I was somewhat amused by Joe Hollon's list. Near as I can tell, each of those elements has foundations that date back fifteen or twenty years. So these are furrows the "new" artists have been plowing for a LONG time!

When exactly was the "old school"? Jim Lee's been drawing the same way since the early Nineties! Boy, his stuff sure is dated!

Probably it's because you commit the biggest sin of any 'old-fashioned', 'out-dated' comicbook artist:

You draw characters on-model.


Seriously - how can I believe that you're a big-name, superstar artist, when you're too concerned about 'fidelity' and 'clear, recognisable depictions', rather than having a totally esoteric artistic style (emphasis on the 'artistic', natch...) that sets you apart from the crowd?


When people see a Byrne Superman, or a Pérez Superman, or a García-López Superman, they're clearly seeing the same character, drawn uniformly. That's practically commercial work, like the people who do prints or posters - there's no artistic vision involved. On the flipside, when you look at the interpretations of Frank Quitely, Jim Lee, Alex Ross, etc., I see the artist. To me, that's a much more creative, innovative route - one is 'art', the other is just being a 'craftsman'.*


Same reason the Richard Donner Superman movie is so dated, nowadays - it's too 'generic'. In comparison, the 'Man of Steel' movie is much more current, because it's clearly a distinct, original take on the character. It's 'Zach Snyder's Superman' - he's made it his own, which is a far more artistic and creative approach than just slavishly recreating the same thing as so many others who came before him.


...and sarcasm OFF. Good grief - even in jest, that wasn't fun to type, because I'm sure many folk out there actually THINK like that...



*sadly enough, that's paraphrased from an actual ear-bashing I got from one of my tutors at Music College. I'm a saxophone player, and learned from my heroes (Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley, Gerry Mulligan, etc. - all the legends of yore) - I always figured the trick was to learn the principles from them, in order to develop an individual style that still serves the same function musically, just as they did with their influences.

However, I went to a conservatoire, where I was 'informed' that those guys were no longer considered 'relevant', and that it wasn't truly 'creative' to show your influences and try to maintain the standards of the greats. Nope - the true signs of 'artistic integrity' and 'relevance' are apparently to be completely 'new' and 'esoteric' - specifically, to be unlike anything that came before. That's where the analogy came from - said tutor described players who honoured the traditions of the profession as 'mere craftsmen', churning out recreations of the same-old-same-old, rather than being truly 'original', and 'creative'.

No joke - that's what gets taught to aspiring musicians nowadays. It'd be like Tom Brevoort teaching students as to what makes a 'good' comicbook...

"In comparison, the 'Man of Steel' movie is much more current, because it's clearly a distinct, original take on the character. It's 'Zach Snyder's Superman' - he's made it his own, which is a far more artistic and creative approach than just slavishly recreating the same thing as so many others who came before him."

Uh...have you seen an advance copy of this movie?  It doesn't come out for another year.  (Which actually makes no sense, since it was filmed at exactly the same time as Dark Knight Rises).

Uh...have you seen an advance copy of this movie? It doesn't come out for another year.

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Does he have to have seen the whole movie?

Exactly. It's as if, in one image, the film-makers are telling me "trust us - you really won't like where we're going with this!"

Oh, sure, it's 'just the costume', and I might be very wrong - this could be the most accurate portrayal of the character on film, EVER. But in that case, why change the costume if you're going to be so faithful to everything else? More likely, this is a case of 'p*** on it and make it mine' in most other aspects as well - wouldn't be the first superhero movie 'adaptation' to do that...

Sorry - need to post a bit of positivity to make up for all that. How about a bit of 'dated, old-fashioned' art, from the 'olden days' when artists still used quaint things like 'model sheets':