Another comicbook related entry. Let’s see if I can present my thoughts in a civilized way and not rant like last time.
Another trend in comics that MUST BE STOPPED is Photorealistic art in superhero comics. I do not like it. At first it was just background that were ridiculously over rendered, but seems to have tainted the figures now. It seemed to begin with Joe Quesada’s rise to power a Editor in Chief of Marvel, and it seems to me to be his personal taste. I can’t prove that of course, it’s a theory. Another theory, related to the slick production values discussed last time, is self-loathing among editors and creators and fans. They love comic books, but they want to prove they are mature adults, so they’ve conspired to “adultify” comics, to make and buy mature comics. Fine, I agree that adults can enjoy comics with mature content. But I disagree that “superheroes” and “comics” are synonyms. I believe that superheroes are a child’s genre like fairy tales. I don’t see a problem with an adult enjoying a superhero story on the level of Harry Potter. (I read Harry Potter after turning 40). The problem is when “Mature” is code for “Sleaze“. The problem is trying to fit the child’s genre of superheroes into a mature adult mold. Watchmen was interesting as a stand alone experiment. But making all superheroes into the Watchmen afterwards is like making all funny animal cartoons X-Rated after Fritz the Cat. Disaster.
After that tangent, I have to say, the point was that Photorealism is an attempt by self-loathing artists and/or the editor’s who choose the artists to make superheroes seem like a ligitimate grown-up’s interest. FAIL!
I can’t name the offending artists, because when I pick up a comic book and it looks like every panel is a traced photograph, I just say “yuck” and put it back down. It’s stiff stuff, no sense of movement, no personality, NO FUN. And that’s what’s really missing: fun. Superheroes should be a fun genre, not dark and depressing.
Of course, exceptions prove the rule. I liked Alex Maleev on Daredevil, he obviously used models. But he made it work as comics. Dave McKean had a reference photo for every panel of “Cages” and he made it work. And I’m not refering to “realistic” illustrators like Neal Adams and his army of clones, though I’m not a fan of Adams, and I believe he started us down this road to overdrawn, overwritten “realistic” funless airless superheroes.
In comics, anyway. Still got Ben 10 and Teen Titans on TV. Teen Titans GO!
