Steve Rude needs work?!

[Blue Meanie]

Here's my post from a little while back:

Anyone have $6,500 to lend me?? - Mego Talk

It's a shame that talent like that can't get regular work in the industry

[samurainoir]

[samurainoir]

Part of me thinks that the wind got taken out of The Dude's sails after being skewered by his hero, Alex Toth. He never seemed as prolific as he once was after getting off the monthly Nexus grind. But then again, if he didn't have those "quirks" would it still have been Nexus? I'm not so sure. But I'm such a huge Nexus fan, that I operate with the blinders on when it comes to The Dude (and I probably give Baron waaay more slack than he deserves, particularly on his work-for-hire stuff).

Theory Discussion: Professional Critique - ConceptArt.org Forums



Bruce Timm...

....years later, i got ahold of the infamous toth critique , and read through it nodding my head all the while....without a doubt, toth was going overboard with the scorn, but if you get past the curmudgeonly venom, you realize that point by point, he's bang - on....and the thing is, even after getting toth's critique, steve STILL makes the same kinda off-kilter storytelling choices as he did in the JONNY QUEST story, to this day...as if he didn't take a single piece of toth's criticism to heart....i hate to say it, but since reading the toth critique, i can't fully appreciate steve's stuff as much as i used to....sure, his draftsmanship is still as dazzling and rock-solid as ever (and godDAMN, how the man can PAINT), but i find myself focussing on the odd storytelling quirks rather than the pretty pitchers...

[ctc]

> i find myself focussing on the odd storytelling quirks rather than the pretty pitchers

'Course, sometimes that becomes your trademark. As was said: Liefield still gets work.

Fame is a weird thing. I think it's more luck (although folks will call it "right place, right time") that dictates how well you do. Hence why persistence is golden.

Don C.

[kingdom warrior]

Part of me thinks that the wind got taken out of The Dude's sails after being skewered by his hero, Alex Toth. He never seemed as prolific as he once was after getting off the monthly Nexus grind. But then again, if he didn't have those "quirks" would it still have been Nexus? I'm not so sure. But I'm such a huge Nexus fan, that I operate with the blinders on when it comes to The Dude (and I probably give Baron waaay more slack than he deserves, particularly on his work-for-hire stuff).

Theory Discussion: Professional Critique - ConceptArt.org Forums

http://tcj.com/journalista/tothrude.jpg

Bruce Timm...

Here's the Toth critique and Rude's response........Toth sounds like a ranting Geezer but can somewhat understand his frustration...

No i don't think Rude lost not one step at all after Nexus......

David Marshall - Comic Book History | Alex Toth Critiques Steve Rude

[samurainoir]

Steve Rude: Oh, when I did receive Alex's letter, I called him. It started out nicely enough, but when I attempted to explain the things I felt him in error about, he let out a few curse words and hung up. That's what I recall of this situation. If it helps people to learn from my mistakes, then all the better.

Poor Steve Rude. I guess in this case, sometimes it might not be a great thing to finally meet your hero. Somewhere, he also discusses how Toth was irritated that Rude brought up the topic of Space Ghost (Rude being a huge Space Ghost fan).

He was very busy trying to get the Nexus animated project off the ground, but his output in the past twenty years of comics was no where close to his heyday on Nexus... a few Marvel minis, The Moth, a few Nexus minis. Can anyone think of much else beyond that other than little one-offs here and there?

The Kirby influence definitely seemed to overshadow the Toth influence in the nineties, but looks like this video shows that despite it all he still loves Toth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kkrnBGi9Lg

Given that DC/Warner own Space Ghost now, it might make sense to put Rude on a SG mini, and then collect the new material alongside his old Comico prestige OGN.