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Underground > Comic Books >

Igor Kordey fired from Marvel (link)

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

23:11 / 24.02.04

http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?postid=745628#post745628

Discuss.

14:07 / 25.02.04

Poor sod.

14:11 / 25.02.04

I feel a little bit hypocritical, since I really disliked Kordey's art on New X meN, but it seems almost a shame to see him go like that.

The trouble is, Kordey's really *not* a suitable X-artist, IMO. His work on more militaristic, real-world books like Cable/Soldier X actually looked pretty dang good.

But it would seem that there's no room at Newest Marvel for any square pegs.

I wonder how long we'll continue to see X-Statix pencilled by that deviant weirdo Allred....

Matthew Fluxington

14:28 / 25.02.04

That's a shame. He saved Marvel's ass several times over with his speedy art, and they end up fucking him over. Igor is a talented artist, and I hope that he finds some good projects elsewhere. I don't think the X-Men was ever a good match for him, but he's a talented guy and deserves better treatment.

If you have any doubts about Igor's art, you should check out the galleries on his website. Superhero comics may not be a good venue for him, but his skill as an illustrator/painter/designer is undeniable.

Matthew Fluxington

14:31 / 25.02.04

Don't worry about Allred. X-Statix has been moved to the Marvel Knights imprint, and the X-offices have no control over that book. They are relatively safe. I get the impression that X-Statix will come to its end sometime in the next year or two, and that'll be that.

14:39 / 25.02.04

I get the impression that X-Statix will come to its end sometime in the next year or two, and that'll be that.

Yeah, I reckon you're right.

To be honest, it seems to me like there can't be *that* much more mileage in the X-Statix concept. Milligan's fairly staunchly refused to turn it into the standard x-soap and I don't know what else can be done other than increasing surreality.

I'm torn: On the one hand, I'm dropping the bulk of my monthly titles and refusing to buy anything but trades. I'll stay with X-Statix till the end but I'll be hoping for it to finish so that I can make the break.

On the other hand, when this goes we'll probably get some shitty X-Force revamp in its wake and the early C21 period of Marvel X-Innovation will be truly deid and goon.

Sorry about the thread rot.

14:56 / 25.02.04

That's harsh.

I'll admit I didn't like his art on NXM either, but it was the only exposure I'd had to his art until I checked out his website, which contains some excellent stuff. Clearly, my opinion of his work was unfairly influenced by NXM.

Anyway, no one deserves to be fucked around like this. Poor guy.

15:23 / 25.02.04

If you have any doubts about Igor's art, you should check out the galleries on his website. Superhero comics may not be a good venue for him, but his skill as an illustrator/painter/designer is undeniable.

wow. i love the graphic design stuff, especially.

15:25 / 25.02.04

Geez. What a ring of bastards. And that offering lower prices for his pages for continuing to work for them is just bullshit. That's the worst kind of boning when you have a family to take care of. Fuckers.

His art may have been rushed at the barrel of gun on NXM but in my opinion it's strong enough to stand on its own when outside the flash and glam of superheroes. He's always made me think of a darker Chris Weston or Glen Fabry when he's in full stride (And that Excalibur cover is spooky cool).

Igor, here's to hoping you find a much more reliable and happier gig elsewhere than the House that Spandex built. You're better off without them.

15:24 / 27.02.04

Igor's art on CABLE was fantastic. And let's not forget that he did logo work for Marvel for free, always pitched in when they were in a bind, did the famous "fighter jet in the window" page for HEROES, did the 9/11 story for MOMENT OF SILENCE (Marvel's one-shot of silent 9/11 stories, which was actually pretty good), and tons of other stuff.

It is clear from looking at his X-TREME X-MEN art that they hired inkers would would make Kordey's art look more mainstream, super-hero four color. The fact that they lowered his page rate while the higher page rate was guaranteed under contract is horrible. If he was really told that his contract was QUOTE a piece of toilet paper END QUOTE, then that's awful. Where's Joe Q. in all this? Won't he address these wrongs??

Sure, Igor gets a bit ranty in some of his statements, equating Marvel's behavior to globalization and facism (even if they're somewhat accurate, he's talking about comics here, and it's funny that the newsarama interviewer had to keep pulling him back to talking about comics), but he's upset. Although I would probably make many of the same points as him but try to limit my rants. Did he insult Ethan Van Sciver in a recent posting exchange, saying he was trying to make up for Ethan's lateness? I'm not clear on this, but I've recently heard this.

16:37 / 27.02.04

HunterWolf, you're thinking of this star-studded thread on Millarworld.

17:16 / 27.02.04

Wow, Ethan was defending Igor and being very honorable and all, and Kordey went apeshit on him because Ethan said he thought Kordey's work looked better with an inker (other than Kordey himself) and because Ethan said Igor was probably making a good amount of money pencilling and inking two best-selling X-Books. (Kordey seems very touchy about the idea of discussing, even in non-numericals estimates i.e. a doctor's or lawyer's salary, income)

Anyway, Ethan came off like a honest, cool guy and Kordey came off like an angry, bitter guy. Ethan even said "Hey, I know you're upset" and he factored in that Kordey's having a bad week so he may be over-reacting to people who are actually trying to be kind and supportive.

Thanks for the link.

17:52 / 27.02.04

Hunter--

I want to agree with you, but...man, I dunno, the weirdest thing happened when I went and read over this thread (I stopped on page 8, where my eyes started to glaze over). First of all, I've only ever seen Kordey's work on NXM, where I thought it was...um...inappropriate (but not totally terrible; as others have said, there is something Corben-ish about his work that could be quite good in the proper context). Even so, I was (and am) disgusted by Marvel's treatment of him. Then, when he bafflingly dissed Ethan V.S. (in my view, a much better artist, and someone who was being *nice* to him), while I still sided with Kordey over Marvel, the personal sympathy factor diminished a little bit...

Until I realized something. Like, I don't think Kordey's grasp on English (while assuredly better than my own command of Croatian) is really that wonderful, so he may have thought Ethan was insulting him in a way that he wasn't. And I also think he meant the mirror-gazing thing to be funny, if hardly a compliment. I'm not sure how or if the nastiness escalates from where I stopped reading, but I think it's significant that Kordey doesn't (as far as I saw) attack the flaming asshole who repeatedly called his art shit. He seems less combative to me than just kinda snarky. Maybe a wry sense of humor just doesn't translate well.

18:04 / 27.02.04

Oh! I should say the weird thing was...I kinda started to like the guy! What at first seemed like sheer assholery soon seemed to reveal itself as a grouchy kind of honesty that kinda amused me and won me over. Clearly, he's not much of a politician, though.

18:49 / 27.02.04

I could see the notion that Igor thought EVS' comment about Igor 'needing an inker' was an insult, but I find it very hard to believe that Igor's mirror comment was a friendly joke. And Igor's reaction to EVS initial post, where he says 'ahh, you are a guru and everyone here sucks your dick' or whatever, was just out of line. EVS repeatedly tried to clarify and be supportive, even tried to have a sense of humor about it, and kordey didn't really seem to change his tune at all.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

20:24 / 27.02.04

While I'm a bit pissed that Igor jumped on Ethan Van like that ('cos Ethan's a top lad) it is all to easy to get into shitstorms on the web. I'm starting to like Igor more - he speaks his mind, even if it does make him sound a bit twatish at times.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

20:27 / 27.02.04

Also, holy shit, is Rob Leifield ever a cunt.

21:35 / 27.02.04

Yeah, I dunno..."You need an inker;" "Well, I bailed your ass out when you couldn't make deadlines"...it's a little hard for me to decide who is being more insulted here. I imagine they're both telling the truth anyway (EVS certainly is), and I'm willing to give Kordey slack for writing/reading in a second language and knowing expansive life rage in the wake of getting fired. Besides, I think Ethan's initial response was "What a fucking asshole," which doesn't sound like responding with humor to me.

So, to my mind, they're even.

22:37 / 27.02.04

Lets all focus on this bit from EVS for a moment:

Well, then welcome. Millarworld is the best board for sane and rational (but often sick and fun) comics discussion on the web. This is pretty much the only place I visit regularly too now.

Is this true? Do the Millarworld forums have better comic conversations than Barbelith? Sadly, it does seem possible...

ONLY NICE THINGS

23:24 / 27.02.04

I think it's probably inevitable.

Well that was rude and inappropriate. The post you quoted, mine, had absolutely nothing to do with the issue of democracy in America. But yet you accuse the United States are being what.....an empire? Yes, the United States is an empire, bringing freedom and democracy to those formerly oppressed peoples in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, liberating them from devils such as Saddam and Taliban.

People you want to slam the United States and its policies needs to shut up or ship out. Im sick and tired of people blamming Bush and Americans for their misfortunes. This is a capatalist society, where entrepreneurship is possible. Dont slam other because ya werent enterprising enough. And this is not an attack on you Mr.Kordey. I think i read you live in Canada, and as a Canadian, i dont think you can fairly and justifiable comment on the democratic state of the affairs in the United States.

That's the kind of comics discussion I want to see more of. And less of your blamming.

I'd suggest that Millarworld and Barbelith have very different aims. Also, that Millarworld, like the WEF before it, is a lot larger and a lot more focused on comics than Barbelith. It also gets more attention from comics creators, but as a tradeoff it has to give "honoured guest" and "VIP" status to Rob Liefeld. It's a tradeoff...

00:09 / 28.02.04

I post on Millarworld quite a bit, but fear not, my heart is with Barbelith....

09:56 / 28.02.04

I liked Igor's work on New and prefer his style to that of someone like Larroca. 'Nuff said.

14:44 / 28.02.04

It also gets more attention from comics creators, but as a tradeoff it has to give "honoured guest" and "VIP" status to Rob Liefeld. It's a tradeoff...

Well, I think it would be absolutely wonderful if someone could tempt Rob Liefield on here. Even if you have to lay out a trail of shiny pennies and give him a little ‘VIP’ badge and hat as bait. Just to see how long it’d take to break him into bits Definitely the potential there for an all-time internet classic: Assembled Barbelith Wits versus Liefield’s Impervious Ego. It’d be like those great covers they used to have on Justice League of America, with a giant invulnerable purple starfish being attacked on all sides by tiny JLAers: Starro, defiant as only a royal purple starfish can be, as their super-powered attacks bounce harmlessly off his thick stupid talentless hide.

Kordey would be good as well, but less satisfying because of the language thing.

15:46 / 28.02.04

Giant invulnerable chocolate starfish, surely?

Ethan Van Sciver

12:16 / 29.02.04

Hey, no no no! I still visit Barbelith and read the threads that I find interesting. The difference between Barbelith and Millarworld is that with Millarworld, if I want to be a total fuckhead one day, I sort of feel freer to do it there than here. It's a little more easygoing. But this board is where I go to READ, rather than to write.

On topic, yeah, poor Igor. But this is what lies at the end of the "quickie artist" road. To use a degrading metaphor, artists who can be counted upon to do entire books over the course of a weekend are like women who have sex on the first date. They are appreciated short term, but tossed aside and forgotten when someone who makes you wait comes along. Take heed, all of you who are thinking of breaking into comics soon.

Plus, he's a dick.

And finally, he last thing Barbelith should have is a VIP thingy. That makes me feel weird when I see it under my name at other boards. As for Rob Liefeld, he's a great addition to any conversation, and I'm sure he'd come if you'd only start a thread devoted to a fair discussion of his work. He likes to talk about himself as much as anyone does.

12:22 / 29.02.04

I think Barbelith needs Rob Liefield.

[I haven't posted in about a year, but I think that needed to be said]

03:08 / 01.03.04

//To use a degrading metaphor, artists who can be counted upon to do entire books over the course of a weekend are like women who have sex on the first date. They are appreciated short term, but tossed aside and forgotten when someone who makes you wait comes along.//

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

Man...I love this board.

06:08 / 01.03.04

//I think Barbelith needs Rob Liefield.//

... If for nothing else but cannon fodder. =)

Liefeld, we kid, we love you, buddy.

10:11 / 01.03.04

I've been wondering this for awhile actually...

I occasionally browse millarworld but have never posted. There's something creepy about it...like I'm changing sides.

Do they think they're better then us over there?

Us vs. Them aaaaaall over again.

I get to be Spartacus...

18:54 / 01.03.04

I dunno what Marvel are doing at the moment. I was not a big Marvel fan but about two years ago I started gettin more of their stuff, like New X-men, X-statix, ultimates and most of the MAX titles. But having read waht they have done to Kordey, plus what they plan for the future, I really think that I am going to abandon them to their KID only franchise.

Plus I have been particularly disapointed with a few Marvel trades recently, which have been quick throw away reads. hmmmm. bah to you Marvel.

20:38 / 01.03.04

Millarworld's a great board for keeping up on the latest ludicrous rumors, intra-industry feuds, etc. if you care about that sort of thing, plus you can usually count on any given book you post about generating at least some discussion, whereas on Barbelith, with its smaller number of users, title-specific threads sometimes fall flat for lack of interest. OTOH, the level of the coversation on the books that do get discussed here is so ridiculously much higher in general that it more than makes up for those occasional dud-threads.