Ryan Sook and BPRD

[Roblin]

I re read the 'B.P.R.D TPB Hollow earth and other stories' the other day. Sitting there reading I remembered that I used to think the artwork was not up to Mignola standards and I was kind of dissapointed with it wen i first got it. But now I have to say - 'please forgive and please come back Ryan Sook!'

How come Mr Sook did not draw more of the B.P.R.D stories?

/R

[kidfromhell]

Thank god! I think if Sook stayed, them we would never see BPRD in the hands of Guy Davis!
But yes, Sook has a cool art... but i like better is work in the Goon Noir! Is art has really improved!

[Kelly Tindall]

Sook doesn't draw like Mike anymore, he draws like Adam Hughes (with a dash of Kevin Nowlan, for spice). It's my favorite song, but lots of people know the words.

I wouldn't trade Guy for anything. I wouldn't be reading the book if not for him.

[Kees_L]

I like the work of Ryan Sook. Big time.
And I'd like to see him do a BPRD thing. Kevin Nowlan too. I'd like to see mr. Nolan do a story - art-wise all on his own. And Azaceta and Ba and all of 'em. And Guy Davis has a special spot. 'Cause his BPRD stuff seems so about storytelling and cool flow instead of just pretty pictures alone. In a rare, mind-boggling way. Fegredo has it too, as does Jason Shawn Alexander, but their stuff seems more spiffy or readily awesome. With Guy Davis it's... mind-boggling. His stuff is more like Harvey Kurtzman or 'autobiographical graphic novel'-ly type of stuff. No nonsense and just full on. If you follow :redface:.

But yeah, Sook is good. I like how lots of his stuff seems so motion-captured, so cut right from the action. To me even a little more vibrant both as honestly drawn than Hughes or Rude or who have you. Not that those guys draw less honestly, but Sook seems to not merely showcase his talents, since his depictions seem always so vibrant and animated.

EDIT:
Also I sort of seem to remember someone on here one time, being rather a Kate Corrigan-fan, reporting to being underwhelmed by Kate being drawn by someone other than mr. Mike (such being Ryan Sook?). Which I thought was something quite acceptable for critique. Kate will be the hardest character to draw if you're not mr. Mike I would think.

[Neil Hill]

Sook doesn't draw like Mike anymore, he draws like Adam Hughes (with a dash of Kevin Nowlan, for spice).

Heh..good point. Ryan is an amazing talent, but always a guy in search of some other guy to look like. Of course all young artists go through that stage where they look like the flavor of the week, but Ryan has suffered from that a bit more than others, probably because of the high-profile books on which he's worked. Most guys suffer on lesser titles for years until they 'find themselves'. Ryan is doing this on full display.

Again, still an incredible talent though, that guy. Love his stuff.

[Jr. Wormwood]

I too completely love the work Sook was doing back then. Haven't been following, so I'm not really sure what his stuff looks like now.

Thank God for Guy Davis though!

[pimpernel]

Ryan is an amazing talent, but always a guy in search of some other guy to look like.

A little harsh...

[Kees_L]

Ryan is an amazing talent, but always a guy in search of some other guy to look like.

Yeah, to this I don't agree. A little too blunt a statement to my taste.

I think when Sook drew his bit of BPRD he must have been fully trying to have his art seem akin to mr. Mike's - like as much as possible: maybe he was requested to do so.
Duncan Fegredo seems to have started out his Hellboy rather in the same fashion, although his work has already more volume than Sook's, so Duncan has had more of an opportunity to develop his own style 'though while remaining "adjusted to Hellboy's graphical language".
It seems to me the overseers wish the ongoing Hellboy & BPRD titles to have their own visual style and feel: Mignola & Fegredo on HB and Davis on the ongoing BPRD. Sook's bit to me seems to fall under the first category like Fegredo's art, since it's like pre-Davis BPRD.
Ryan Sook's commission pieces and sketches of Hellboy-related characters, like his Liz Shermans - both current as dating from years back - are really good and sweet and powerful. Those don't mimic any Mignola or Hughes or anything.

And I have to say: I can understand Adam Hughes would come to mind upon seeing some of Sook's recent material, but at the same time I really feel a style of having (female) comic characters look sugarsweet yet vibrant is more an effect rather than a style. And certainly not a style reserved for Adam Hughes?!
Milton Caniff, Will Eisner, Lou Fine or Frank Frazetta already did it to perfection when AH will have been in diapers, as will have been Art Adams, Steve Rude, Kevin Maguire, Terry Dodson, or any other illustrators that may aim to draw sweet or lush both as vibrant and powerful.
I don't know Sook's or Hughes' work that well. (EDIT: in fact I'll be a pretty ignorant sod all 'round - but at least I'm pretty!) But based on what I know of it, I might think Ryan Sook to seem pretty versatile compared to Adam Hughes. And the two seem pretty different also (luckily). Hughes seems stylised and lightfooted where Sook seems more action-packing and somewhat dark.
Not that anyone here put forward a Hughes-Sook kinship as strongly. Rather I wished to demonstrate how saying a person to copy another may be harsh, incorrect or even unfair. Although in regard to Mignola/Fegredo and Sook's Hollow Earth the kinship must have been deliberate I feel (as maybe with Davis & Trimpe's bit also).
For my tuppence anyway :smile:.

[Ontarah]

I'll be the first to admit that as a relative newcomer to comics my reference pool of artists is quite shallow and so I don't really have the right to say much of anything, but I have to agree that I wish Sook had stayed to do more BPRD stuff. I didn't like Davis at all at first, but his stuff has grown on me. There are still other artists who have drawn BPRD comics that I liked better however namely Sook and whoever drew The Soul of Venice believe it or not thought I admit that style probably wasn't suitable for the BPRD long term. I like Fregredo but my favorite Hellboy artist besides Mignola is actually Richard Corben. One thing I like about Makoma which might have as much to do with setting (out in the sun on the savannah) as Corben's art is that the shadows are greatly reduced so you actually really see HB in high detail and not as stylized. It helps that he isn't wearing his duster as well. I thought that was a really cool looking deviation since we normally see him lurking in shadows. And I'll probably get lynched for this one, but I highly prefer how Jason Shawn Alexander draws Abe over anyone else including Mignola. To me Mignola's art natrually makes everything look sort of blocky and bulky which is fine for Hellboy, but doesn't seem to make as much sense with Abe. I like how Alexander draws him better, slender but still muscular like a swimmer.

[Kees_L]

I'll probably get lynched
Nah, likely people'll hang on to their own ropeys :smile:.

And your points seem as valid as the next. Besides me that is, since I don't know much myself - I just talk a whole lot. Obviously :redface:.

And I ask you this: will it be coincidental how Jason S. Alexander got to do an Abe mini-series?
To me Jason renders Abe as what Mignola's Abe conveys. But I can sure see how such lush a rendering would gratify you, Ontarah.
Corben I peg as a rare, spectacular graphic artist, signature for transcending either typical comic art or SF/Fantasy illustration into stuff mysteriously both as majestically new. His hellboy seems to have come about easily or naturally yet it's so marvellously his own.
And again: I don't know much, but I have been checking out Hellboy ever since it got released (in my neck of the muds). And I have always thought or felt that Mike Mignola and Dark Horse rather wished to let other cool artists and writers in on all the goodness. Like as if such was possible, BECAUSE of (and not in spite of) Hellboy being creator-owned. Which seems like the perfect set-up to me (if I'm correct in all this).
Which is why I'm glad for Guy Davis and Duncan F to seemingly getting good reception on ongoing titles. Why I'm glad I can like the whole creativity pool actually. And which is why I'm glad Mignola remains able to draw (some) both as writing the bulk.
Although yeah, I'd wish to see a little more of Sook, Nowlan and maybe Trimpe too, since those guys seem to me to have not yet shown their full force.

[Roblin]

Thank god! I think if Sook stayed, them we would never see BPRD in the hands of Guy Davis!
But yes, Sook has a cool art... but i like better is work in the Goon Noir! Is art has really improved!

I have not read the Goon at all.

My relation to Guy Davis is mixed, kind of a Love-Hate thing going on there. I won't go in to it here, but lets just say Davis is not the reason I keep buying the B.P.R.D TPBs.

It was intresting to se all your comments, thanks.

/Rob

[hellboyone]

I think Guy's art will grow on you like Sook's did. I didn't see what everyone else saw in Guy's art when he first took the reins on BPRD. Now I can't imagine any other artist in his place. He's just one of the best monster guys in comics.

[Roblin]

I think Guy's art will grow on you like Sook's did. I didn't see what everyone else saw in Guy's art when he first took the reins on BPRD. Now I can't imagine any other artist in his place. He's just one of the best monster guys in comics.

I hope you are right :)

It's just that when I read the TPBs and I flip a page and there is a Mignola cover and - it is like warm blanket.. awestruck every time. I guess it is love. It is not just when it contrasts with Davis, it is every time. You are right about Davis and (some of the) monsters and gore and blood and stuff... he does that well.

>>> SPOILER warning!

When I read the The Universal Machine TPB and at the end when Davis hands the artwork over to Mignola and we meet Roger in the afterlife the effect of the artwork in additon to the story actually brought a tear to my eye. :redface:

Well there I said it. A comic made me cry.

/R