Style Changes 0

[Bird]

Coming straight from another thread...I was thinking about style changes. Or the lack thereof. What is an artist to do when they get recognized for their work? Do they find a sweet spot and hang in there forever or do they try and mix things up, sometimes for the worse and sometimes for the better.

I would love to hear people's thoughts on certain artists and how changing their style/approach whatever impacted how you felt about their work.

I once commented on here that I saw Tony Harris changing and I was not sure that I liked it but that I was onboard to see where he was going. This was before Tony and I knew each other by sight and in fact the next time I approached his table it was like he was ready for me. "I don't know this guys name but I know he buys a lot of my art." he said as we shook hands. Shortly thereafter he said "I saw what you said about my art" he said. I was ascared but he smiled and said he liked honest criticism. We talked about his changing approach and it was pretty cool.

I mentioned Herb Trimpe in the other thread. Remember when he went Image in an attempt to get more work? Sean Chen also ruined his style for a while there trying to be Jim Lee. he has such a clean clean look it never worked.

And Frank Miller. Who else drops styles like yesterday's fashions and moves on triumphantly?!!!? From Daredevil to Ronin to Elektra Lives Again to Sin City to today. 

Jim Williams 3rd. Imagine if we never got this thing that he has become. What a shame that would be.

Anyway, like I said I would love to hear some thoughts on artistic evolution...either "what were they thinking" or "look at what they did from here to here".

And I eventually decided that I preferred Tony Harris' old linework. I love the guy's stuff still but that irregular shadow line on the face doesn't work for me. It just looks odd. Now that Tony does it I see it in other artist's work, guys I love like Moebius, but it seems so much more noticeable in Tony's faces and that pulls me out of the art. See, I offer up my own sacrifice to get the thread started on a good truthful note. 

I'm gonna have to explain myself. 

[Panelfan1]

My taste lean more towards modern guys - so a few come to mind.  The question sometimes is, did the artist make the change consciously or did they get lazy? or comfortable or some other reason for the change.  I know in some cases, they did a house style to try and fit in.  Eric Larson talked about following Mcfarlane on Spiderman (find the interview on the Felix podcast).  

1. Travis Charest - his work improved a lot from start to finish (sadly nothing new in a long time). He pushed himself to improve. 

2. John Byrne  - I loved his Superman work, but by the time next men or wolverine came around, the work felt rushed and super loose. Not an improvement from my perspective.

3. Ed McGuinness - He started off drawing everyone very chubby/bubbly. Now his work is more anatomically correct.  Is it better? In my opinion its technically better, but the style is no longer as unique that it stands out easily.

 

[MagnusX]

Keith Giffen, From his clean run in Legion of Super heroes in the early 80's,
to his dark heavily Inking in the 90's, to his Kyrby influenced Style...

He had changed so often and so radical,
that sometimes I think he don't have an style of his own,
its mostly who is the current influence for him in any given period of time...

 

[SquareChaos]

Just speaking about Frank Miller specifically... I don't think people have a huge problem with the fact that he has changed styles (and more drastically than ever), but that his style has become grotesque. I've literally not heard from a single person that claims to like it - are you out there reading this? - but of course people still buy it... because Frank Miller.

[RabidFerret]

Rick Leonardi always comes to mind for a style-changing machine. From Uncanny X-Men to Spider-Man 2099 to Amazing Spider-Man and 20 other titles, it felt like he would change his style to suit the book. And it was generally quite awesome! If you took the credits off, I'm not convinced you'd realize it was the same artist.

[Bird]

7 hours ago, SquareChaos said:

Just speaking about Frank Miller specifically... I don't think people have a huge problem with the fact that he has changed styles (and more drastically than ever), but that his style has become grotesque. I've literally not heard from a single person that claims to like it - are you out there reading this? - but of course people still buy it... because Frank Miller.

I don't necessarily love it but I do not dislike it. Last night as I fell asleep it occurred to me that he has always brought heavy satire to his writing work, a meta-commentary on comics as a whole and that his drawing is now expressing that same vein; it is collapsing in on itself.

 

[Panelfan1]

1 hour ago, Bird said:

I don't necessarily love it but I do not dislike it. Last night as I fell asleep it occurred to me that he has always brought heavy satire to his writing work, a meta-commentary on comics as a whole and that his drawing is now expressing that same vein; it is collapsing in on itself.

 

As part of this whole look at changing styles - there is a personal question and that is - do I continue to support the artist by buying their new works even if the new style doesnt appeal to me? Like supporting an old friend - just because you are their pal, even when you may not otherwise do so.

RE: miller. He lost me at dk II.  If he changes again - I will be glad to take a second look.

[Pete Marino]

I think someone who's style has evolved and changed a lot from his starting point has to be Marc Silvestri.

His early UXM pages look a lot different than the "image style" he used on New X-Men.  And he's had many other iterations of his style in between those 2.

[JadeGiant]

Most notable to me is JRjr. I discovered his work when he started Iron Man and worked with Layton. Starting with his second run on Iron Man, I never appreciated his change in style. I think I read somewhere that he was asked about his style change and he called it something like “deadline style”

 

Sal Buscema is my favorite artist and I believe his style may have changed due to the volume he started getting assigned in the 80’s. I still appreciate it but his bronze era stuff will always be my favorite.

 

Dale Keown is another whose style has changed from his original run on the Hulk. While I still like his work, his earliest stuff is by far my favorite.

 

 

All of the above artists still produce art that I appreciate and would purchase.

[MHoes]

Generally speaking, I feel that no one stands still in time: people change over the years. And because of that, if you're an artist, so will your work. I find this neither 'good' or 'bad', its just the way it is.

Having said that, and replying to the question, I feel (from the very limited set of artists I have enough knowledge of) that both Marc Silvestri and Jim Lee have become much better artists over the years. And for me it doesn't even necessarily have anything to do with 'style changes', I just feel that over the years they have become much more skilled at performing their art.

[MHoes]

16 minutes ago, JadeGiant said:

Dale Keown is another whose style has changed from his original run on the Hulk. While I still like his work, his earliest stuff is by far my favorite.

Personally I'm the exactly other way around. I really didn't like his original Hulk run work. But I love what he did on 'P.I.T.T.', and everything that came after.

[JadeGiant]

1 minute ago, MHoes said:

Personally I'm the exactly other way around. I really didn't like his original Hulk run work. But I love what he did on 'P.I.T.T.', and everything that came after.

 

2 minutes ago, MHoes said:

Personally I'm the exactly other way around. I really didn't like his original Hulk run work. But I love what he did on 'P.I.T.T.', and everything that came after.

I totally get that. His later work is hyper-detailed and he probably put more work into the PITT art than anything previous and possibly anything since. I like the art and appreciate it, I just find the earlier stuff to suit my preferences more.

[Michaeld]

The most drastic style change for me to watch was Jae Lee. His work on Hellshock and Namor were for me just cool enough to get my attention but it didn't stick with me. What he is doing now I find absolutely compelling. If he had stuck with his old style I would have liked his work but I won't have felt as passionate about it as I do now.

Miller's growth for me took a bit of getting used to when he did Dark Knight and Sin City but I was still very drawn to his work. What he is doing now IMO is a real turn off. It's very harsh and two dimensional.

[SquareChaos]

2 minutes ago, Michaeld said:

The most drastic style change for me to watch was Jae Lee. His work on Hellshock and Namor were for me just cool enough to get my attention but it didn't stick with me. What he is doing now I find absolutely compelling. If he had stuck with his old style I would have liked his work but I won't have felt as passionate about it as I do now.

Miller's growth for me took a bit of getting used to when he did Dark Knight and Sin City but I was still very drawn to his work. What he is doing now IMO is a real turn off. It's very harsh and two dimensional.

I've been praising Jae's advances as well. He's literally a different artist from his early Hellshock days. 

 

As much as it was otherwise terrible, his pencils in Before Watchmen Ozymandias are gorgeous. 

[zhamlau]

Bill Sienkiewicz is the most insane example of style change/evolution I can think of. He was basically a Neal Adams disciple at the start (some say clone). But as his own method of inking and storytelling took over, that tighter contained style that started changing on Moonknight became very blocky and almost abstract by the time he got to New Mutants. By the time of stray toasters it was just completely flipped. Thoughts about anatomy and proportion were gone. It was all about creating a feel and look.

 

I love his work, don't get me wrong. I just think his evolution was the most extreme of anyone's I can think of. in a 6 year span from Moon Knight to Stray Toasters its almost as if he became a different artist.

[Matches_Malone]

Bernie Wrightson art style changed quite a lot throughout the years.  There's nothing like 70's Wrightson art, however, although different  I still love what he was doing in the latest Frankenstein Alive, Alive book. He was firing at a whole different level. 

Simon Bisley also comes to mind.  But not in a good way.  His body of work during the 90's was fracking awesome, not so much in the 21 century.  

[rotembk]

A couple of thoughts. In some cases the change in style is not so much a change in style as becoming comfortable doing your own thing and not being bound to the 'house style'. Without looking up interviews I'd say Sienkiewicz and Mignola fall into this category.

Second, because comic books are stories and not just pieces of art, looking back, I recognize that I can't appreciate style completely separate and apart from storytelling. The ability of 'cool' without any substance to carry a 22 page book is, at the end of the day, limited, in particular in retrospect. For this reason, I have a problem with artists that I feel abondoned their own voice in favor of the flavor of the time, even though I understand an artist wanting to keep fresh and maintain their own interest and being influenced by your contemporaries. If we take for example the Image style, a very large part of it confused filling every space with poses, lines and cross-hatching for actual storytelling. So while I was on board Cyber Force Silvestri, which at the time felt like Silvestri stepping up his game and showing he can be just as good as Jim Lee, now none of his work has the same appeal me as the older, cleaner work (certainly when you look at the original art that in many cases looks better than the printed, colored page). 

[Mycroft]

Stuart Immonen did it. His style on Superman or ShockRockets is very from his latest runs like Nextwave, Ultimate X-Men or Fear Itself.

Howard Porter too during his JLA run. His style changed after the Rocks of Age arc...

[robert frey]

how about BWS? he went from someone who strongly emulated Kirby to then transitioned to his Art Noeveau style all over a few years.

 

Edited February 24, 2017 by robert frey
typo

[Bird]

On 2/22/2017 at 10:17 PM, Panelfan1 said:

My taste lean more towards modern guys - so a few come to mind.  The question sometimes is, did the artist make the change consciously or did they get lazy? or comfortable or some other reason for the change.  I know in some cases, they did a house style to try and fit in.  Eric Larson talked about following Mcfarlane on Spiderman (find the interview on the Felix podcast).  

1. Travis Charest - his work improved a lot from start to finish (sadly nothing new in a long time). He pushed himself to improve. 

2. John Byrne  - I loved his Superman work, but by the time next men or wolverine came around, the work felt rushed and super loose. Not an improvement from my perspective.

3. Ed McGuinness - He started off drawing everyone very chubby/bubbly. Now his work is more anatomically correct.  Is it better? In my opinion its technically better, but the style is no longer as unique that it stands out easily.

 

Yeah, Travis is a great example. I used to own a few of those Flash Annual #5 pages as they were fun but the stuff he does now, or at least last time I saw something recent, is so far beyond it. The Space Girl stuff still has a nice raw energy to it and the pinups like those Captain America pieces are really nice in a different way, like an old ad or something with the cut figures. No one does torso cuts as well as Charest! I love that hard line at the edge of the fine line, sucker for it every time.

I remember liking the Byrne Superman and then disliking it when he started with that look I can best describe as steel wool on the page. And New Gods was barely tolerable for me but when Walt Simonson took over and took it to Jack Kirby's 4th World I was ecstatic.