Journey into the Unknown
An interesting comics promotional gimmick’s being tried at Virtual Unknowns.
Interesting enough that this might be my only blog post for the day, and interesting enough that I intend to revisit the topic a few times as the situation develops.
Starting April 1st visitors to the site will be able to vote on artists, some of whom have done small press work, others have not – to determine who will get the assignment to draw the Virtual Unknowns comic. As of today there are 20 artists in the competition. (That’s one more than there was last night.)
Starting in May (why this isn’t being done simultaneously I cannot say) the voting will begin on the composition of the team of heroes… a sometimes amusing, but largely derivative group of characters, the likes of which every third or fourth comics fan has at some time or another created in a notebook and/or for a game of Champions or some other roleplaying game. I don’t mean this dismissively, as a good writer and artist team could take, well, at least most of these and sell them convincingly with some refinements. As they stand, though, they’re little more than shells waiting for someone to breathe life into them. Some are easier choices than others.
As the character choice ballots won’t open until May, I won’t get into that. I want to direct your attention to the artists.
Much of the work presented is pin-up work -- single image pages, as opposed to storytelling ones. Anyone working in the business will quickly point out that that’s not the work a potential comics artist wants to showcase, no matter how attractive it may be.
Understandably, there are more than a few cases where a piece stands out only because the artist copied a piece by an established, professional artist. (That's where most everyone who aspires to work in comics begins trying, after all, and there's no shame in that, though it doesn't develop the necessary visualization skills an artist will need... unless he plans to be a career swipe-artist.) By contrast, the pieces done “cold” often lack dynamic perspectives and layouts. Again, there's no shame in it, it's just a matter of being at a different stage of development.
I have not come to bury people. I applaud all of them for trying to develop their talents and cultivate a career, not to mention taking the step of entering this competition. That's all far harder than sitting here and criticizing. Besidees, there’s certainly talent evident among many of the offerings. I invite you all to look both at the pieces they provided as examples (though some of the links don’t work quite as intended) and, where available, follow the links back to their websites, where some have an extensive array of work on display.
I would like to point out a few stand-outs. This is specifically with a comics-style storytelling assignment in mind, by the way, as there are several in the assortment with obvious talent.
My choice for a combination of sheer talent, versatility, understanding of panel composition, storytelling flow, and effective use of body language, however, is Anders Eriksen.
(More of his work can be found back on his site.)
I’ve known Anders for several years, so I’ve had the advantage of seeing how he tackles assignments. Based on all of that, it's Anders I expect to be voting for once April 1st rolls around.
However, I’ll also point you in the direction of Fernando Pinto, whom I never heard of before visiting the above and his site, as he has a dynamic, expressive, distinctive style, and – like Anders – is producing what I can only describe as professional caliber of work.
Some others to note:
Kevin Hill is worth mentioning as he’s not only doing panel work, but has a clean style. I find the panel layouts in the work he’s shown to be flat, though, often giving me the impression that the camera (the reader’s eye) is mounted on a tripod.
Sean Forney has also produced quite a few comics pages, which is more evident back on the artwork pages of his Savage Mind Comics.
site. His panel work, though still often strikes me as someone in search of a style breakthrough. I appreciate that he’s often trying to depict scenes realistically, as opposed to hyperbolic exaggerations, but it’s still often lacking something. In a quick look at several pages people were in positions that don't seem quite right. Such as the Jack London character on the bottom of this page, where he seems both stiff and about to fall backwards.
…or are seen doing something inexplicable, and about to crash, as Spider-man is doing in the first panel of this page.
(I hope the above comments are received in the spirit they were offered. I only cited a couple examples because I didn’t want to just leave it at vague criticisms.)
Da Fu Yu has more comics panel-style artwork on display at his site. (Click on the tofu once you arrive.)
His figure work is nice, but there’s something about the pages that seems compressed, as if the figures are aware that they’re bounded by the borders of the page.
If I wanted someone in this assortment to do a portrait sketch, it would be Barry Keller in a heartbeat.
Finally, Jason Baroody doesn’t have much work on display, but there’s something interesting in a few of his pieces, and he strikes me as someone who could end up grabbing some cover art assignments. You can almost see it being noted in a solicitation, can’t you? “Baroody cover.”
My apologies to those I didn’t mention. In a few cases the links I tried didn’t work, or led to slow-loading pages.
Also, even if for some reason I didn’t care for someone’s work – what do I know? Were I the guy making all of the art assignment decisions people like Humberto Ramos or Mike Weiringo, to name two quickly, while they might still be doing comics wouldn't be allowed near mainstream superheroes such as Spider-man and the Fantastic Four.
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