Oh for Pity's Sake!
Well....last time we all got to see Kevin Maguire's take on Batgirl and Catwoman, and how utterly gorgeous, funny and WELL-DRAWN it all was.
Now, we are flipping to the other side of the coin. I give you...
GREG LAND!
This is one of two covers to Uncanny X-men #500. The other cover is by Alex Ross.
So...where do we even begin with this? Firstly, it's a mess. It looks like Colorforms for heaven's sake. The characters have no relationship to one another, they seem to be just arbitrarily plastered onto the background. There is no single lighting source, all of the characters seem to be lit differently, and again, with no relationship to the picture as a whole. People seem to be missing various limbs. Cyclops seems to have a jetpack. I'm not quite sure who some of these people even ARE!
Worse still, Land isn't just copying magazine covers and porn, he's starting to copy HIMSELF! Several of the figures are lifted right from his work on Ultimate stuff. He's changed the costume and the hair color, and drawn an arm or two differently, but that's it.
I can see the appeal I suppose. It's very flashy, and looks "realistic". The sad thing of it is, is that Mr. Land CAN draw quite well, but for some reason, choses not to. On the other hand, I suppose that he can whip one of these things out in a weekend or so by now.
Now this Pixie person, I am not familiar with, but I assume that she's basically taken Kitty's place. You, madam, are NO Kitty Pryde. She sure as heck looks awfully precocious to me, at least physically. Wouldn't somebody called "Pixie" BE on the small side? Instead she's just Wanda with a different costume.
I don't know what happened to Storm's legs. There seem to be three legs there, and I guess a few of them may belong to the small figure behind her, but Storm is doing a really contorted twist behind Wolverine if her other leg is there.
It's just a mess. Can you even imagine what Kevin Maguire could have done with THIS? Or Romita, or Ivan Reis, or Walt Simonson, or hell, even John Byrne!
I guess I'm just getting cranky in my old age.
posted by SallyP @ 9:57 AM
10 Comments:
Ah Greg Land... always fun to dissect. It's really quite impressive that he can work in 29 characters (give or take a couple) and only draw 5 feet (forgive me if I'm a little off... but it IS a smallish image). Unbelievable.
It's ridiculous the extent he goes to to have to avoid drawing something original (as I know he's actually capable of doing).
He even copies himself within the same illustration. Wolverine and whoever that is on the far right are in the exact same body position.
Also, you mentioned Storm's lack of legs, but where the heck is the rest of Angel's body?
Now this Pixie person, I am not familiar with, but I assume that she's basically taken Kitty's place. You, madam, are NO Kitty Pryde. She sure as heck looks awfully precocious to me, at least physically. Wouldn't somebody called "Pixie" BE on the small side? Instead she's just Wanda with a different costume.
You're right maybe Pixie isn't like Kitty, maybe she's not a raciest like Kitty.
Plus Pixie is here for something new in X-men, because since M-Day we haven't gotten anything new, and X-Men has always been about change for good or for bad.
If you want to read about Pixie you should of get the X-Men comic from FCBD this year.
Land reminds me of Bryan Hitch (and occasionally Alex Ross) in a way. When you first look at the picture, you're blown away by the beauty of it. But when you look closer, you start to see all the things that are wrong with it, and once you've seen those things, you can't ever forget them.
Maguire is a slow artist, true, but I'd wait, or deal with periodic fill-in artists, if it meant having him on a book I enjoy.
You know who else I miss? Mike McKone. I'll never, ever stop loving the way he drew Guy (and everyone else, but mostly Guy).
I will admit, I would probably like Cyclops more if he regularly used a jetpack. Although, I have to question the wisdom of placing open flames close to such a wooden character as Scott Summers.
Gawd, I miss Dave Cockrum more than ever now!
Once again, pick up any early BIRDS OF PREY or slightly less early NIGHTWING and you'll see how good Land used to be.
And his rendition of Emma Frost is that same damn blonde chick that he traces to draw EVERY blonde female character he does -- NO MATTER WHAT AGE THE CHARACTER IS SUPPOSED TO BE-- whether it's Emma or Black Canary or Ultimate Sue Storm or some generic woman in a WEREWOLF BY NIGHT SPECIAL. I'd like to find that porno mag he's using and burn it just so he'd have to give us some other image.
"It's just a mess. Can you even imagine what Kevin Maguire could have done with THIS? Or Romita, or Ivan Reis, or Walt Simonson, or hell, even John Byrne!"
Or Tom Grummett or Dan Jurgens or Bryan Hitch or George Perez or Gary Frank or Barry Kitson or Ethan Van Sciver...
(Sigh)
I'm weak but I love Greg Land's current work. There's an energy to it that for me transcends any technical problems.
What really drives me nuts, is that a number of people are flying...who can't fly. Are they just falling very gracefully? Held up by invisible strings? Who knows?
Oh, and mattcd42, I don't know why you think that Kitty was racy. She always dressed quite appropriately. Certainly in comparison to Emma.
aw, I thought Pixie was cute. I can see young girls liking her character. In the FCBD X-men issue, she gave a bunch of people-eating demons hallucinations of cartoony-bunnies. (but I don't get why she was playing baseball in a one piece swimsuit in one panel. It wasn't gratuitous as other things I've seen, just...out of place.)
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