| |
|
Do you mean with entirely new artists working from the original script, or with the original artist(s) re-doing their material ?
If the latter, I guess it’s not entirely unprecedented – one of the Sandman volumes contains a few extra pages that the comic couldn’t fit in for reasons of space, and I think that when Kitchen Sink were reprinting The Spirit in the 1980s they couldn’t get hold of a printable version of one story, so Will Eisner found a copy of his pencils and re-inked it(about 40 years after the first time).
I think that the best comics are almost like the best books, succeeding when you forget that you’re reading, and when neither the writing nor the art ‘gets in the way of the story’ – nor the lettering or colouring, come to that. Alan Moore once said (about V for Vendetta) something to the effect that it was the point where his twisted sensibilities met with David Lloyd’s, and that there was no question of him working on it with any other artist (Tony Weare’s contribution notwithstanding). Sometimes, that can be the case of a single person with one vision – Eisner, again, would be a great example – or two people bringing their own particular visions and abilities to the work to create something more than the sum of its parts (Watchmen, for example); the comic version of Lennon-McCartney, if you will.
It would be interesting to see something like The Invisibles V3 #2 re-drawn, though not necessarily for reasons of ‘not finding the art aesthetically appealing’ or whatnot, but rather because – as was painfully clear from the script pages Cameron Stewart posted at this very forum, IIRC – many of the artists failed to put in details which were in Grant’s original script. Sometimes they were details which would have added extra depth and resonance, but on more than one occasion they were important to the plot, and the culmination of Grant’s work in the series. This, I feel, is something that the editor should have caught, and dealt with before press time (such as when David Bishop sent back a Frank Miller Dredd cover, intended for a Judge Dredd Megazine anniversary issue, because he wasn’t happy with it). But in real terms, I think that re-doing anything like this would probably be fairly badly received by the original artist – it reflects badly on their ability, the same way as the recent re-edits of Star Wars Episode 1 did on Lucas and the others who worked on the film; they’re unlikely to welcome it.
But any re-draws would have to bring substantial ‘new elements’ to it, or it would just be a case of cover versions, really – why bother with the Emma Bunton cover version when it so singularly fails to do anything different from the Edie Brickell original, if you see what I mean.
Final thought : have there been any examples of such a complete re-draw which haven’t involved the original artist(s) ? I feel certain there must have been, but can’t think of any offhand. But it is Friday, and I feel sleepy…
DBC |
|
|
