Dragon said:
Again, I'm saying original design. The Lizard isn't his orignal design. And all he did with him is what he seems to do with every monster- add fangs and a large tongue. And to be honest, even Spawn isn't very impressive to me. Considering all the character designs that have been made over the years, Spawn, purely as a costume doesn't really stand out. McFarlane basically has a mood that he generates with his drawing style. And it's pretty much all the same mood.
I agree with that much. Todd mcfarlene does not captivate much more than "gritty", "dark", "evil", and a vibe of things lurking in the shadows. Basically, if you wanted to summarize him in very short words, you could say that everything is Spawn. But like I said in my previous post, that is the style that he is TRYING to do. You can't condemn a romance novelist for writing about love...and you can't condemn a gothic-style comic book artist for drawing things to look seedy and evil. So he serves his purpose.
Dragon said:
Since this thread was generated I was looking over some of Todd's Spidey work. There is some that is genuinely good artwork. But he's often very lazy and so the work suffers. Some here were commenting on Alex Ross' work and his tendency to make people look fat. Well, he clearly doesn't make his characters look fat- he just doesn't give them comic book style physiques, which are unrealistic to begin with. He's going for photorealism. how someon actually looks in a skin tight costume. And, no matter how cut a person is, their abs won't show through the material as comics make it look. It's obvious based on his strong knowledge of anatomy that Ross does what he does on purpose. But look at McFarlane's Spidey drawings- he gives Spidey the legs of a horse.
I agree that his work can be lazy. He tends to black a lot of things out instead of drawing out the details. Backgrounds are very plain sometimes. Sometimes. But again it's a question of lazy vs. style. What you said about ross, I agree with. That's what I was saying in my previous post. But it's not to say that Todd doesn't know anatomy, he does it like that because it looks cool to some people. I have a Macfarlene styled spidey figure, it looks pretty damn cool.
Think about it. Do you know why heroes wear tights? Why they wear revealing clothes that show off their bodies? It was because originally they wanted to show that the heroes had super strength. The characters were something more than just average or human. So the style just became more and more stylized.
Okay so Todd is doing that on purpose. Just to make that clear.
Dragon said:
As for his poses, they're ridiculous. They aren't "spidery" or cool IMO. Spidey often looks like he suffers from cerebral palsy. His arms and hands will be twisted in ways that don't suggest flexibility, but that he's spasming.
The idea is to be creepy. Think about Spider-man's costume. If you were a nervous criminal and you went to do something in the night. You're affraid of cops, and you're wondering if you'll be sent away for years if you get caught. All these things on your mind. And then some creep flashes a red flashlight in front of you...And just as you realize that it's Spider-man, you see this weirdo slowly lower himself down, upside down on a web. You have no idea what the guy looks like under the mask, and you're not even so sure that he's all the way human. All you see are huge white, reflective eyes glowing and looking at you. That's really really creepy.
And that's why Todd has him in those weirdo stances. So he can be creepy. Todd is not going for realism. So for you to point out contortions and such that are "unrealistic" or inhuman, is a n/a point. Everything is stylized. It's all intentional for that vibe and that feeling that you felt.
You don't have to like his style. You can say "I prefer a more realistic representation" But to attack his style as if he didn't do it on purpose is kind of silly. Like you speak as if his art is drawn in a manner that makes many mistakes....
