicative of an artist with a good grasp of anatomy.

 

The hands are humongous. The shoulders and triceps are waaaay too large, and the head is tiny. The muscles are also completely overdone.

 

Now, in all fairness to Liefeld, he's not the only one guilty of poor anatomical drawings. And certainly, some art styles (manga being an obvious example) have no relation to true anatomy, and don't pretend that they do.

 

But for a guy who once bragged on a television advertisement that he 'Never had a [art] lesson", he might want to pay more attention to detail.

 

I didn't mention Liefeld because he's too easy a target, but I consider him to be one of the all-time worst artists in comics.

#US1#

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Arrow, I must respectfully disagree with your opinion of Liefeld. The example provided (of Wolverine) is not (IMO) indicative of an artist with a good grasp of anatomy.

 

The hands are humongous. The shoulders and triceps are waaaay too large, and the head is tiny. The muscles are also completely overdone.

 

Now, in all fairness to Liefeld, he's not the only one guilty of poor anatomical drawings. And certainly, some art styles (manga being an obvious example) have no relation to true anatomy, and don't pretend that they do.

 

But for a guy who once bragged on a television advertisement that he 'Never had a [art] lesson", he might want to pay more attention to detail.

 

I didn't mention Liefeld because he's too easy a target, but I consider him to be one of the all-time worst artists in comics.

#US1#

 

His muscle placement is okay, if his proportions are off. Pretty much every comicbook artist is guilty of that sin, myself included. Heck, in the How to Draw Comics the Marvel way, its considered standard paractise, as superheroes are automatically disproportionate from normal humans. As long as the "bumps" are in the right places and nothing is waaaaaaaaaaay too big or too small, its considered okay.

 

In that respect, I think the drawing of Wolverine is fine.

 

And I've "never had an art lesson" either, and I've been a pro cartoonist for 21 years now. LOL!

 

The classical rendition of the human figure is considered the de facto standard for professional drawing ability. As long as one can pull off a respectable facsimile of the human form, they are often considered to be at that standard. That leaves a LOT of room for interpretation and different levels of talent.

A guy like Alex Ross can draw rings around me with his skill with the human form, but he might have endless troubles pulling off drawing Ren and Stimpy.

Even the much-lauded Jack Kirby took HUGE liberties with the human form, often making it a blocky cartoony structure--yet remains respected for it.

 

I think, at the end of the day, if the artist can create an appealing work, irrespective of things like classical standards and such, then they have achieved their aims as a commerical artists (as comics artists are, in this instance). Grudgingly, I respect that even though I might not like the artist's work itself.

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Liefeld was the first artist that popped into my head. He has some drawings that are great, others just look really really weird. Like his Cap drawing where he messed up the chest anatomically and made him with huge muscles.

 

Nuff Said

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Are you kidding me?! JRJR was the one who was pencilng X-Men when it became a cultural juggernaught He basically created Nimrod, "Nu Skool" Rogue, Shadowcat's iconic costume and tons of other canon X-men designs. He was doing "real-world" costumes on characters almost twenty-five years ago. Go to wikipedia and they have the creators names listed with said characters. I don't want to attack your decision, but He's the reason why I draw...

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Are you kidding me?! JRJR was the one who was pencilng X-Men when it became a cultural juggernaught He basically created Nimrod, "Nu Skool" Rogue, Shadowcat's iconic costume and tons of other canon X-men designs. He was doing "real-world" costumes on characters almost twenty-five years ago. Go to wikipedia and they have the creators names listed with said characters. I don't want to attack your decision, but He's the reason why I draw...

 

 

I think you mean his run in the 80s. Those may have been good, but I'm talking about his run from 1993 to 1995 or so. I think he also did the first Cable mini series. Everybody had the same face and large hands.

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Liefeld was the first artist that popped into my head. He has some drawings that are great, others just look really really weird. Like his Cap drawing where he messed up the chest anatomically and made him with huge muscles.

 

Yeah, I feel the same way. I like some of his early work on X-Force and Youngblood...but that picture of Cap. is just sad and painful to the eye. Unfortunately, I just think his artwork got progressively worse over the years.

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McFarlane. Above all others I've always had to wonder why he's been consistently popular.

 

I'm gonna have to disagree with those who don't like McGuiness's artwork. He's one of my favourite artists in the business at the moment. I like the more cartoony aspects of comics, wheras someone like Ross is surely incredibly talented and some of his designs look fantastic, but then I look at his Batman or Flash, and I can't help but think that they just look silly. Not everything should be photo-realistic.

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I think the point of this thread is just to list names of artists who you think is overrated and why. Even though, it didn't come to become a heated debate, I decided to write this comment just in case. I understand that some may be offended when someone lists an artist they like, but truth be told, virtually any artist who is known can be overrated. I am suprised no one mentioned Alex Ross even though I like his art. I can imagine someone adds him to the list of saying how he draws his characters in their 50's.

 

Heck, an artist I like is listed here. Just that he all have different taste in art.

Yep, its all about taste.

Liefeld, for all his warts, sells comics. He's got an audience of fans that LIKE his work as much as he's got an army of critics.

Heck, the drawing of his shown above is actually very nice, shows good volumes and sound enough anatomy. I wish we could see more work like that from him.

 

There have been guys whose work I've loved, and who have turned out awful stuff.

Carmine Infantino has the distinction for me of drawing one of the very classic, iconic Silver-age images of Batman and Robin, a posed pic of them on a rooftop that graced a hard-bound book of some reprint Batman stories. Beautiful drawing, its my absolute fav of those two characters. But Infantino did some really awful flat, twinned images later on in his career--the skill he once showed appeared to be gone.

 

Liefeld is the same animal. He can do that nice Wolverine drawing, but craps out a weird Captain America two-page spread where Cap appears to be wearing a ORTHOPEDIC SHOE!

You doubt me? Check out Liefeld's first Heroes Reborn issue of Captain America--there on pages 2&3, shows Cap jumping in amidst some Nazis, the soles of his boots visible.

One foot has a heel, the other does not.

 

Its boggles my mind how a guy with that kind of artistic street-cred can goof up something like that. Trouble is, he's done that kind of thing A LOT!

 

Todd McFarlane is ( rather was) a sweetheart of a guy--having worked with him for a very short period of time, he was both kind and considerate towards me--but he's not a very good artist.

Assisting Todd, I got an eye-opening firsthand look at just how another artist works--not Todd per se, but an inker of his.

Alfredo Alcala is a Philipino artist of very high regard, his Voltron ( not the anime) work is considered an amazing tour-de-force of cross-hatching skill. Really beautiful stuff. Yet Alcala did a brutal butchering of Todd's pencils on Batman: Year Two--I saw the pencils with my own eyes, even worked on some of those pages. Todd had to ink the last book of that storyline just to save his own work and sanity.

Todd knows what to look for, can see the stuff clearly--he knows his stuff, but his own work comes across as ugly.

Somehow, he can make something appealing out of all that line-work......but alot of his characters are just grostesque. His Mary Jane Watson often looked like a heroin addict to my eyes, so heavy was the "mascara" on her eyes they way she was drawn.

Todd's motif on art was put more lines on the page-and for a time it worked for him.

That's where the endless debates start, what is the better kind of art? Style versus draftsmanship.

Someone like Alex Toth can put down rock-solid, supple silhouettes and poses, and use minimal lines to convey powerful ideas and stories, and guys like Travis Charest can draw pretty looking stuff, but maaaaaaaaan are his poses stiff. Then someone like Todd comes along and slaps down enough lines on a two-pages spread to make a Where's Waldo fan freak out.

 

I guess if someone likes it, that's no skin off the back of my nose.

 

True. Just that this thread may be asking for it if someone's artist is listed. For me, it is all good since it is their opinion. The artist I mention that was listed eariler that I like is Jim Lee. However, I can understand why ppl hate his art since it is considered outdated because of the constant cross hatchings and he is mentioned quite often. It doesn't bother me if he is listed, but I realize someone ppl may get offended when an artist is mentioned after we said McGuinness.

 

I am not a fan of Liefeld myself. In the reborn series, he drew Captain America in such a weird matter where his chest is in one perceptive while his arms are in another. His chest is also pushed foward, makin the head look like it is too far back.

 

HeroesReborn.jpg

 

My friend laughs at that art everytime he glance at it since it appears Capt has boobs. As for myself, Liefeld's art hurt my eyes, seriously. The rough sketches and angles of his characters are an eye sore since some of them looks like they are on a different plane from the ground he drew.

 

An artist the most as of recent is Greg Horn. I know not a lot of ppl like artist drawing real ppl, but his looks great, especially the women. The men doesn't look "normal" like other artist who draws real ppl or old like Alex Ross.

 

 

Cap would not even need to sit down to eat his dinner. You chould just put his food on top of his chest and he could eat it from there. Ah, Liefeld........what else is there to say...............?

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I don't understand how people can cite Jim Lee as overrated. I'd have to say that the way the majority of fans picture the definative version of many of the X-Men in their head, is based off of Lee's artwork from the early 90's. I still love reading those comics, mostly due to Jim's artwork.

 

And for those of you bashing McFarlane...we wouldn't have the super-flexible Spider-man that we have in the comics today if it wasn't for him. He was the first person to draw Spider-man as a "spider man"...and many of the artists after him have just followed suit.

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I don't understand how people can cite Jim Lee as overrated. I'd have to say that the way the majority of fans picture the definative version of many of the X-Men in their head, is based off of Lee's artwork from the early 90's. I still love reading those comics, mostly due to Jim's artwork.

I think Bryne's run is cited by more people, but Lee's run certainly sold more.

 

And for those of you bashing McFarlane...we wouldn't have the super-flexible Spider-man that we have in the comics today if it wasn't for him. He was the first person to draw Spider-man as a "spider man"...and many of the artists after him have just followed suit.

 

Todd actually got a fair bit of "his" Spiderman from other artists. Guys like Michael Golden were doing that kind of Spidey at least a couple of years before Todd was--check out the Marvel Fanfare's that Golden did.

About the only thing that Todd can really lay claim to is in pushing the poses of Spiderman beyond normal human flexibility.

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Anyone who fed into the speculator market in the 90's...only to walk away from comics in general is overrated. McF, Lee, Liefeld and a bunch of their clones did it for the money, not for the artform. I used to like Bagey, and Lim when they were juggling duties on New Warriors. Now I don't like either of their pencils, because I matured, my skills have gotten better and I just don't buy into the hype surrounding artists anymore! To each his own, but my tastes have more to do with their decisions, than their abilities...

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