Lit Discussion/Critique of the art within Marvel comics

I wonder who Larroca used as models for Moff Hubi and the unnamed woman officer in #46. He used friend and colleague Angel Unzueta (who worked on some issues of Shattered Empire and Poe Dameron) as a model for an officer in #36. (Here's a post on Unzueta's blog about it.)



Just posting this because I think it's a cute thing to do and a sweet tribute to a friend. (Too bad the manner in which it's done is so incongruous with the rest of the art.) Can you imagine your appearance being used in a SW comic? Man.

 

More than likely Google picked the people he modeled them after...


Sent from my Ornithopter using The Force

 

It's often painfully easy to identify which OT scene Larroca is tracing when he's portraying the Big Three, but I'm curious... has anyone noticed him using stills of Mark, Carrie and Harrison from outside of Star Wars? Say, a tracing of Indy to represent Han.

 

There are so many panels of Moff Hubi relying on traces that I'm hoping he just took a bunch of photos of a friend for use (which I would find partly heartwarming), but yes it's possible he could have just used a large gallery of a random person from many angles and with many expressions. Hopefully from an artist resource/reference site and not once again a random person pulled from an image search (which I would find creepy, because it would have to be an entire set, not just a single image).

To be honest, I was really making that feel-good post for myself, because I was trying to prevent my irritation and disappointment with something else from boiling over again, but oops here I go:

Tracing film stills. When paying for a SW comic, I want to enjoy *original* art. If I were to commission someone, especially a professional, for a piece of SW art and they delivered a trace of a film still, I would be seriously teed off and possibly even refuse to pay them for it. I want their art, their work, a demonstration of their talent. I've seen completely competent character art from Larroca in other works, so what's up here? This series, it reminds me of the cine-mangas at some points! Argh. It's so frequent and so flagrant.

 

I would actually prefer a straight-up photocomic to what we're getting, to be honest, because while the tracing is fairly extreme it's the contrast between it (especially the faces) and everything else that is really proving the stumbling point for me. I know this specific aspect is getting to be a beating-a-dead-horse thing - but I didn't use the word 'horrifying' in the main thread lightly. Those faces look profoundly wrong to me as a reader.

 

As funky as some of the old EU OT Big 3 art was at times (Ex. Yavin Vasilika, Dark Empire), I miss the fact that they at least tried something new. Did it always work? No. But props for trying.

 

You know my thoughts, I still contend that there are deeper flaws in the artwork beyond the tracing (and the jarring inconsistency it introduces). The continuity, framing and composition are weak, and just bizarre some of the time (eg, the latest issue has a crotch shot of Leia as the background).

 

That has happened before in Star Wars comics. I can think of two instances at the moment, however, I'm not sure if there are more.

One example is for the character of Maddie from Dark Times: Out of the Wilderness. Her appearance was based off a girl named Madison Porter that won an auction to appear in a Dark Horse comic book. She had a pretty significant role in the story too! I don't know how Madison looks in real life, but I guess it's safe to assume that her portrayal in Dark Times was faithful thanks to the masterful art by Doug Wheatley. Here's how you depict someone in a comic book without going the uncomfortable uncanny valley route:


The other example is about Quinlan Vos and Antares Draco, who were modelled after a guy named Doug Wangler. The likeness between Quinlan and Doug were coincidental at first, but in later issues of Republic, Quinlan was based on Doug Wangler.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Doug_Wangler
http://www.sandtroopers.com/events/quinlanvos/interview/

Here's a photo of Jan Duursema applying Quinlan's tattoo on Doug Wangler:

 

Comic book writer Kurt Busiek posted a Twitter thread about lettering in comics. I hope this isn't straying too far from the art topic of this thread, but (1) I found it to be an enlightening read and will be mindful to appreciate lettering more in future issues and rereads; and (2) as noted in the thread, lettering interacts heavily with the composition and framing of the art, and thus is another example of how communication and synergy between members of the creative team elevates the work.

 

Interesting, comments on the art are now turning up in trade reviews:

 

I was browsing the Wookieepedia image gallery, (in search of desktop backgrounds) and thought hmm, this looks familiar . . .

The Force Unleashed 2:


Star Wars #23, Jorge Molina

 

Wow, good catch. They're pretty much identical.

 

It's official: I have a new favorite representation of Luke.

Spoiler

 

Holeeee jeeesus...
What is that face?!

 

Something is not right with Han’s hand too. On a bright note, at least the texture on the faces match the rest of the panel. So progress I guess.

 

In a few of the gun battle panels in this issue, the arms are bizarrely positioned in a way that looks just like a Kenner action figure... so maybe we're moving beyond photo reference in one sense.

 

This actually gave me a mild "yaaah!" jump-scare when I opened the spoiler box, no joke.

 

His expression doesn't even fit what he's saying.

 

Here comes a new challenger....

This also requires a horror warning.

The result? K.O.

 

Traced from the Holiday Special?

 

This picture makes me miss Dark Horse comics so much. While art n the Dark Horse books was occasionally questionable, it had never been so consistently bad. I don't ever recall Dark Horse artists ever "drawing" such a horrible representation of Luke. Art like this has really put me off reading the Marvel comics.

 

That would be a mistake as, while it's on the top dog title, it isn't representative of the entire line.

 

After reading Star Wars #51 and seeing the preview for #52, I feel like it needs to be mentioned that the colouring of Larroca's faces has gotten a lot better. It seems like Marvel listened to us, so it's only fair we acknowledge that and show our appreciation. Take a look at Han's face from the #52 preview: (minor spoiler warning)

Spoiler

and compare it with this picture I grabbed from a preview for #43:

and this image that was posted above:

That's what I call progress! That first picture is the best looking Han face I've seen in the past 25 issues since Larroca took over.

 

I haven't been following the main series primarily because of the artwork. But I have to commend Larocca, the panel of Han above does look promising. Is the rest of the issue improved art-wise as well?

 

Yeah I think the whole issue should be coloured much better. #51 was improved as well, but I believe #50 still looked pretty bad.