Posted in: Comics, Valiant | Tagged: beni lobel, Javier Pulido, ninjak, valiant

Javier Pulido's Art On Ninjak #4 Was Redrawn By Beni Lobel

Javier Pulido is a Spanish comics artist, best known for work on Human Target, Robin: Year One, She-Hulk, The Amazing Spider-Man, and also the artist on Ninjak, currently published by Valiant Entertainment. Or at least he was. Javier posted to his blog, On Ninjak, which he uses to deconstruct his own comic book work, saying

Hi everyone, Javier here. Turns out I'm not in the book anymore, this is the last On Ninjak post. The blog has tried making visible some of the work that I've been doing on the series, let's end it in the same way. My work on issue #4 was already made, and it is included here, to finalize the post. The official issue #4 was released one week ago, so this one is a fan-fiction now, or a What If, even so, its existence should still be of interest to anyone interested in how comics work and are made. Two comics that come from the same script are a privileged window into storytelling on their own. The only thing that I'd ask for is to do the first reading of every one of them separately, dedicating the necessary time to properly enjoy the reading experience that each comic provides. That experience is, in the end, what it's all about, and should be at the centre of any possible analysis. This has been a blog about comic storytelling, the posts cover topics related to each issue of the Ninjak series that I've worked on. Everyone is invited to read them. Thanks for reading, see you around.

The final Ninjak #4 was, instead, re-drawn by Beni Lobel, known for his work on Batman, Constantine, Blacklist, True Blood and more. At least in part. To have much of a completed issue junked and redrawn is very unusual – especially the final chapter of a comic book series. If the publisher had a big problem with his style a) why did they hire him and b) why did they publish the previous issues? It's not like he went on a live stream and criticised his employers, is it? Bleeding Cool reached out to representatives of Valiant Entertainment earlier today but received nothing in response. Here's a look at one splash page by Javier Pulido when the switch happens in the comic.

And again by Beni Lobel.

It's certainly interesting to see the different narrative choices, if that it makes for a strange narrative switch. Might a clue come from the final page? Which originally saw a bunch of mysterious chaps in the shadow assembling to take down Ninjak in a future series.

The redrawn version takes away a lot of that mystery… could this have been enough to swing things?

If anyone has a clue, please feel free to fill me in… they still listed Pulido's solo name in the solicitation.

NINJAK #4 CVR A DAGNINO
VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT LLC
AUG212134
(W) Jeff Parker (A) Javier Pulido (CA) Fernando Dagnino
The truth revealed. Nowhere left to run. A formidable foe strikes first.
The stunning final chapter of Jeff Parker and Javier Pulido's explosive first story arc.In Shops: Oct 13, 2021
SRP: $3.99

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