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Ashley Wood

Matthew Fluxington

15:51 / 17.01.02

I'm wondering what some of you think of Ashley Wood's comic work. I just read the Uncanny X-Men annual that he did with Joe Casey, and he did all of the artwork for it... I've found through all of my exposure to Wood's art in X-Men, The Invisibles, and what I've seen of his Spawn work, he does get a nice mood going, and some of his images are quite nice, but his storytelling is absolutely awful, it's just painful trying to read through a comic that he draws or paints and trying to figure out who is talking to who, what action is happening in each panel, and where the stories are taking place...all of his backgrounds are vague and lack detail, they always have the same color pallette, it's impossible to get a solid sense of place with his work.

How is it that this guy, who is all style and absolutely zero substance, is getting such high profile gigs?

moriarty

16:26 / 17.01.02

I'm not really familiar with his work, but could it be that he makes his deadlines? To many editors, that is a factor that is just as important, if not more so, then any amount of quality in his artwork. Vince Colletta is another good example of someone with limited artistic ability who gets the job done.

Sam Lowry

16:34 / 17.01.02

quote:Originally posted by Flux = Civilized Satanist:
I'm wondering what some of you think of Ashley Wood's comic work. I just read the Uncanny X-Men annual that he did with Joe Casey, and he did all of the artwork for it... I've found through all of my exposure to Wood's art in X-Men, The Invisibles, and what I've seen of his Spawn work, he does get a nice mood going, and some of his images are quite nice, but his storytelling is absolutely awful, it's just painful trying to read through a comic that he draws or paints and trying to figure out who is talking to who, what action is happening in each panel, and where the stories are taking place...all of his backgrounds are vague and lack detail, they always have the same color pallette, it's impossible to get a solid sense of place with his work.

How is it that this guy, who is all style and absolutely zero substance, is getting such high profile gigs?

he drew The Invisibles?

Matthew Fluxington

16:36 / 17.01.02

1. Ashley Wood doesn't really do much consecutive issue-to-issue work, he's mostly doing mini-series, fill-ins, and specials.

2. Yeah, Wood did about six or seven pages of the final Invisibles arc in volume 3....

moriarty

17:34 / 17.01.02

Even annuals, limited series, fill-ins, etc. have deadlines. Usually the people who work on them are brand spanking new, too slow to work on much else (Art Adams) or between regular gigs, like Ashley Wood. The only exception I can think of is Jack Kirby, who did both his regular monthly titles and their annuals.

I read an interview with Kyle Baker where he said he would get up at 5 in the morning, ink two pages of Spider-man over breakfast, and go to school for the rest of the day. Some people get hired solely on the basis of their work ethic.

Again, this is all speculation. Maybe they picked him up to draw in Spawn fans, maybe he's really popular with the kids and we just don't know it, or the editor adores his work, or he schmoozed like no one's business, or they owed him one, or...

Only his editor and his hairdresser know for sure.

Captain Zoom

17:39 / 17.01.02

actually I quite enjoyed his work on both the uncanny x issues. They're the only ones that have stood out to me really. Granted his stuff is a little challenging, but it's a refreshing change to normal super-hero stuff.

Zoom.

Matthew Fluxington

20:56 / 17.01.02

Well, I don't entirely dislike the guy's work, I think it *looks* nice, but in terms of telling stories, he's fucking terrible. He's kinda like Bill Seinkeweitz (i've misspelled it, I'm sure) without the chops, really...

I definitely like him the most of all the guys who've done Uncanny since Joe Casey started, but I am glad that Sean Phillips will be drawing half of the issues of the comic now.... it's going to be weird, it'll go two issues of Ron Garney then two issues of him... that's a bad idea, those two artists look SOOO different..

Man, I wish Cameron was still around to answer this thread...I'd love to know what he thinks.

[ 17-01-2002: Message edited by: Flux = One More For Philly Boy Roy ]

yawn - thing's buddy

21:30 / 17.01.02

don't want to misquote caeron but I seem to remember him raging against the Wood re: invisibles art jam shocker.

DaveBCooper

10:56 / 18.01.02

First encountered his stuff in the Invisibles, and after seeing parts of the script for V3 Iss 2 of that comic, quite frankly I have severe questions about Wood's ability to work from a script.

Can't say I'll be looking out for it again, okay though the linework may be.

DBC

DaveBCooper

11:00 / 18.01.02

Oop. Double post. 'Scuse me.

DBC

[ 18-01-2002: Message edited by: DaveBCooper ]

rexpop

01:25 / 19.01.02

Have to agree with Flux here.

While Ashley woods style is nice to look at, it makes reading the story near impossible. I gave up on the UXM annual half way through.

Although his style looks a little like Jon Muth (spelling ?), although Muths pages are a lot cleaner and brighter which is something Mr Wood might do well to look into.

[ 19-01-2002: Message edited by: rexpop ]

Sandfarmer

02:05 / 22.01.02

I know this sounds bad and I'm trying to be open minded but I just can't stand Wood's work. It all looks the same to me. It all looks like the Spawn covers. It all looks like mid-90's rock album covers. I don't get it.

Graeme McMillan

13:11 / 22.01.02

He's a great stylist, but one of the worst storytellers to ever work in comics. He's should stick to covers only, and no-one'd complain.

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