Posted in: Comics | Tagged: artists, brett booth, colleen doran

Brett Booth: Like In 1990s, Most Art Today "Looks Practically The Same," Wants Artists To Learn From His Mistakes

Published Sun, 02 Apr 2017 16:00:02 -0500

Last updated Mon, 03 Apr 2017 05:05:18 -0500

A lot has been said on Twitter in the wake of Axel Alonso's comments about artists' ability to move the needle. Bleeding Cool has collected some of that into a handy article that you can click right now. Not necessarily in direct response to Alonso's comments, Colleen Doran had some thoughts on the importance of art to comics, and how that the visual continuity of a book can be affected by changing artists too frequently:

When I started reading comics as a kid, artists stayed on books for YEARS, characters were recognizable, I knew what I was getting.

— Colleen Doran (@ColleenDoran) April 2, 2017

Now, books I can't recognize from one month to the next, it's confusing, like changing actors every week on a tv show w the same characters!

— Colleen Doran (@ColleenDoran) April 2, 2017

I write this as someone who's done alota fill-ins: fill-ins drive fans crazy because it creates a cognitive disconnect w/ visual narrative.

— Colleen Doran (@ColleenDoran) April 2, 2017

An artist is like an actor for the entire cast of a comic, and that visual identity is just as important as the cast in a TV series.

— Colleen Doran (@ColleenDoran) April 2, 2017

Quite frankly, I can't tell who some comic book characters are from one issue to the next, such jarring changes in visual narrative.

— Colleen Doran (@ColleenDoran) April 2, 2017

We all know artists need a vacation, I expect fill-ins, but what we get now is limited visual continuity in our comics stories.

— Colleen Doran (@ColleenDoran) April 2, 2017

And artist Brett Booth chimed in after retweeting some of her posts, though he warned that maybe he shouldn't:

On heavy drugs today so probably shouldn't say too much. But I see a similar problem with the art that the 90's had… 1/2

— Brett Booth (@Demonpuppy) April 2, 2017

Most of it looks practically the same. I can't tell the difference in half the new artists. U need to stand out but a lot just blend in.2/2

— Brett Booth (@Demonpuppy) April 2, 2017

And yes, I know that's sounds a bit hypocritical from a 90's artist, but learn from my mistakes!!

— Brett Booth (@Demonpuppy) April 2, 2017

We're not sure we agree about artists today, but we'll say one thing. Learning from the mistakes of the 90s has never been the comics industry's strong suit.

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