Biggest Change in Art Style From One Artist to Another? [Archive]

Brian Cronin

07-16-2006, 10:54 AM

I think the record has to be Tom Grummett to Bill Jaaska on New Titans, but can anyone think of a more dramatic shift from one regular artist on an ongoing to the next regular artist?

And please note that I mean from one issue to the next, so while John Romita ended up being pretty different from Steve Ditko, he wasn't at first!

-Brian

Expletive Deleted

07-16-2006, 11:04 AM

Phil Hester to Tom Fowler on GREEN ARROW was pretty drastic.

Gingold

07-16-2006, 12:35 PM

Sal Buscema to Bill Sienkiewicz on New Mutants was a pretty drastic change, going from super-traditional to a very experimental style.

Hitch to Quitely on the Authority is a pretty dramatic shift artistically as well. Hitch's art on that series was so...big, where Quitely's work is so detailed.

Not sure if either surpasses the Grummet to Jaaska switch, though. I didn't help that Grummet's last issue was Jaaska's first, so the change from Grummett's Byrne/Perez-esqe stuff to Jaaska's fugliness was really jarring.

Apathy Boy

07-16-2006, 02:09 PM

Going from Darwyn Cooke/Brad Rader/Javier Pulido/Cameron Stewart to Paul Gulacy on CATWOMAN was a pretty big shock.

Bright-Raven

07-16-2006, 03:00 PM

Sean Walsh

07-17-2006, 06:21 AM

Andrew Wildman to Chris Batista and everyone else (except Phil Gosier) on GI JOE. They had Wildman's inker Stephen Baskerville do most of Batista's first issue; that was a kinda nice but very short-lived nice transition.

Phil Gosier was a nice replacement, but there were way too many fill-ins before him and toward the end of his run - and that just killed GI JOE for me at the end of the Marvel series there.

(And this was before Batista's art got better like it is nowadays)

Sean Walsh

07-17-2006, 06:22 AM

Sal Buscema to Bill Sienkiewicz on New Mutants was a pretty drastic change, going from super-traditional to a very experimental style.

You just reminded me of another: Sal Buscema/Bill Sienkiewicz to Luke Ross on SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN.

But that one was a bad=>good transition: from "holy crap I can't tell what anyone's doing!" to "Wow, everyone is drawn clearly and the girls have extra big boobs!" :p

TheTen-EyedMan

07-17-2006, 07:31 AM

I've got all of them beat.

Going from Ed McGuiness to Michael Turner on Superman/Batman.

My God, my faith in humanity, let alone comics was shaken to the very core by that switch. I had to stop reading that comic...or I would have gouged out my eyes like Ray Milland in The Man With X-Ray Eyes.

Message to Marvel and D.C.

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING A POPULAR COMIC CREATOR AND BEING A TALENTED ONE.

Cei-U!

07-17-2006, 08:01 AM

The switch from Don Heck and Werner Roth to Neal Adams on the original run of X-Men was pretty damned radical, especially for that era.

Cei-U!
I summon the paradigm shift!

Michael P

07-17-2006, 08:26 AM

You just reminded me of another: Sal Buscema/Bill Sienkiewicz to Luke Ross on SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN.

But that one was a bad=>good transition: from "holy crap I can't tell what anyone's doing!" to "Wow, everyone is drawn clearly and the girls have extra big boobs!" :p
Really, who thought mixing those two styles (Buscema and Sienkiewicz) would be a good idea?

scratchie

07-17-2006, 09:45 AM

Keith Giffen to Carmine Infantino on The Defenders (mid-70s, during the David Kraft days). Neither one of them was really on the book long enough to be considered "regular" but the abrupt change of art (in the middle of a storyline, no less) was like getting kicked in the gut.

Ditto for Infantino filling in for Gene Colan on Howard the Duck.

MWGallaher

07-17-2006, 10:06 AM

Jim Aparo-->Gerry Talaoc in Phantom Stranger. I think I literally cried when I picked up Talaoc's first issue. It was like a comic book from an alternate universe.

Gingold

07-17-2006, 03:12 PM

I don't remember Bill Jaaska as the "regular" artist on New Titans. I remember him doing the issue after Grummett's last, but I dropped the book around that time. Thought Jaaska only did a fill in / arc run?

I think you guys need to take a look at the 1988 EXCALIBUR run for some possible inclusions. They only had like, 25 different pencilers on that series during it's 125 issue run, and some of them... *cringe!*

Jaaska did most of the issues between 100 and 113. It was a short run, but he was referred to as the "new regular artist" in letters pages and the like, if I recall.

I thought of Excalibur as well. The shift from Alan Davis to Chris Wozniak was certainly a big change. Throw in Mark Badger, Ron Lim, Dave Hoover, the gonzo Windsor-Smith/Sienkievicz combination, Joe Maduiera, Casey Jones, Carlos Pacheco, Sal Larocca, Ken Lashley...Oy! A lot of different styles, and a lot of young artists still developing their styles. It wasn't always pretty, that's for sure.

Dan Apodaca

07-17-2006, 04:09 PM

Hitch to Quitely on the Authority is a pretty dramatic shift artistically as well. Hitch's art on that series was so...big, where Quitely's work is so detailed.

That's weird, 'cause I feel like they suit each other quite well. Hitch is pretty detailed, too, I think.

Sean Walsh

07-18-2006, 05:56 AM

Really, who thought mixing those two styles (Buscema and Sienkiewicz) would be a good idea?

And that was actually my first exposure to Sal's art. I was amazed (and greatly delighted) when I saw his older art wasn't as.....frightening as that was.

slam

07-18-2006, 01:59 PM

I'll second or third the switch from Alan Davis in Excalibur. It took all of one glance at the first panel to say to yourself, "uh oh. This ain't good."

Of course, the writing "helped" too.

Dizzy D

07-18-2006, 03:52 PM

Uncanny X-Men: from Ian Churchill to Sean Phillips

(to Kia Asamiya with Ron Garney and Aaron Lopresti among others as fill-ins here and there).

Pól Rua

07-19-2006, 12:08 AM

From co-creator Tim Truman, all slender figures and organic curves to Tom Sutton, ragged edges and masters of the universe physiques, on the last issue of a six-issue run.

Truman's Grimjack:
http://www.idwcomics.com/images/gallery/300_GJpg03.jpg

Sutton's Grimjack:
http://www.vaultauctions.com/images/auctions/14/s-L412.JPG

Kirayoshi

07-19-2006, 12:21 AM

Dave Cockrum(traditional, somewhat thick lines but a good storytelling sense) to Paul Smith(sharp lines, crisp visuals) in Uncanny X-Men.

How about John Romita Jr. to Mike Deodato on ASM? Followed by Ron Garvey? Both are good artists, but we need JRJr back on the book, soon!

Sean Whitmore

07-19-2006, 01:09 AM

Uncanny X-Men: from Ian Churchill to Sean Phillips.

How about from Sean Phillips to Ashley Wood?

"Hello, I bought this X-Men comic at your place today, and I think there must have been a printing error. Everything looks-- What? Get OUTTA here."

SEAN

Sean Walsh

07-20-2006, 10:05 AM

How about from Sean Phillips to Ashley Wood?

"Hello, I bought this X-Men comic at your place today, and I think there must have been a printing error. Everything looks-- What? Get OUTTA here."

Imagine if it'd been Ian Churchill => Ashley Wood.

YIKES. :eek:

Kirayoshi

07-22-2006, 11:58 PM

How about whoever was pencilling Thor before Walt Simonson to Walt Simonson? Not just a change in art but in writing styles. In one issue, not only did Walt jack up the quality of the art, but he completely changed the rules by asking a simple question: what if someone other than Thor was worthy of wielding the hammer?

Brian Cronin

07-23-2006, 02:10 AM

What's interesting is that the writer he followed, Alan Zelenetz, was widely regarded at the time as a "hot" new writer akin to the Alan Moores of the world (Gerry Jones specifically conflated the two, with Moore obviously getting MORE praise, but Zelentz being grouped in with a few 'new' writers who were changing the industry).

It's interesting to see how his reputation has suffered in hindsight.

-Brian

Sean Walsh

07-23-2006, 04:40 AM

It's interesting to see how his reputation has suffered in hindsight.

I never knew Zelenetz *HAD* a reputation in the business before now...whatever happened to him, I wonder?

Brian Cronin

07-23-2006, 08:31 AM

I believe he got into show business.

And yeah, it's weird how no one even remembers Zelentz anymore.

-Brian

Bright-Raven

07-23-2006, 03:17 PM

Zelenetz is a film producer now. Co founded Ovie Entertainment in NYC.

Actually, I remembered him from ALIEN LEGION, but that's all.

Your Imaginary Pal

07-23-2006, 03:33 PM

From Jeff Purves to Dale Keown on Incredible Hulk.
wow, just wow!!!

Sean Walsh

07-23-2006, 05:06 PM

From Jeff Purves to Dale Keown on Incredible Hulk.
wow, just wow!!!

And before that, wasn't it McFarlane to Purves?

Sean Whitmore

07-23-2006, 05:10 PM

And before that, wasn't it McFarlane to Purves?

It was actually McFarlane to Larsen to Purves, so there was a little tiny buffer zone there. :)

SEAN

founder81

07-27-2006, 07:30 AM

Robin

Series went from Pete Woods (realistic down to earth feel) --> I'm guessing a stand in artist, but still much to Pete Woods style --> Daimon Scott (cartoon art)

CE_Rap

08-01-2006, 10:03 PM

Generation X

Tom Grummett to CB [Chris Bachalo]. I still remember how cool i thought CB was when i first saw this issue (like 7th grade). First thing of his i had ever seen at the time. Cool issue too, Skin was using his powers like Spider-man to 'Skin-sling.'

Tommy

08-28-2006, 10:05 AM

From Art Addams to Jae Lee to Greg Land on Ultimate Fantastic Four

swinebread

09-05-2006, 11:16 AM

Sal Buscema to Bill Sienkiewicz on New Mutants was a pretty drastic change, going from super-traditional to a very experimental style.

This has to be #1
http://www.comicsresearch.com/NewMutants/images/NewMutants_px300_06.jpghttp://www.comicsresearch.com/NewMutants/images/NewMutants_px300_20.jpg

howyadoin

09-05-2006, 02:00 PM

Really, who thought mixing those two styles (Buscema and Sienkiewicz) would be a good idea?"Your chocolate is in my peanut butter!"

howyadoin

09-05-2006, 02:07 PM

But seriously, how about going from Our Pal Sal to goddamn Frank Robbins on Captain America & the Falcon?

Kaos

09-13-2006, 08:46 PM

salvador larroca to whatever his damn name is on xtreme x-men.....god he was awful....and i mean awful

Lone Ranger

09-15-2006, 11:54 AM

But seriously, how about going from Our Pal Sal to goddamn Frank Robbins on Captain America & the Falcon?

That was the one I thought of immediately.

I am, however, a fan of both.

Kaluta to Robbins on The Shadow was a similar jolt.

I guess, anyone to Robbins would qualify.

Sean Walsh

09-15-2006, 12:36 PM

salvador larroca to whatever his damn name is on xtreme x-men.....god he was awful....and i mean awful

Igor Kordey.

Yeah.....that was ROUGH.

Mr. Palmer

09-15-2006, 02:25 PM

Russ Heath to Frank Redondo on SGT. ROCK.

I enjoy both their outputs, but Heath did a pretty darned good job on his details. Redondo, on the other hand, had a simple working-man style.

howyadoin

09-15-2006, 03:20 PM

That was the one I thought of immediately.

I am, however, a fan of both.

Kaluta to Robbins on The Shadow was a similar jolt.

I guess, anyone to Robbins would qualify.I finally figured it out: the people he draws look like the puppets from Thunderbirds.

twilight

09-25-2006, 04:35 AM

Chris Bachalo taking over for Alan Davis in the middle of the Uncanny X-Men House of M arc.

That must be one weird looking tpb.

Punch

09-25-2006, 11:56 AM

The Sandman- World's End to The Kindly Ones to the Wake

icctrombone

09-25-2006, 07:27 PM

Makes you appreciate the F.F. books . They had Joe Sinnot ink most of the issues from 1-200 to keep the look consistent.

curefreak

09-26-2006, 01:48 AM

This has to be #1
http://www.comicsresearch.com/NewMutants/images/NewMutants_px300_06.jpghttp://www.comicsresearch.com/NewMutants/images/NewMutants_px300_20.jpg
oh lord that has to be one of the worst covers in existence:evilangry (obviously i hate sinkiwiecz)he almost made me stop reading comics when i was a kid, cause i was scarred that this was some sort of new trend happening.

pennywisdom

09-26-2006, 12:42 PM

Igor Kordey.

Yeah.....that was ROUGH.
Do you remember when Igor Kordey did fill-in issues during Quitely's run on New X-Men? It was bad because they would sporadically switch back and forth between Quitely and Kordey with no apparent system. On certain months, you would just open up the comic and be horrified. Quitely is one of my favorite artists in comics and Kordey is one of my least, so it was quite a switch.

Sean Walsh

09-26-2006, 03:02 PM

Do you remember when Igor Kordey did fill-in issues during Quitely's run on New X-Men? It was bad because they would sporadically switch back and forth between Quitely and Kordey with no apparent system. On certain months, you would just open up the comic and be horrified. Quitely is one of my favorite artists in comics and Kordey is one of my least, so it was quite a switch.

Kordey admitted after he was fired off of EXCALIBUR Vol.2 (he was originally to do the book but Marvel didn't like his art anymore, apparently) that those NXM jobs were totally rushed due to bad scheduling.

And I mean RUSHED. It was like he was saying "I didn't even try to do a good job, I just slapped ink on paper and handed it in."

That story was a lot of fun, in theory, and would've been GREAT with consistant / good art, but it was totally crippled because of Quitely's art delays.

A funny thing about NXM - the fill-in artists were Ethan Van Sciver and Phil Jimenez (who later took over). Talk about "strange" choices for fill-in guys. :p IIRC, Ethan was removed from the book because of his own delays in the fill-in process.

Reptisaurus!

09-26-2006, 10:10 PM

Sean Walsh

09-27-2006, 04:56 AM

That's some good thread splitting there.

D'you know what's weird? Old Justice Society stories from the fourties. You'll be reading the Green Lantern story and you're all "Holy Crap! It's Alex Toth! Alex Toth is fuckin' awesome as fuck!" And then you'll get to the next story, like the Atom or someone, and it'll be absolute murky crap by some guy you never heard of who DC just roped in off the street and gave him a bottle of booze.

Well, probably not. But that's like I like to think.

I think opinions of art always change radically from decade to decade amongst the masses of comic fans (not by all, but most it seems)...

I mean, a lot of stuff from the 80's is considered by many to be largely pedestrian. And the booby comics of the 90's have certainly lost their good "holy crap, that chick is STACKED!" rep. And artists themselves change styles too.

So viewing art is a big giant fluid constantly changing.....thing.

yo go re

10-01-2006, 11:31 PM

Oh lordy, how I hate Quitely. Great layouts, cool anatomy, but no concept of what a human face looks like. It's like he grew up in Bizarro World. NXM fill-ins were like a brief spot of relief in an otherwise arduous journey.

Well, most of them.

Oooh, speaking of Quitely fill-ins, who did that four-issue stint in the middle of his Authority? That didn't blend in at all. And then they let that guy be the full-time Authority artist.

Did Quesada's Daredevil run immediately preceed David Mack's? That's a transition and a half, right there.

And while it's not a "new regular artist" by any means, one of the early X-Force issues was drawn by Mike Mignola. In fact, if I recall, there were two pages of Liefeld art, an all-Mignola middle, and another page of Liefeld Colorforms...

Michael P

10-02-2006, 04:40 AM

And while it's not a "new regular artist" by any means, one of the early X-Force issues was drawn by Mike Mignola. In fact, if I recall, there were two pages of Liefeld art, an all-Mignola middle, and another page of Liefeld Colorforms...
That sounds pretty damn trippy. Anyone remember the issue number?

dancj

10-02-2006, 05:10 AM

Oh lordy, how I hate Quitely. Great layouts, cool anatomy, but no concept of what a human face looks like. It's like he grew up in Bizarro World. NXM fill-ins were like a brief spot of relief in an otherwise arduous journey.

Why do you have no problem with Quitely's stylised unrealistic anatomy, but you do have a problem with his stylised unrealistic faces?

Personally I love his art

Punch

10-02-2006, 01:17 PM

That sounds pretty damn trippy. Anyone remember the issue number?
# 8, Mignola rules, even when he's drawing Cable.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c0/Xforce8.jpg/388px-Xforce8.jpg

Aaron King

10-02-2006, 11:33 PM

The Liefield art was "current times" while the Mignola art was flashback, right? It was a good issue amidst a sea of ugly issues. As a younger person, it really made me take notice of how to tell a story and, run right next to the Liefield art, made me question what I liked and disliked.

Edit: 300th post across a year and a half of registered trolling. Is this a record? I think only Factor Three could beat me out.

Buried Alien

10-03-2006, 01:54 AM

Switching from Jim Aparo to Kelley Jones in BATMAN circa the KNIGHTFALL era was pretty jarring.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Sean Walsh

10-05-2006, 07:34 AM

Switching from Jim Aparo to Kelley Jones in BATMAN circa the KNIGHTFALL era was pretty jarring.

Weren't they even going back and forth between Aparo and Jones during KNIGHTFALL (with Jones taking over for good with BATMAN #500)?

Sean Walsh

10-05-2006, 07:35 AM

Oooh, speaking of Quitely fill-ins, who did that four-issue stint in the middle of his Authority? That didn't blend in at all. And then they let that guy be the full-time Authority artist.

Was that Dustin Nyguen (sp?) - even if not, that's still a helluva change...

yo go re

10-05-2006, 10:34 PM

Nguyen! that's who it was!

Why do you have no problem with Quitely's stylised unrealistic anatomy, but you do have a problem with his stylised unrealistic faces?

Probably because it's much harder to make an arm ugly than a face, so everything below the neck is easier to accept. Then there are cases like the NXM cover that was just Emma posing, where the anatomy, structure and pose are just so far off base that it hurts to look at. I'd rather read a Quitely book than a Liefeld one, so it's not like he's at the complete bottom of the list.

Honestly, it may be nothing more than that he had the misfortune of having to follow Hitch and Neary on Authority - he was the guy who was replacing a very good artist, and that's a big standard to live up to. I'd read Batman: The Scottish Connection before, but didn't connect that name and that art until later, so my first connection to Quitely was "not Hitch."

Meanwhile, I liked his work on We3. And why was that? Because it didn't require him to draw humans all that much. Give that guy a funny animal book and he'd be golden. Is it too late to go back in time and get him on Pride of Baghdad?

Oooh! Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely present: Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!

dancj

10-06-2006, 05:04 AM

Horses for Courses. I love Hitch's art, but I prefer Quitely's. They both made it into my CBR Top 100 votes

Dan

Kaos

10-09-2006, 08:11 PM

Igor Kordey.

Yeah.....that was ROUGH.

god it was awful..coupled with the bad storylines and you had me puking everytime I opened the UK reprints....

That JonoGuy

11-19-2006, 11:46 PM

Nitz the Bloody

11-28-2006, 04:55 PM

With all due respect, I really don't get where all these " Quitely's faces are ugly " arguments come in. All I can see in his art that might offend are a few little lines on the characters' faces, a squiggle here and there. It's just a stylistic representation of the fact that human faces are not perfectly flat, and even teenaged and twentysomething faces have their little nooks and crannies.

dancj

11-29-2006, 04:54 AM

I never got that either. I'd never want Quitely to change his faces - at least not to make them more normal

icctrombone

12-02-2006, 06:29 PM

I remember the V.1 Avengers when it went from Gene Colan to Bob Hall . Good story but bad art.

Loren

12-02-2006, 11:03 PM

Priest's Black Panther (http://digital-priest.com/comics/panther/frames/panther1.htm) began with pseudo-painted art by Mark Texiera. When Tex fell through, the next four issues were done in a similar style, the latter three issues (#6-8) by Joe Jusko.

Then starting with #9, the art was done by Mark Manley, in a style similar to the look of Batman Adventures. Huge change in atmosphere.

This came as a surprise to Priest as well as to readers, since the issues in question were rather serious and adult. Then when he started writing for Manley's strengths (#12 has a giant gumball machine of death), Dan Jurgens was brought in as the new penciller.

notintheface

12-03-2006, 09:30 AM

The most jarring change in regular artist has to be NIGHTWING from Greg Land's photo-realistic style to the distorted fish-eye view style of Trevor McCarthy. Dick's look went from studly acrobatic swashbuckler to genderless wonder.

The next one has to be on MISTER MAJESTIC VOL.1, where Ed McGuinness jumped ship to draw Superman and was replaced by Eric "poor man's Picasso" Canete.