Warner shutting down DC?

[Cephus]

More like, not into anything that's come out since he was a child and wants all of those kids to get off of his lawn.

I collected well into my 40s. All you have to do is look at the historical sales data to see how far they've fallen.

 

[Cephus]

yeah, why is that? All the great artists out there and somehow a large portion of the ones working in the industry can't draw. Is it a deadline issue? It just takes too long to do it right?

I've got my suspicions. But if you go back to the quality of art that you were seeing 15-20 years ago and the quality of art that they have today, there's no comparison. This is what they're doing today and... holy crap, that's bad.

 

[George]

Liquor and crayons do not go together

 

[Captain Dunsel]

I've got my suspicions. But if you go back to the quality of art that you were seeing 15-20 years ago and the quality of art that they have today, there's no comparison. This is what they're doing today and... holy crap, that's bad.

Wow....this takes me back to the types of illustrations seen in Dynamite magazine, when I was a kid. They were also unmatched in the quality of their hyper-realism. The beauty and insight; the use of light and shadow to present people “as they really are”, still brings me to tears, to this day.

Behold! The poetic beauty of page 26, of issue 17, of Dynamite:

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

Spinner racks used to be at drug counters and grocery stores even when I was a kid (though it was the "boom" times in the early 90's). They were called "Whack Racks." That's where they just threw whatever was out, usually on cheaper paper, and it ranged from underground art zines and whatever issue in a 30+ issue arc that Superman or Spider-Man was in.

Before "graphic novels," companies like Marvel and DC were trying to catalogue all of their stuff for readers in early, cheap omnibuses made of really cheap paper, like recycled phonebooks and newspaper stuff, and they were without color and slightly larger than pocket books; something kinda like personal bibles but as thick as the collected works of Dovstoevsky as they collected a year or so's run, with an occasional special.

It makes sense that graphic novels and manga books are selling well. Anime has gotten more mainstream and bigger over these last 25 years and graphic novels collect full, isolated stories that anyone can just jump in and read instead of just drip feeding by monthly releases. Me, I stopped collecting single trade issues years ago, I don't think they're worth it anymore, but I still occasionally pick up collected graphic novels if there's a story that piques my interest.

 

[Lightning]

This is what they're doing today and... holy crap, that's bad.

That at least looks like deliberate stylization. Something like "The Rocketeer at War" is just amateurish. Which considering it's following up Dave Stevens, one of the best of all time, is just a travesty.

 

[CT1138]

That at least looks like deliberate stylization. Something like "The Rocketeer at War" is just amateurish. Which considering it's following up Dave Stevens, one of the best of all time, is just a travesty.

View attachment 1337030

Idunno, I kinda like it. Has more of a digital look than hand-drawn, but I Iike how it looks.

 

[Psab keel]

I think my interest in comics mostly left me by the time I stopped drawing and took up writing instead. They are certainly a viable art form in terms of the drawings and writing but I'd much rather watch a movie or read a book.

 

[Moviefreak]

Idunno, I kinda like it. Has more of a digital look than hand-drawn, but I Iike how it looks.

The digital look is fine.... but the drawing itself is amateurish. look at some of those hands, and opposing angles, and proportions.

I have no issue with cartoonish or stylized art, and most often I love it, but I see so many people use the term “stylized” as an excuse for bad art. One thing they taught us in art school... you can do a beautiful painting but if that initial under drawing is wrong, the piece will never look right. One teacher said: “it is like slapping makeup on a pig”.

Now here are a few examples by a college friend, and former coworker who does stylized and cartoon comic covers. Again, cartoony, very stylized, but this dude can really draw.

 

[Cephus]

That at least looks like deliberate stylization. Something like "The Rocketeer at War" is just amateurish. Which considering it's following up Dave Stevens, one of the best of all time, is just a travesty.

View attachment 1337030

You're talking indie comics vs. Marvel and DC and Marvel and DC ought to look better. At least these characters look human, unlike that Wonder Woman... thing... that looks like a 12-year old drew it.

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

I dunno if I'd say the Wonder Woman art is bad, just not the right place for it. It's got this "infographic" kind of look to it: flat. What I really hate is this trend of removing "super" out of "superhero." That's Wonder Woman all right, but through the lense of a modern, urban, "normal" girl. Not the Princess Diana of Themescara, who was sculpted from the very clay of the gods on her birth, along with the other Amazons. Where these stoic, noble, warrior women engaged in daily ritual sparring, athletic competitions, and big game hunts to hone their warrior skills, this Wonder Woman will still kick a Nazi in the face though she'd rather chill at home with her cat and think about starting an up-cycling, eco-conscious courier service.

 

[kamandi]

There's nobody like Jack Kirby creating new ideas at either DC or Marvel. Honestly, If there were a Jack Kirby today he would never be hired.

There's just an ongoing effort to re-work existing characters to make them conform to PC culture - and it's killing comics. The people writing either have an agenda OR they're Hollywood writers selling their B ideas for a few bucks. Frequently a mix of both.

I love how DC says they are going to focus on bookstores instead of comicbook stores. WHAT BOOKSTORES?!? Amazon is killing them like flies.

People are not going to buy new titles they can't browse. Buying comics is often an impulse purchase. That type of purchase will not happen online. Digital comics are not a collectable. I have white boxes full of my old trophies and a computer file is never going to mean the same thing emotionally. It will never appreciate value. It will never be a "grail".

The corporations are allowing comic book culture to die without ever understanding it. They will come to regret this mistake. Later they will try to artificially rebuild what was lost but it will never be the same.

 

[MattBlack]

People are not going to buy new titles they can't browse. Buying comics is often an impulse purchase. That type of purchase will not happen online. Digital comics are not a collectable.

I use digital comics/digital previews to check out new titles - if I like them, I buy the physical trade.

I'd argue that people are buying titles that they can browse; but it's physical Graphic Novels & TPBs in book stores. The market has changed, those links and data I posted earlier show that. The market and buying demographic has changed and the companies are changing to respond to that.

I doubt comics will disappear completely - the indie market is doing great work that the Big Two is failing at spectacularly (namely anything not superhero related) which in turn is feeding into great TPB sales (I mean, The Walking Dead comic series was just eye-wateringly huge in sales) It's like when CDs came along and they said vinyl was dead, and then MP3 came along and "everything else was dead" - the vinyl market came back, because of specialist collectors and releases. And when e-readers arrived "physical books are dead and would be gone" yet quite the opposite happened. People still like tangible things - same will happen for comics.

 

[cboath]

A large part of the issue is that ATT is just a clueless hack at just about everything. They seem moderately competent with cell phones, but everything else, they're just utterly clueless and/or inept - and that's putting it politely. Directv has always been just incredible every time i've dealt with them - until a few months ago when i moved. They kept trying to shutter me from ATT person to ATT person who were all clueless and no help whatsoever. Someone finally grew a conscience and said 'call this number. Its the actual directv center' and lo and behold, what i spent 2-3 hours on the phone trying to accomplish was done in about 10 minutes.

 

[Psab keel]

When it came to superhero comics the look was equally as important as the writing because as a kid it was an ideal to strive towards. Their super powers and physical appearance set them apart from scrawny 11 year old me who wanted to be able to fly like Superman or shoot webs like Spiderman or have cool gadgets like Batman. What kid idealizes their hero to look just them? Maybe it works for indie comics but for the main staples it seems ridiculous to me to try and conform them totally to some PC standard.