
Here it is again with the word balloons removed...

And one more time with all the black shapes removed, leaving only the actual linework...

I think many people naturally think of the more illustrative artwork when they think of comics and sequential art, but this shows pretty conclusively how wide the spectrum really is if more artists choose to work in different directions. There's only one discernible face in that last version, and only one figure that seems recognizable as a person. Despite how exceptionally clear Immonen is in his original!

The reason, I suspect, for not seeing more graphic work in comics is not dissimilar to the reason why we don't see more minorities working in comics: the field is fairly insular and breeds/rewards repetition more than innovation. How many artists working in comics today, for example, are directly or indirectly, consciously or subconsciously aping Jack Kirby?
Not that there's anything wrong with copying a winning formula, mind you! But the American industry is set up to keep regurgitating that same formula with minor variations over and over. (Admittedly, there's only so much you can distort an image before it becomes wholly unrecognizable, but there's still a lot of latitude an artist can take.) The industry fosters more illustrative work almost to the exclusion of all other styles, just like it fosters the work of younger Caucasian men almost to the exclusion of other races or gender.
I don't have a solution, but the "sameness" of artistic expression in comics further emphasizes just how insular our little boys' club has become.
2 comments:
It may also have something to do with the fact that most artists working in comics aren't 1/10th the draftsman, designer, and visual storyteller that Stuart Immonen is.
Cool blog, I always enjoy reading stuff like this!
Post a Comment