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Michael Penn
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Joined: 12 April 2006
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Posted: 08 April 2021 at 5:44am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Facial expressions. JB can convey a entire story with a single close up.
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Jeffrey Rice
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Posted: 08 April 2021 at 9:47am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

More than four for me have already been posted, so I will mention that daily dose of Elsewhen. That there is worth the price of admission!
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Eric Jansen
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Posted: 08 April 2021 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Sorry, I can't separate!  Neal Adams is a better penciler, Steve Gerber was a better writer, Joe Rubinstein is a better inker, Dave Cockrum was a better designer, Jack Kirby was better at action, Steve Ditko was better at fluidity, etc.--but, put it all together, and JB is the best!
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Michael Hogan
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Posted: 08 April 2021 at 3:39pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

I could go on ad nauseum espousing how I love the art and the writing, but I'll leave it with two items:

1. Grandeur. There's always grandeur.

2. He always plays by the rules... even when he breaks them!
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James Johnson
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Posted: 08 April 2021 at 5:18pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

1. Storytelling - JB's artwork alone can tell a story without dialog being present.

2. Historian - His historical knowledge of any character that he touches is incredible. FF, X-MEN, NEW GODS, BATMAN/SUPERMAN: GENERATIONS....I can go on.

I'm sure there is more............  :-)
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Rodrigo castellanos
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Posted: 08 April 2021 at 8:40pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

This pandemic situation has me strangely re-reading a lot of stuff that I love instead of reaching for new stuff as I usually do.

The past few weeks it was the Man of Steel trades (meaning the whole JB Superman run plus Wolfman and Ordway's run) which I hadn't re-read in years and man, what a blast it has been.

Superman is probably the most difficult character to make it work (as we've unfortunately seen countless times in recent years) yet JB makes it look so simple. 

Thanks for that JB, it was the only time in my life that I preferred Superman over Batman and reviewing it now made me see why.







Edited by Rodrigo castellanos on 08 April 2021 at 8:43pm
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Petter Myhr Ness
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Posted: 09 April 2021 at 2:12am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Superman is probably the most difficult character to make it work
--

But he shouldn't be. It's just that some people overcomplicate things. 
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Petter Myhr Ness
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Posted: 09 April 2021 at 2:16am | IP Logged | 8 post reply

To me, JB's greatest strength has been the ability to make each character he's drawn look their best. Be it Superman, Hulk, Wolverine, Darkseid, Galactus, The Thing - you want a model of how a character should look, just see what JB did. 
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Greg McPhee
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Posted: 09 April 2021 at 3:31am | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Superman is probably the most difficult character to make it work

===================================================

No. He's not. 

And, I'd say in recent years, Peter Tomasi and Dan Jurgens produced some of the character's best stories since Infinite Crisis.
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Carlos Velasco
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Posted: 09 April 2021 at 5:26am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Aside from the spectacular art he produced in the 80s and the successful mixture of action, sci-fi, some horror and some drama, I like the contrast in his stories between the good guys and the bad guys.

The villains are really evil and, at the same time, fascinating in a mysterious way. Sometimes it seems that they are the true stars (this can be seen in many Superman stories: Silver Banshee, Mr. Mxlptzkl, Luthor, Darkseid...).
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David Schmidt
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Posted: 09 April 2021 at 6:24am | IP Logged | 11 post reply

I still find his art is one of the best there is. And Elsewhen proves it's still getting better and better.

I was always amazed by Mr Byrne's storytelling's skills. You always want to read more, to see what happens next, etc.

And the characters. Each one shows a specific personality which he keeps years after years. Characters become believable. How many times did books lose this after he left? I noticed it with Alpha Flight. The change was really hard.
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Adam Schulman
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Posted: 09 April 2021 at 6:40am | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Someone once wrote of JB's "fearless use of perspective" (as penciller, not writer). That person was right. Nobody does it better, not even Neal Adams.

And I've always appreciated JB's "creators' intent" approach to writing Big Two characters -- although given the rules laid down by the editors, publisher, etc. there can be strict limits to that. JB didn't write the Jerry Siegel/Joe Shuster Superman, or at least not the late '30s version, when he was writing the Superman titles. He didn't write the Charles Moulton Wonder Woman either -- I don't think anyone has since Moulton stopped writing her. ("Submission to loving authority," etc.) It would be difficult to make Diana's original iteration fit into the DC Universe as it's been for decades.
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