 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Sep 4, 2017 - 2:59 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
drop_forge
(Member)
|
Rob's anatomy is better nowadays, but he made many bizarre choices in his "art" back in the 80s/90s. There are many blogs that capture those moments, like the one above with Cap, which is some truly bizarre anatomy there. He'd also do things like placing feet in the opposite direction of the rest of the character.
Regarding that Hawk & Dove miniseries he drew, IIRC that's the one where he drew an entire issue "landscape" style, i.e. sideways, and they had to XEROX AND CUT UP THE PAGES WITH AN X-ACTO BLADE in order to "rearrange" the panels correctly for publication!
Yes, that's what happened!
http://www.dcinthe80s.com/2016/12/reviewing-1988-hawk-dove-mini-series.html
[Editor Mike] Carlin is referring to the fact that Liefeld submitted some of his final pencilled pages for Hawk & Dove v2 #5 in a 'landscape' style [as opposed to the 'portrait' style you see when you read a comic upright]. This led to Karl Kesel and Mike Carlin needing to xerox and lightbox Liefeld's finished panels into an upright position in order to get the book ready for print.
Here's Karl's take:
http://www.cbr.com/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-36/
Yes, Rob did draw the entire Chaos Dimension sequence sideways or “landscape” style. He did this without consulting anyone. I’m sure Rob saw this as cool and different and exciting, but the editor, Mike Carlin, was not quite as thrilled. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of having to turn a comic sideways to read a story, especially not in the middle of an issue. It pulls you out of the story by calling far too much attention to itself. It can be done– there was a great issue of the Moore/Bissett/Totleben SWAMP THING that actually had you turn the comic completely around as you read it that was an amazing use of the device; and John Byrne did a FANTASTIC FOUR story set in the Negative Zone where it worked well– but generally I think it’s best to avoid.
Anyway. By the time we reached the last issue of the mini-series, Rob’s sights were clearly on other horizons. He had gotten later and later on deadlines…The Chaos Dimension sequence seemed to be the last straw for Carlin. As I remember it, Mike called me up to tell me that Rob had drawn the sequence sideways for no good reason, and that he (Carlin) was going to cut-and-paste it (using xeroxes) into a readable form and send those to me. Which he did. I lightboxed them onto DC paper and inked them.
By the way: Rob did NOT draw the dimension sideways because that’s how it had been drawn the only other time it had been shown. THIS was the first time it had been shown– Barbara and I created it for this story.
Mike Carlin once said of Rob: “He has it. He just doesn’t have it yet.” And I couldn’t agree more. Rob is one of the most energetic and charming people I’ve ever met– you can’t help but like him– and at the time of H&D his work showed great potential. But success came far too quickly and easily to him, and he never felt the need to develop that potential. Which is really too bad, because if he did I’m certain he would have left a very different mark on the industry. Not that things worked out that badly for him…
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Sep 15, 2017 - 11:00 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
|
Len reflects on his Batman tenure. Interesting anecdote about Marshall Rogers:
Dan Greenfield: And those were the two last Marshall Rogers issues, weren’t they?
Len Wein: Yes. Exactly. Yeah, it’s a very weird story, too. After I did the two-parter, I got called into Joe Orlando’s office. Joe was editorial coordinator at the time and he said, “We gotta sit and talk,” and I said, “Oh, God. Now what’s wrong?” And he said, “I just had a conversation with Marshall Rogers about the book and he’s really not very happy with what you’re scripting. You don’t script the way that Steve does and he just isn’t as happy with your style.” And I’m going, “Oh, God!”
I just gave up the four top Marvel books and here I am about to get fired off the book I came back to DC for. The next thing Joe said was, “So who do you want to replace Marshall with?” (Dan laughs) I went, “Oh, thank God,” and I said, “Nobody. Why not just shift books and I’ll just take over Batman. I don’t wanna…” You know? But Marshall pretty much left on his own right after that anyway.
http://13thdimension.com/the-len-wein-interviews-the-coming-of-clayface/
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Marshall Rogers is an amazing artist. Admittedly, I know him more for his Marvel work, but his work with Steve Engelhart on their original Batman run is spectacular. It is hard to imagine that the trade reprinting this run (Batman: Strange Apparitions) is out of print. Hopefully DC will remedy that soon. Anyway, an amazing artist:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Sep 19, 2017 - 12:33 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
drop_forge
(Member)
|
Apparently Rogers was brought in to mop up the typically ugly mess that was the art of Todd McFarlane, though had I been younger at the time, I probably would have thought Todd's art was "revolutionary"; glad I wasn't, so I didn't.
I'm at my LCS on Saturday to pick up a couple weeks' worth of new issues. I always take the time to look through the Bronze Age inventory. On top of the boxes are a few stacks of comics that haven't been filed, that are clearly Copper Age, not Bronze.
In one stack is an issue of Prophet. Remember that piece o' crap? Liefeld started it, and then a guy called Stephen Platt took over the art. His style literally embodied the worst of Liefeld and McFarlane jammed together into a confetti sandwich. It was perhaps THE ugliest cover I've seen published, and I've seen many!
I LOL'd and yelled at Sid, the owner: "Hey, so good of you to remind me of this crap era!"
He laughed, too. He walked over and went, "I also bought those when they were new, and I can never remember what the stories were like!"
Me in Harlan Ellison mode: "WHAT STORIES!! It was all crap! Image made nothin' but crap back then!" 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Sep 21, 2017 - 12:16 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
drop_forge
(Member)
|
Wow, that's hideous beyond belief, though I have seen much worse. LOL
Luckily I sat out most of the '90s in comics, though the Bat books (somewhat) avoided that decade's ugliness. The Bat books I read had Graham Nolan, Jom Aparo, and Eduardo Barreto on art duties. I don't count Kelley Jones because his renditions of Batman are brilliantly grotesque and appropriate to what Doug Moench was writing. Jones is the Sienkiewicz of the '90s.
There is so much wrong with that cover, I almost don't know where to start. If you've seen genuinely worse, please share, hahaha!
That anatomy is beyond grotesque. I'm not sure if a word exists to describe what Platt did there. We'll just use "inexcusably bad." How many extra muscles are on those thighs/legs? Why did he shake his pen so often at the paper? Is that supposed to be rain? Where does Prophet end and his equally funky looking nemesis start? The perspective and coloring is bad, too.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
