Brian Hitch: Threat or Menace? 1 1

[drdroom]

New member Skizz raises an important question: "Bryan Hitch is one of those artists whose art I feel extremely schizophrenic about.  What I mean by that is that there are times I feel he is a modern day Michelangelo who widened the scope and canvass of comic art and heralded the modern cinematic style storytelling in comics. And there are other times I feel he’s just a photo tracer.  At the time of writing this, I feel the former. "  

I confess I'm not sure about this myself. I feel that the original Ultimates series was incredibly influential, & the Hitch/Neary art was huge part of that. But then  I feel like there is an intangible element missing. Is it overly photo-referenced? Ultimates pages can be had for a few hundred bucks. Are they underpriced?

Edited July 31, 2017 by drdroom
correct spelling

[visarspike]

i always thought hitch was way underrated, although his art is amazing.......i like the old hitch pages, when he was inked by neary, and not the later ones inked by himself (or guice, or anyone else)

old ultimates / JLA / authority pages (inked by neary) were just incredible, but it seems the prices were higher before than they are now (for a reason i don't understand, i can't exactly explain why the prices have dropped)

 

and he also was doing very nice commissions (you have some nice examples on CAF)

when i think of him now, it seems as a big waste, even if he stills does great work (on the recent JLA issues for example)

on the other hand, some great pages / splash / covers from the ultimates / JLA / authority series sell for a lot, and it doesn't seem to be a lot of them on the market

[PhilipB2k17]

This thread can also be about Greg Land. I feel like his later stuff is actually quite good, however. I have a pretty kick DPS from Mighty Avengers, that is probably criminally undervalued, mostly because it's by Land, and despite the fact that the Thanos invasion plot line might be part and parcel of the Infinity Wars film coming up.

[Get Marwood & I]

9 hours ago, drdroom said:

New member Skizz raises an important question: "Bryan Hitch is one of those artists whose art I feel extremely schizophrenic about.  What I mean by that is that there are times I feel he is a modern day Michelangelo who widened the scope and canvass of comic art and heralded the modern cinematic style storytelling in comics. And there are other times I feel he’s just a photo tracer.  At the time of writing this, I feel the former. "  

I confess I'm not sure about this myself. I feel that the original Ultimates series was incredibly influential, & the Hitch/Neary art was huge part of that. But then  I feel like there is an intangible element missing. Is it overly photo-referenced? Ultimates pages can be had for a few hundred bucks. Are they underpriced?

This is intriguing. To help your case along, could you post some examples of the two ends of the quality spectrum as you see them? A thread about art should have pictures, no?

[visarspike]

23 minutes ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

This thread can also be about Greg Land. I feel like his later stuff is actually quite good, however. I have a pretty kick DPS from Mighty Avengers, that is probably criminally undervalued, mostly because it's by Land, and despite the fact that the Thanos invasion plot line might be part and parcel of the Infinity Wars film coming up.

you can't put greg land on the same level....he didn't do any memorable comics, although authority and ultimates were a revolution in comics at the time they were printed, and set new levels for comics (in my opinion)

[PhilipB2k17]

3 minutes ago, visarspike said:

you can't put greg land on the same level....he didn't do any memorable comics, although authority and ultimates were a revolution in comics at the time they were printed, and set new levels for comics (in my opinion)

It depends. The Thanos invasion storyline crossover for "Infinity" in Mighty Avengers might actually be featured in the new iInfinity Wars film. That's the book where Doctor Strange was induced to call Shuma-Gorath by Ebony Maw (who will be in the film, and will fight Strange).  

Here's my page, and I like it. :-)

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1409203

[Skizz]

10 hours ago, drdroom said:

Ultimates pages can be had for a few hundred bucks. Are they underpriced?

I have to say, I have only seen a few pages from Ultimates 2 come up for a few hundred.  I haven't seen any from Ultimates 1, at least in the few months that I have searched.

But if it is true that Ultimates is underpriced, I might posit a theory for that.

As edgy as Ultimates was at the time (it certainly brought me into comics), looking at it with some hindsight and objectivity, I would say that everyone in this story was kind of an A-hole.  All the aspirational character we look up to like Captain America, Iron Man etc, pretty much everyone in it was self-serving and/or callous in their attitude towards human life.  

Art is supposed to be a mirror to society and may be our own image that Ultimates showed us is not a very flattering.  If this is the case, then the normal response would be to ignore it and forget it exists and go back the original Marvel universe where the heroes act like how we expect heroes to act.

Just a theory, but may explain why Ultimates to underrated and not talked about much.

Regarding photo referencing, I am in two minds about this.  Ultimately, comics are a storytelling medium and photo referencing is just a tool.  An interesting question to ask is that as long as the page makes an emotional impact to the reader, does it matter is any portion of it was photo referenced? 

If I am not mistaken, Bruce Timm and Alex Ross used to be good friends in the early days and they used to critique each others work.  But ultimately Bruce Timm Tim felt that Alex Ross's work was overly photo referenced and was stifling as a result of this.  Alex Ross disagreed that felt that Bruce Timm did not understand that he was trying to bring in almost a Renaissance style of painted quality to comic art which it was lacked up to that point.  Arguably both are correct. 

[PhilipB2k17]

12 minutes ago, Skizz said:

I have to say, I have only seen a few pages from Ultimates 2 come up for a few hundred.  I haven't seen any from Ultimates 1, at least in the few months that I have searched.

But if it is true that Ultimates is underpriced, I might posit a theory for that.

As edgy as Ultimates was at the time (it certainly brought me into comics), looking at it with some hindsight and objectivity, I would say that everyone in this story was kind of an A-hole.  All the aspirational character we look up to like Captain America, Iron Man etc, pretty much everyone in it was self-serving and/or callous in their attitude towards human life.  

Art is supposed to be a mirror to society and may be our own image that Ultimates showed us is not a very flattering.  If this is the case, then the normal response would be to ignore it and forget it exists and go back the original Marvel universe where the heroes act like how we expect heroes to act.

Just a theory, but may explain why Ultimates to underrated and not talked about much.

Regarding photo referencing, I am in two minds about this.  Ultimately, comics are a storytelling medium and photo referencing is just a tool.  An interesting question to ask is that as long as the page makes an emotional impact to the reader, does it matter is any portion of it was photo referenced? 

If I am not mistaken, Bruce Timm and Alex Ross used to be good friends in the early days and they used to critique each others work.  But ultimately Bruce Timm Tim felt that Alex Ross's work was overly photo referenced and was stifling as a result of this.  Alex Ross disagreed that felt that Bruce Timm did not understand that he was trying to bring in almost a Renaissance style of painted quality to comic art which it was lacked up to that point.  Arguably both are correct. 

The Ultimate universe, though, is partially a template for the current MCU. Hitch, for example, used photo referencing to depict Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in Ultimates 1. I should think those pages - if only a couple hundred bucks - are probably undervalued quite a bit.

[Get Marwood & I]

I'm confused by this thread. We seem to be debating whether Brian Hitch's photo-referenced art is a good (Michelangelo) thing or a bad (photo-tracer) thing. If so, and looking at the thread title, which one of 'threat' and 'menace' represents the good thing?

What am I missing?

 

 

[PhilipB2k17]

8 minutes ago, Marwood & I said:

I'm confused by this thread. We seem to be debating whether Brian Hitch's photo-referenced art is a good (Michelangelo) thing or a bad (photo-tracer) thing. If so, and looking at the thread title, which one of 'threat' and 'menace' represents the good thing?

What am I missing?

 

 

I think the thread is kind of discussing why Hitch (and Greg Land) and their Ultimates work doesn't get more hobby (value) love, and discussing the reasons why they may or may not.

[vodou]

7 minutes ago, Marwood & I said:

I'm confused by this thread. We seem to be debating whether Brian Hitch's photo-referenced art is a good (Michelangelo) thing or a bad (photo-tracer) thing. If so, and looking at the thread title, which one of 'threat' and 'menace' represents the good thing?

What am I missing?

 

 

The most popular hobby usage of Threat or Menace is in pointing out J Jonah Jamison's complete lack of journalistic integrity, yellow journalism at it's finest, the headline assumes there is no "good" to Spider-Man. Similar to the oft-used example of a cop (or lawyer) asking you, "have you stopped beating your wife recently?" Get it? I'm assuming OP was going there as a wordplay.

[Get Marwood & I]

Just now, PhilipB2k17 said:

I think the thread is kind of discussing why Hitch (and Greg Land) and their Ultimates work doesn't get more hobby (value) love, and discussing the reasons why they may or may not.

I see, thanks Philip. A quick googleation helped my understanding along. I get it now. Never heard that term in all my years...

[Skizz]

12 minutes ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

The Ultimate universe, though, is partially a template for the current MCU. Hitch, for example, used photo referencing to depict Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in Ultimates 1. I should think those pages - if only a couple hundred bucks - are probably undervalued quite a bit.

I agree.  In fact, if I see any Ultimates 1 pages for  few hundred, I'd be all over that. 

[chrisco37]

1 minute ago, Skizz said:

I agree.  In fact, if I see any Ultimates 1 pages for  few hundred, I'd be all over that. 

+1,000,000

[Get Marwood & I]

3 minutes ago, vodou said:

The most popular hobby usage of Threat or Menace is in pointing out J Jonah Jamison's complete lack of journalistic integrity, yellow journalism at it's finest, the headline assumes there is no "good" to Spider-Man. Similar to the oft-used example of a cop (or lawyer) asking you, "have you stopped beating your wife recently?" Get it? I'm assuming OP was going there as a wordplay.

I refer the Honourable Gentleman to the reply I gave earlier 

Sorry for being the class dunce today! 

[drdroom]

Latest Heritage results are 2012, 2013 and those have run-of-the-mill panel pages in the low hundreds. Maybe they've gone up since then? Also, can someone clarify, did The Ultimates cast Samuel Jackson as Fury BEFORE the movie did?!?

[PhilipB2k17]

3 minutes ago, drdroom said:

Latest Heritage results are 2012, 2013 and those have run-of-the-mill panel pages in the low hundreds. Maybe they've gone up since then? Also, can someone clarify, did The Ultimates cast Samuel Jackson as Fury BEFORE the movie did?!?

Yes. Ultimates depicted Samuel L. Jackson as Fury ~before~ Iron Man came out. That's why they cast Jackson as Fury.

 

[chrisco37]

4 minutes ago, drdroom said:

The Ultimates cast Samuel Jackson as Fury BEFORE the movie did?!?

Yes.  Book was years before the first Avengers movie. 

[eewwnuk]

1 hour ago, Marwood & I said:

I'm confused by this thread. We seem to be debating whether Brian Hitch's photo-referenced art is a good (Michelangelo) thing or a bad (photo-tracer) thing. If so, and looking at the thread title, which one of 'threat' and 'menace' represents the good thing?

What am I missing?

 

 

Michelangelo used photo referencing for his art?   

[Get Marwood & I]

Just now, eewwnuk said:

Michelangelo used photo referencing for his art?   

I know. What a cheat.