RUMOR: Giffen To Depart "Legion of Super-Heroes"

[DonEMC]

See, I, too, liked Giffen's earlier style, but I go way back to his work on Challengers of the Unknown, which had a thinner line and a crazy amount of detail. I loved it when he first came to Legion. By the time he was getting ready to leave the book, he had adopted the Jose Munoz style that people were so up in arms over. Everything was in your face and he was using a 9-panel grid. But, it was still good work (I loved his Ambush Bug and Son of Ambush Bug during that period). I was so excited to have Giffen back on Legion this time because I thought he might inject some energy into Paul Levitz's lackluster stories. Don't get me wrong, Levitz's is turning in good work, but it kind of feels cold -- just like his return to the JSA a few years ago seemed to be. But, I was also dreading this pseudo-Kirby style that Giffen is currently using. Heck, I'd take Munoz-Giffen back any day over Kirby-Giffen!
I really hate that he's off the book after only two issues. I'm praying that it's not health-related issues. We may never know, though.

Yeah, I remember liking Giffen, then thinking WTF when he changed his style, but afterwards when I compared the earlier stuff with the later stuff, the early stuff seemed stiff and boring. By then Perez had long ago come into his own and deserved his accolades, but Giffen just wasn't that good yet. The style change actually lent some life to his work. I know some don't see it that way, but it's true.

I have always wanted to see Lightle do a decent run on LSH, or any book really, but though he once began such a stint, it never lasted more than a few issues. Who knows what his work might have been like had he managed to work up some real speed. Or, for that matter, what Giffen's might have looked like had he used his revised style as a starting place rather than a finished product.

[thetrellan]

See, I, too, liked Giffen's earlier style, but I go way back to his work on Challengers of the Unknown, which had a thinner line and a crazy amount of detail. I loved it when he first came to Legion. By the time he was getting ready to leave the book, he had adopted the Jose Munoz style that people were so up in arms over. Everything was in your face and he was using a 9-panel grid. But, it was still good work (I loved his Ambush Bug and Son of Ambush Bug during that period). I was so excited to have Giffen back on Legion this time because I thought he might inject some energy into Paul Levitz's lackluster stories. Don't get me wrong, Levitz's is turning in good work, but it kind of feels cold -- just like his return to the JSA a few years ago seemed to be. But, I was also dreading this pseudo-Kirby style that Giffen is currently using. Heck, I'd take Munoz-Giffen back any day over Kirby-Giffen!
I really hate that he's off the book after only two issues. I'm praying that it's not health-related issues. We may never know, though.

I love a good Kirbyesque myself, and enjoyed his recent Omac work quite a bit. But see, that's one of the things that got him a lot of attention back in the day, the way he imitated Kirby without actually copying any of his work.

Many called foul over that, but the industry in general and Marvel in particular encouraged anyone who cared to imitate the guy. Buckler went too far, actually hiring George Perez to find drawings from old FFs for him to outright copy (but not trace), and some of the resulting stigma stuck to Giffen for his work on the Defenders (just a couple of years prior to that Challengers run you mentioned).

So imagine the buzz created when he did the exact same thing with Munoz in the late 80s. I'm sure a lot folks who otherwise would never have had a clue about who Munoz was got into it, while many more just couldn't stand the change. You wouldn't think it would have mattered after all those years, especially since Munoz wasn't making comics in English (I suppose. I was one of those without a clue), but that's what a lot of the anti-Giffen furor was really about.

Just so you know, when I say good Kirbyesque, I'm talking the likes of Giffen or Ladronn, not Wilson or Trimpe.

Thing is, he never lost the Kirby influence entirely, just like he never lost the Munoz look. So the recent Kirbyesque look- which the Omac title called for- wasn't actually a significant change. So I really can't see anything to dread.