Infantino vs. Wrightson

[Speedy-D]

So, I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I got two pages last week that I'm totally psyched for? "What pages?" you ask? Lemme show you!!

 

 

 

Anyway, I'm an Infantino fan, and this page has it all for me. And of course, everyone with half a brain is a Wrightson fan, right? So, it all makes perfect sense.

 

Well, I had a woman over last night, and we were making dinner and fixing to watch some Captain Marvel 1941 serial episodes and Attack of the Clones. Being all psyched for my art, I asked if she wanted to check it out. She obliged me, and we went into my office. I showed her the Infantino page first, and she was kinda nonplussed. She said some nice things, but was obviously not all that into it. Then I pulled out the Frankenstein pages and she totally lit up! What does that say? I asked her why her reactions were so different, and she said the Infantino page just looked like a comic page. :shrug:

 

So, what's the deal? Do my years with comics give me a more discerning eye? Do I get Infantino in a way that she doesn't 'cuz she's a normal human who doesn't spend all night on a comics chat board? Or have I gone in too deep, as Crockett/Tubbs might say, and lost my way?

[suspense39]

I get what she's saying, but they are both great!

[newshane]

Wrightson is the better artist in my opinion.

[batman_fan]

There is no comparison between the two. Infantino always had a simple style and a lot of his stuff looks very rushed. Wrightson had the detailed lines that alwas add to the appeal of the piece.

[Speedy-D]

Yeah, but is Infantino "inside baseball?" Does Bernie Wrightson have more general appeal? Does that make him "better" (whatever that means)?

[Hekla]

Maybe you are over thinking it. The Infantino literally looks like an old-school comic page: word ballons, superheros, compressed story-telling, etc. The Wrightson page tells a story without words (a familiar story at that) and has more of an illustrative quality to it than the Infantino page.

[newshane]

Yeah, but is Infantino "inside baseball?" Does Bernie Wrightson have more general appeal? Does that make him "better" (whatever that means)?

 

Technical and stylistic superiority. Wrightson's work is instantly recognizable.

[Kevin.J]

Both great pieces in their own right, Infantino for me though if I had to chose.

But if you have a woman over and you pull out your Bernie and she says she likes it

Well man, how could that be wrong

[comix4fun]

Congrats....I remember when those Frankie pages were first offered. The prices were beyond my interest at the time, but there's no denying how great that is!

[innocuous]

Yep, they're completely different. And, Infantino *defined* the comic look she probably remembers from her childhood. So, of course it looks like a comic book.

[Mephisto]

There aren't too many pen and ink artists I am interested in owning an example of but Wrightson style and inking is easily one of my favorites if not my favorite. He's got some cool paintings from the 70's as well.

[fmaz]

So you brought a woman home and asked her if she wanted to "come up and see my etchings"?

 

Man, you get huge points for rockin' it OLD SCHOOL! :-)

 

Seriously, both pieces are great. All that matters is what you like. And, apparently, how well they can help you with the ladies. :-)

 

[Speedy-D]

So you brought a woman home and asked her if she wanted to "come up and see my etchings"?

 

Man, you get huge points for rockin' it OLD SCHOOL! :-)

 

Seriously, both pieces are great. All that matters is what you like. And, apparently, how well they can help you with the ladies. :-)

O, I had her at "Captain Marvel serial from 1941!!"

[fmaz]

Love it!

[glendgold]

So you know from my CAF comment I'm a fan of the Infantino page, but I get where she's coming from. On an artistic level, Wrightson swallows Infantino whole. But even without debating what "artistic" means, Wrightson still wins. If you were to ask someone who didn't read comic books what a comic book looked like, the Infantino page fits the bill. It's guys hitting each other. Tell me what emotional expressions are on anyone's faces -- maybe "fierceness" or something. But the Wrightson is emotionally complicated. There's awe, compassion, fear, wonder and I'm guessing it would generate for her a curiosity about what happened before and what happens next.

[jjonahjameson1]

So, I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I got two pages last week that I'm totally psyched for? "What pages?" you ask? Lemme show you!!

 

 

 

Anyway, I'm an Infantino fan, and this page has it all for me. And of course, everyone with half a brain is a Wrightson fan, right? So, it all makes perfect sense.

 

Well, I had a woman over last night, and we were making dinner and fixing to watch some Captain Marvel 1941 serial episodes and Attack of the Clones. Being all psyched for my art, I asked if she wanted to check it out. She obliged me, and we went into my office. I showed her the Infantino page first, and she was kinda nonplussed. She said some nice things, but was obviously not all that into it. Then I pulled out the Frankenstein pages and she totally lit up! What does that say? I asked her why her reactions were so different, and she said the Infantino page just looked like a comic page. :shrug:

 

Never, ever thought I'd be reading a Miami Vice reference on a comicart message board. I like it (thumbs u

 

So, what's the deal? Do my years with comics give me a more discerning eye? Do I get Infantino in a way that she doesn't 'cuz she's a normal human who doesn't spend all night on a comics chat board? Or have I gone in too deep, as Crockett/Tubbs might say, and lost my way?

[Unca Ben]

-Just my two cents, but comparing the two pages (and artists) without considering the era in which they were created would be insufficient.

 

I suspect that if the Wrightson page were submitted to National in the mid '60s it might have been rejected because of the printing methods and newsprint used by DC comics at the time.

Much of the fine line work and ink wash / grey tones may have been muddied or lost in the printing process for interior pages.

 

I'm fairly certain that DC had standards that Infantino needed to follow for printing clarity in regard to line weights and line densities for texturing objects and modeling figures.

 

This is not to say that Infantino could (or would) draw a page like the Wrightson example. But I am saying the two pages were drawn with different requirements in mind.

 

edit: for me, both pages are good examples of the art of sequential storytelling. The Wrightson example might have the edge in leading the eye across the page, IMHO.

[Terry Doyle]

Interesting story on the 'art' of seduction (sounds like the Captain Marvel serial ultimately did the trick . . . after softening her up with a bit of Wrightson horror!).

 

Liked both artwork pieces. (thumbs u

[drdroom]

-Just my two cents, but comparing the two pages (and artists) without considering the era in which they were created would be insufficient.

 

I suspect that if the Wrightson page were submitted to National in the mid '60s it might have been rejected because of the printing methods and newsprint used by DC comics at the time.

Much of the fine line work and ink wash / grey tones may have been muddied or lost in the printing process for interior pages.

 

I'm fairly certain that DC had standards that Infantino needed to follow for printing clarity in regard to line weights and line densities for texturing objects and modeling figures.

 

This is not to say that Infantino could (or would) draw a page like the Wrightson example. But I am saying the two pages were drawn with different requirements in mind.

 

edit: for me, both pages are good examples of the art of sequential storytelling. The Wrightson example might have the edge in leading the eye across the page, IMHO.

 

A more fair comparison might be between the Wrightson and one of those sci-fi pages that Alex Nino inked for Warren in the late '70s. The virtues of Wrightson that Glen & others have outlined will still shine through, but with stronger inking Infantino's superb design sense gets a chance to make its case.

[Rodey]

Did Wrightson draw Nova? Infantino wins.