He's Dead, and You Killed Him.

[samurainoir]

[Brown Bear]

Man I miss that awesome 70's style artwork.

[emeraldknight47]

Man I miss that awesome 70's style artwork.

Likewise, BB. Back in those days, comic book artists had to have a great, fundamental understanding of human anatomy, facial expressions, composition, lighting, camera angles,etc. There are only a few today who still have and are able to use that knowledge. Most of what I see being put out today is by people whose artwork is only so-so, but is so augmented by digital effects, color palettes that would make DaVinci blush and glossy, slick stock, that it hides the underlying fact that they don't really render things in a remotely realistic manner.

[enyawd72]

Like, BB. Back in those days, comic book artists had to have a great, fundamental understanding of human anatomy, facial expressions, composition, lighting, camera angles,etc. There are only a few today who still have and are able to use that knowledge. Most of what I see being put out today is by people whose artwork is only so-so, but is so augmented by digital effects, color palettes that would make DaVinci blush and glossy, slick stock, that it hides the underlying fact that they don't really render things in a remotely realistic manner.

BINGO! Most of today's art is all style and no substance...and the worst part is these ego-driven hacks think they're the greatest thing since comics were invented.

[johnnystorm]

That's because in the "old days", comic books were never expected to be the end result for an artist's career. Many of the classic artists did work in illustration, advertising, etc. They studied anatomy and design in schools and colleges, or worked as apprentices to other artists.
While some of todays crowd has certainly put in their time, as they say, there's an awful lot of who have learned from comic books only, apeing the styles without understanding the techniques.

[Hedji]

Man I miss that awesome 70's style artwork.

And writing.

[MIB41]

Yep. Great stuff. I have this issue. Bought it when it was new.

[hedrap]

Worst aspect of today's work is the life model tracing. I get using a real human form, but to just drop a half-*** color skin over it just screams "you bought a giant storyboard"!

[Hedji]

^Can you elaborate on what life model tracing is? I'm not familiar with it.

[enyawd72]

I really hate today's coloring worst of all. With all the lighting FX, lens flares, etc. it really obscures the line art and the importance of BLACK.

[Hedji]

Laura Allred does a nice job coloring Mike Allred's stuff, but yeah, I don't keep up on modern books for many of the typical reasons listed.

I often think the artists can get away with flimsy linework with the way modern color sort of smears the playing field to a level of "meh".

[MRP]

If you think artistic shortcuts in comics are something new, you obviously aren't aware of folks like Wally Wood, who is considered a giant in the industry....Wood has famously said...

Never draw anything you can copy, never copy anything you can trace, never trace anything you can cut out and paste up.

Wally Wood

or looked closely at John Bucema stuff where he uses the same stock poses traced/lightboxed from his files over and over again (often times with a blank background or just a line or two to suggest a background). The stuff they were doing to churn out enough pages to make deadlines and eke out a living.

They produced magnificent stuff, but they took the same kind of shortcuts modern comic artists do, the technology for the shortcuts is just better now with the software available, but you can bet a lot of classic artists would have used the same tools if they had been available when they were working in the industry.

The biggest difference between classic comic art and modern comic art is not in the pencilling stage, it's in the inking (and as others have pointed out the coloring), because the use of digitization and improved scanning allows for more of the pencils to stand out without the need for inking, and the lack of brush techniques when inking for varying line weight and feathering and touch is lost in the homogenizing effects of digital inking. And as coloring effects and much more detailed backgrounds fill the panels much more than in previous eras (mostly because to do backgrounds would have been a waste of time for artists as they would have been covered up by lots of caption boxes, thought bubbles, and dialogue balloons which are less prevalent in modern comics), there is much more in each panel that needs to be "inked" so less time is taken on each element within the panel, often just using the software to darken the existing pencil lines without any embellishment.

-M