Who's The Most Overrated - Ties 1-4

[king_felix-migration]

Details here. Each poll is open for 48 hours.

[king_felix-migration]

A Ditko/Cassady tie Since I never thought of a rule to cover that, I'll reopen that one in the last batch of R1 match ups tomorrow.

 

With all the votes Byrne got in the original thread, I'm seriously surprised to see him go so soon.

[october]

What retards voted for Adams and Barks?

[king_felix-migration]

What retards voted for Adams and Barks?

 

I voted for Barks. No one has ever managed to explain the appeal to me. When I've asked, all they've said is "Look at the pictures" and all I see are cartoon ducks.

 

They may be very well drawn cartoon ducks but IMHO, Barks has to be the singular most overrated person in the history of comics. Remember, that's not to say that his work is bad, just incredibly overrated. I still cringe when I look through old Overstreets and I see market reports exclusively dedicated to his paintings.

 

Donald Duck ferchrissakes.

[king_felix-migration]

What retards voted for Adams and Barks?

 

I voted for Barks. No one has ever managed to explain the appeal to me. When I've asked, all they've said is "Look at the pictures" and all I see are cartoon ducks.

 

They may be very well drawn cartoon ducks but IMHO, Barks has to be the singular most overrated person in the history of comics. Remember, that's not to say that his work is bad, just incredibly overrated. I still cringe when I look through old Overstreets and I see market reports exclusively dedicated to his paintings.

 

Donald Duck ferchrissakes.

 

I should probably clarify all this lest I offend too many people.

 

There is a tendency amongst us comic collectors to overly lionise our favorite creators and to imbue an almost mystical significance into what they were producing. I tend not to subscribe to this. I imagine most creators prior to the fanboy explosion, as being journeymen professionals with a few hacks thrown in, who couldn't give a hoot about what they were producing. Remember, they were producing funny books for 10 year olds and most of them would probably have preferred a better paid job in the real world.

 

For sure, certain people existed who took a greater pride in their work and in the earliest days of fandom, this was more sought after as there were very few jewels in the rough. But standards have probably risen slightly over the years and even if the percentage of such jewels hasn't grown, their overall number has. But still, the initial names are lauded because Overstreet rarely changes anything, including break-out descriptions that have had no real meaning in decades.

 

It's impossible to view the entire industry from the perspective of new eyes, but if you did, I really couldn't see Barks featuring that highly in the pantheon of the great and the good. If other people love his work, great, I'm glad they get enjoyment from it. But to me, the hoop-la surrounding it is way out of proportion.

 

But as I said elsewhere recently, it's all horses for courses. Read what you enjoy and enjoy what you read.

[Scrooge]

Now, is it just a false impression I got from your post or did you just LOOK at the "nice pictures of ducks" or did you actually try to (OMG, should I say this?) READ a Barks issue? Just wondering ... you know that our hobby is a combination of words and pictures and Barks was pulling both duties which means he shouldn't be compared to artists extraordinaires that, sure, can astound us with their line-work but should be compared to writer-penciller creators. Still, aside from the issue of comparison group, I find it more amazing the amount of emotion Barks could convey as confined as he was with the structure of his characters. Yes, ducks stand up funny but he made it work. I was as amazed by Jeff Smith and the range of expressions he was able to give the Bone characters and he had less to work with but was able to pull it off effectively (at least in the early days of the series).

 

Now, I don't mean to jump you because I obviously belong to the other camp on this issue and therefore am probably not the best person to try to win you over somewhat in seeing what we see in Barks (and I even have yet to talk about his writing at this point) so if other people would like to jump in, please feel free.

[october]

It was Barks vs KEVIN SMITH fer christsakes! Has Smith ever actually managed to finish one of his projects? Talk about overratted. Barks is loved, not only for his art (which is the definitive version of Donald Duck), but also for his stories. His tales have universal appeal and anyone from the ages of 5 to 50 is capable of enjoying them. I don't know how anyone can consider a man who wrote and drew his own comics for 25 straight years, created Uncle Scrooge, and revolutionized one of America's greatest cartoon characters overrated. If anything I think Barks is underappreciated, since he worked in a genre that garners a lot less attention than superheroes (at least these days). I personally would put him in the same category as Kirby, Adams, Stan Lee and Kurtzman.

[Arty]

If anything I think Barks is underappreciated, since he worked in a genre that garners a lot less attention than superheroes (at least these days). I personally would put him in the same category as Kirby, Adams, Stan Lee and Kurtzman.

 

Carl barks is definitely underrated in U.S at the moment. In Europe he is more well known than ANY of those heavyweights october_fire mentioned. Worldwide he is the most published comic artist ever. For example combined print run of Donald Duck comics in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden is over million copies... for a WEEKLY magazine. (those mags regularly contain reprinted Barks stories)

[Mushroom]

The first time I saw Donald's hat fly off into the air to emphasise an emotion....

 

He was a genius........

[Hobgoblin]

I'm sorry, y'all; but BMB is awesome.

[october]

I'm sorry, y'all; but BMB is awesome.