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Let me start by saying that "realistic" art vs. "cartoony" art is entirely a matter of personal preference, entirely subjective, and all a matter of taste, for which there is, of course, no accounting.
Let me further say that people who prefer "realistic" art are WRONG WRONG WRONG.
Well, let me amend that: people who judge comics art as "good" or "bad" using "realism" as their primary (or only) criterion are horribly misguided.
Yes, there's a surface appeal to meticulous modelling: but there's a deeper craft (I think) in finding the essence of an object and rendering it in as few lines as possible.
Keep in mind, too, that comics is an artform that uses drawings to tell a story,--that presents an illusion of life, of motion: paradoxically, simpler rendering tends to make things look more alive, more "real." I really don't have time to go into it now, but Scott McCloud has a whole chapter on this in Understanding Comics.
The best comics art, I think, is that which doesn't call attention to itself either by show-off virtuosity or out-and-out crappiness--it moves the story along, but there's a wealth of craft to be found if one cares to examine the art closely.
Andi Watson's slashing brushstrokes are full of life, and the more you look at, say, Slow News Day, the more there is to see--the pacing, the beats, the backgrounds, the overall composition of the thing, are just masterly.
But "realistic" art--showy art--gives itself away all at once: there's an undeniable contact buzz from Kingdom Come, say, but the more time you spend with it, the more you realize Alex Ross's huge deficiencies as a storyteller. The photorealistic style leaves you with a collection of still pictures, rather than a paper movie: everything is stiff and posed and lacks any sense of flow.
Though Alex Ross may be a fine painter, he is a horrible comics artist. But the surface detail, the "realism," is so overwhelming that many people never notice what a poor storyteller he is. And his phenomenal popularity has led many fans to think that all comics art should look like Alex Ross. |
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