After 20 years.. Goodbye Spidey

[500Club]

It appears I'm one of the few who liked the three-issues-a-month idea. To me, it's better that than three different titles and disjointed storytelling.

 

Instead of three X-Men, three Avengers, two Iron Man titles a month etc, etc, plus mini series, I'd rather see one single title come out multiple times a month, with linear storytelling.

The problems with that is this.....

 

#1. Even if they happen upon a quality writer, he is constantly under deadline pressure and uses up whatever ideas he has 3 times more quickly than he would normally. He also cannot spend time thinking about new storylines because he is so busy cranking out issues.

 

#2. They can't get a single artist to do 3 times a month. No one who is any quality can maintain that schedule and they wouldn't want to if they could. It leads to short cuts and sub par art.

 

#3 . There is no anticipation of the next issue. Part of the fun of comics is having to wait a month to find out what happens next. Drama.

 

#4. By forcing unrealistic deadlines, you have to have multiple creators which leads to disjointed art and storyline and it ends up reading like a never ending group of 3 issue mini series. Maybe that is fine for you, but it is not what I want to read.

Good points. Yes, it does come down to point #4. But I'd argue we already have that. As it now stands, each separate title has different creative teams. The books get read in alternating single issue bits as they come out. How would it be worse to have runs of three or four issues of the same creative teams on a single book? Not only that, it should be pretty basic for the writers and editorial level to coordinate and communicate on a linear cohesive storyline.

[500Club]

the worst was john byrne, everybody looks the same, remove susan storm's hair and replace it with long red hair, and you have jean grey. other than that, it's was fine.

In his defence, Byrne himself lamented this in interviews over the years. Now, of course, those details don't seem to matter to JB. I suspect he'd be happy to draw technically perfect stick figure comics.

[PBU-migration]

I hated Larsen's Venom, with the tongue and the slobber. He took the menace the TM had drawn the character with, and turned it into a caricature.

 

+100000000

 

The really bad part of it is that every artist since kinda took Larsen's interpretation (tongue/slobber) and ran with it.

 

Has Larsen drawn anything well? I remember when he took over on Doom Patrol. I can't imagine anything more jarring than going from Steve Lightle's smooth, fluid style, to Larsen's jagged edges and poor knowledge of even basic anatomy.

 

Nothing that comes to mind. I'm not a big fan of his style.

 

Larsen is a lot like Humberto Ramos, Chris Bachalo, Mike Mignola, J Scott Campbell, Skotie Young, etc. These artists are fine when they do their own comic, their own original creations. But when they do mainstream characters from the Big 2, they look like .

I agree.

 

Well, excepting Mignola. Otherwise, I agree.

Ramos has to be the worst of all.

Mignola is hit or miss IMO. Ramos, I just dont like. I hated his X-Men stuff actually.

 

I thumbed through ASM #649 today, Ramos' art is horrific Mexican manga. But he's not the worst X-Men artist I've ever seen, that would be Joe Mad.

[Old Fashion PB and J]

Im with you, the Joe Mad X-Men looked like extras for a Street Fighter game

[passion4comics]

the worst was john byrne, everybody looks the same, remove susan storm's hair and replace it with long red hair, and you have jean grey. other than that, it's was fine.

In his defence, Byrne himself lamented this in interviews over the years. Now, of course, those details don't seem to matter to JB. I suspect he'd be happy to draw technically perfect stick figure comics.

 

I used to seek out Byrne issues in the 80s. As a kid I really didn't notice the lack of work put into his drawings. I thought they were good. What did he say about this during the interview?

 

I've always liked Frank Miller.

[passion4comics]

 

I thumbed through ASM #649 today, Ramos' art is horrific Mexican manga. But he's not the worst X-Men artist I've ever seen, that would be Joe Mad.

 

A cross between Tim Burton and box figures.

[500Club]

the worst was john byrne, everybody looks the same, remove susan storm's hair and replace it with long red hair, and you have jean grey. other than that, it's was fine.

In his defence, Byrne himself lamented this in interviews over the years. Now, of course, those details don't seem to matter to JB. I suspect he'd be happy to draw technically perfect stick figure comics.

 

I used to seek out Byrne issues in the 80s. As a kid I really didn't notice the lack of work put into his drawings. I thought they were good. What did he say about this during the interview?

 

I've always liked Frank Miller.

Reread my comment. It's now, with JBs current style, that the art looks very sketchy.

 

Back in the 80s, the art was very polished, although, as Byrne admitted, female facial variance was a problem for him.

[piper]

It appears I'm one of the few who liked the three-issues-a-month idea. To me, it's better that than three different titles and disjointed storytelling.

 

Instead of three X-Men, three Avengers, two Iron Man titles a month etc, etc, plus mini series, I'd rather see one single title come out multiple times a month, with linear storytelling.

The problems with that is this.....

 

#1. Even if they happen upon a quality writer, he is constantly under deadline pressure and uses up whatever ideas he has 3 times more quickly than he would normally. He also cannot spend time thinking about new storylines because he is so busy cranking out issues.

 

#2. They can't get a single artist to do 3 times a month. No one who is any quality can maintain that schedule and they wouldn't want to if they could. It leads to short cuts and sub par art.

 

#3 . There is no anticipation of the next issue. Part of the fun of comics is having to wait a month to find out what happens next. Drama.

 

#4. By forcing unrealistic deadlines, you have to have multiple creators which leads to disjointed art and storyline and it ends up reading like a never ending group of 3 issue mini series. Maybe that is fine for you, but it is not what I want to read.

Good points. Yes, it does come down to point #4. But I'd argue we already have that. As it now stands, each separate title has different creative teams. The books get read in alternating single issue bits as they come out. How would it be worse to have runs of three or four issues of the same creative teams on a single book? Not only that, it should be pretty basic for the writers and editorial level to coordinate and communicate on a linear cohesive storyline.

 

I agree with you on this point. I also agree that Gwen is better than MJ.