Frank Quitely's art

[Maximus Brockman]

Hey. Look at me. Starting my own thread. Hope you guys will support it! :D

Anyway, I did a quick search and didn't see anything about this topic, so i figured i'd ask.

What do you guys (and gals) think of Frank Quitely? Is he a big fav around here? I gotta tell you, I don't see what the big deal is. I find his work kinda boring. Maybe it's my whole negative feeling I've been having lately about realism in comics. But, I just don't get it.

I don't know about anyone else, but if I can't wrap my head around the art, I have a very hard time getting into the story. I'm a big fan of Grant Morrison. And I think the idea of an All Star Superman is cool, but I just can't get beyond Quitely's artwork. I'm probably gonna pass on this book. I know. I know. What a shocker. :eek:

Anyone else feel this way?

Feel free to call me a moron if I'm way off base here.

[Alex Dragon]

Quietly isn't a "pretty" pictures type artist. He's good at storytelling, layouts, and all the other things that go into being a good comicbok artist but he doesn't draw "pretty" people like someone like Bryan Hitch, Jim Lee or whoever. I personally don't like the way he draws faces or bodies. I'm a "pretty" pictures fan. If he's working on a book or with a writer I like his art won't turn me away but I wouldn't buy a book solely for his art.

[Astonishing X-Fan]

I really dislike his art. It's not that his characters aren't pretty, it's that his characters are UGLY. Check out his Emma Frost. YUCK.

But I'll be buying All-Star Superman anyway for Morrison. Writing first, art second IMO.

[Dawg Corleone]

Maximus, it's funny you mentioned that. I'm new to comics so names and what not don't mean alot to me (although i'm catching on quickly, a-lah johns, busiek, etc..), but when I saw the previews for All-Star, I was less than impressed (and coming from a newb, that is saying something). It just looked generic. I was really hoping the actual comic was going to be different, and it may well be, but the comments i've been reading don't give me much hope. Who knows though, maybe it will grow on me.

[Indigo Al]

I can't stand it myself. His every character looks like a pinch faced freak with some kind of bizarre sexual or bodily function fetish.

Still signing up for All Star though!

[Dawg Corleone]

after giving some of his art further review, does it seem like his characters are short and squatty? When i saw the previews in Wizard I thought it was just an awkward angle, but now i'm finding all the work i've seen of his looks that way?

[Aaron King]

I don't think his characters all look that way. Some, like Cyclops and Emma (see the cover of the first part of E is for Extinction) are elongated. His characters are always a bit surreal and I like it, having these energetic spritely sort of characters doing adult things against super-realistic backgrounds.

[Xero Kaiser]

can't say I care much for Quitely's art. there are times when it looks okay, but there are more times when I have to put the book down

[Brian R]

I like Frank's art, quite a bit. I seem to be in the minority on this, but I think he is a very good artist. Also, the fact that Morrison loves working with him is a plus whether you like his style or not, because writers always do better work when they can colaborate with someone they like and respect.

[666MasterOfPuppets]

I saw some samples of his art, and I liked it. I admit the All Star Superman promo wasn't that good, but I still like it. However, I'd need to see more of his art.

[dancj]

I think Frank Quitely is one of the best artists around. For my tastes his pictures are very pretty. Possibly not the people in them, but that's a different thing. The only other artist I can think of who can give Supes the same feeling of power is Tim Sale, and that's pretty good company to keep in my book

[Alex Dragon]

I like Frank's art, quite a bit. I seem to be in the minority on this, but I think he is a very good artist. Also, the fact that Morrison loves working with him is a plus whether you like his style or not, because writers always do better work when they can colaborate with someone they like and respect.

He's a good artist in all the other aspects other than drawing people. He's not even really bad at drawing people but with superhero comics and handling characters we've seen others draw as "pretty", "goodlooking" or "sexy" his art doesn't work for me. In my mind it's been long established that Emma Frost is beautiful and sexy yet Quietly's Emma was fairly ugly. His characters don't have the typical "heroic" proportions and bodies we're used to seeing. That would be fine I suppose if he drew them with "realistic" proprotions but they simply look strange.
When Quietly does non-superhero stuff his style works better for me. When you're doing typical superhero stuff I think there has to be a certain level of "prettiness" you need because the characters are supposed be "idealized" versions of people.

Morrison probably likes his art moreso for his storytelling abilities than the way he actually draws people. Because Morrison teams up with him so often on big projects Quietly probably has become more popular than he'd be on his own.

[Glaucon]

Some of Quitely's art from The Authority and We3 has been indelibly burned into my mind. And thats a good thing!

[aelio]

I was previously lukewarm to Quietly...until I bought Endless Nights. His eight pages of Destiny are out of this world.

[west3man]

I like Quitely's work, but only on certain characters/stories or certain KINDS of characters/stories.

I usually prefer that he leave Superman alone, but his Earth 2 work was ... It was just cool as hell. If it weren't for that, I'd have been pretty displeased to hear he would be drawing Supes. It's nice to be wrong sometimes.

I didn't care for most of his X-work, but I've gotten kinda used to it since his style worked for the Millar-Authority issues. I don't think it would've been right for Ellis's issues or for Stormwatch, though. Weird.

It has to do with my attachment to the characters, how I first saw them (I saw Quitely's Authority well before I saw Hitch's or any of the Stormwatch stuff Ellis wrote), if they're colorful characters or "realistic," blah blah blah.

He can really do some impressive work sometimes, but I prefer him on books with a somewhat perverted tone, since his characters look like they naughty.

Bah. Enough rambling. Damned Benadryl.

[Ned Leeds]

He is hit or miss for me. I love his We3 and Authority stuff. JLA Earth:2 was pretty good. But his New X-Men run sucked dead goat butt. I don't know how the same artist could be so good and bad from series to series.

[Keith_Martineau]

First time I saw Quitely's art I didn't like it. But it's REALLY grown on me since.

The argument that "all his people look the same" doesn't work, because you can say that about every artist out there. Quitely's people don't look the same.

Indeed, he does his best to taylor how he draws even a single character to the situation. Look at his sketches for Superman in the latest Wizard. He's going to draw actual posture shifts from Clark Kent to Superman. It's really quite thoughtful and detailed and I'm really looking forward to it.

[Kid Seven]

Quitely is really what they call "an artist's artist". Things like the posture shift you mention above, his mind-blowing panel experimentation in We3. Many issues of New X-men didn't work with Kordey because they were written specifically for Quitely, with shots and ideas that Morrioson knew few people besides him could execute. I love Quitely's art. One of the best in the business right now.

[Maximus Brockman]

i forgot all about we3. probably because the story concentrated mostly on the animals. i'll give you his work wasn't too bad on that.

for my tastes, though, his work is too gritty. unless this is what DC is after with their the All Star title. i just don't think it works with Superman.

have you seen any of Quitely's prelim sketches for Clark? i'm pretty sure that they have these pics in the latest ish of Wizard. granted, it might not be what he ends up looking like, but...still. Clark looks like a big slob! what's that all about?

as for my comment about art driving the story...it's kinda weird. to me, story is everthing. whether it's movies, books or newspaper articles. but for whatever reason, when it comes to comics, art comes first. if i don't enjoy the art, the story suffers. just my opinion :rolleyes:

[Grant]

Put me in the yay column for Quietely. I love his stuff. We3 is probably his best work.

[Dave Cote]

I like him as well I thought WE3 was awesome and his covers for Bite Club are what first attracted me to the series especialy issue #1 :D

[The Shadow]

I'm a fence sitter actually... if he's on a book OK... if he leaves... that's OK too.

I don't hate his stuff... I enjoyed some of his X-Men issues and We3... but his Superman looks bland and uninteresting... meh.

[Cash Lone]

He's one of my favorite artist. His style is real distinctive - no ones work looks like his (though some of the haters are prolly saying "thank god for that" :D ).

[BlueOrange25]

Quitely is one of my favourite artists along with Hitch. True, Quitely doesn't draw pretty pictures or people, but I like his style. I think the detail he puts in looks good, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of his work.

[Adam Crocker]

for my tastes, though, his work is too gritty.

Gritty? I know Quietly often seems to be a "love-or-hate" artist, but this is the first time I've ever heard his work described as gritty, so I'm genuinely curious about how. Personally, I've found his work to be very clean, if surreal in many ways. (I'll try and post fuller thoughts later.)

[Lurker]

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13319

[Maximus Brockman]

Gritty? I know Quietly often seems to be a "love-or-hate" artist, but this is the first time I've ever heard his work described as gritty, so I'm genuinely curious about how. Personally, I've found his work to be very clean, if surreal in many ways. (I'll try and post fuller thoughts later.)

perhaps i'm using the wrong term with "gritty". maybe i should say too realistic? extreme realism? i don't mean dark, per se. although, his x-men stuff came across that way. what ever it is, to me, it doesn't translate well to Superman.

i was railing against the whole "pretty" pictures comments made. but, maybe that's what it is. that's probably where i'm getting the whole gritty thing from. i guess i enjoy the "pretty" pics vs the "not so pretty" pics. wow. what an epiphany!

there's a pic in Wizard that Quitely did of Sman, Bats and WW. again, this is only my opinion. however, they looks so...squashed. unheroic...unpretty.

[HartyPotter]

I'm not crazy about the way he draws people, but I'll check the series out regardless.

[Master Darque]

I'm in weirder boat than any of you ....I agree that quite a few of his characters can be very ugly looking ....yet strangely enough , I like his work . Emma was ugly yet sexy at the same time . I like his Superman pencils I've seen so far .... they look better than when he did Earth 2 graphic novel . Before I couldn't stand his art , but hell , Hitch had just left the Authority and Quitely was such an abrupt about face turn I was like wtF ?? But it's grown on me .....

[Taskmaster]

Personally i'd rather have Rob Liefield on the book, but that may just be me. His people are not appealing or particularly well drawn in my opinion, he makes all his characters look like escaped mental patients, especially his recent drawings of Clark Kent look horrible, he looks handicapped, not at all what I think of as Clark Kent

[Maximus Brockman]

Personally i'd rather have Rob Liefield on the book, but that may just be me.

Now that's funny! I was going to write the same thing in my earlier post, but since I'm new round here, I didn't want to ruffle any feathers.

[Brian R]

Personally i'd rather have Rob Liefield on the book, but that may just be me. His people are not appealing or particularly well drawn in my opinion, he makes all his characters look like escaped mental patients, especially his recent drawings of Clark Kent look horrible, he looks handicapped, not at all what I think of as Clark Kent

I know everyone has their own opinion, but well, yours is WRONG. ;)