Comic art taking a new direction?
There definitely seems to be trends in comics, especially when it comes to what art is popular for horror comics. Right around 2002 the big thing was the painted/abstract style lead by artists Ashley Wood and Ben Templesmith. IDW built their company on these two artists and a slew of others with similar styles began getting work everywhere. Now Wood and Templesmith are doing fine, but the industry seems to be going through another change.
You pick up the latest horror comics and you see a more detailed but cartoon-like style. Clive Barker’s Great and Secret Show has art by Gabrielle Rodriguez. Gabrielle’s style is very clean, nowhere near the abstract nature that IDW started with. DC’s new Man-Bat mini-series has art by Mike Huddleston. The book has a true horror feel but the art is again very clean and cartoon-like.
A friend of mine who’s style would be closer to the abstract group, wrote me the other day and asked if he should change his style to find work. It’s a great question and not one with an easy answer. The artist who really make a name for themselves are the ones who have unique styles. Mike Mignola made his name when his style wasn’t the popular one. Now he seems to be the style everyone is trying to obtain.
I think the key here is to draw the way you draw and doing it to the best of your abilities. Then try to find an editor that likes your style. I know of a guy who has an editor at Marvel that loves his work but the higher ups aren’t as impressed. So the editor is trying to find side doors to get this guy work. He found an editor that loves his style and believes in him.
Now what the next art style in vogue will be for horror, I have no idea. Maybe we’ll go back to the hyper-detailed, posed Jim Lee style or back to the abstract Ash Wood feel. The trick is to find a book you love to work on, give it the feel you want it to have and then do your best work. You might be the one setting the next trend.
And writers, this is advice for you too. If you don’t want to write horror, then don’t do it even if it’s what’s popular. If you don’t like what you’re writing then it will show in your work. Write things that mean something to you because in the beginning it’s about making a name for yourself. Later on, when Marvel is waving the big check in front of you to write X-men… then you can mold to what the audience wants… but only in so much as you are doing it your way.
If you haven’t picked up Man-Bat, it’s a really good read so far. Bruce Jones gives us a true horror story inside the Batman universe. Steve Niles did a great Batman horror story last year with Gotham County Line, but it had a feeling that it was outside of continuity and could happen any time in Batman’s life. Man-Bat feels like it could just as easily be in Detective Comics.
There definitely seems to be trends in comics, especially when it comes to what art is popular for horror comics. Right around 2002 the big thing was the painted/abstract style lead by artists Ashley Wood and Ben Templesmith. IDW built their company on these two artists and a slew of others with similar styles began getting work everywhere. Now Wood and Templesmith are doing fine, but the industry seems to be going through another change.
You pick up the latest horror comics and you see a more detailed but cartoon-like style. Clive Barker’s Great and Secret Show has art by Gabrielle Rodriguez. Gabrielle’s style is very clean, nowhere near the abstract nature that IDW started with. DC’s new Man-Bat mini-series has art by Mike Huddleston. The book has a true horror feel but the art is again very clean and cartoon-like.
A friend of mine who’s style would be closer to the abstract group, wrote me the other day and asked if he should change his style to find work. It’s a great question and not one with an easy answer. The artist who really make a name for themselves are the ones who have unique styles. Mike Mignola made his name when his style wasn’t the popular one. Now he seems to be the style everyone is trying to obtain.
I think the key here is to draw the way you draw and doing it to the best of your abilities. Then try to find an editor that likes your style. I know of a guy who has an editor at Marvel that loves his work but the higher ups aren’t as impressed. So the editor is trying to find side doors to get this guy work. He found an editor that loves his style and believes in him.
Now what the next art style in vogue will be for horror, I have no idea. Maybe we’ll go back to the hyper-detailed, posed Jim Lee style or back to the abstract Ash Wood feel. The trick is to find a book you love to work on, give it the feel you want it to have and then do your best work. You might be the one setting the next trend.
And writers, this is advice for you too. If you don’t want to write horror, then don’t do it even if it’s what’s popular. If you don’t like what you’re writing then it will show in your work. Write things that mean something to you because in the beginning it’s about making a name for yourself. Later on, when Marvel is waving the big check in front of you to write X-men… then you can mold to what the audience wants… but only in so much as you are doing it your way.
If you haven’t picked up Man-Bat, it’s a really good read so far. Bruce Jones gives us a true horror story inside the Batman universe. Steve Niles did a great Batman horror story last year with Gotham County Line, but it had a feeling that it was outside of continuity and could happen any time in Batman’s life. Man-Bat feels like it could just as easily be in Detective Comics.
1 Comments:
I'm in the midst of a change in drawing style. Once my current project is done, I'm moving in the direction of Ash Wood. No, no, no. I'm not going to clone the style. But I'm going to aim closer for the "loose" quality that you see in Wood's stuff. I drew [i]very[/i] loosely in art school, but as soon as I started drawing comics, my work got all anal. Draw feels like it's become a chore. I need to loosen it up and have some fun.
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