Without having read the reviews in question, I wonder if the reviewers are referring to the full body of superhero art, rather than your body of work. In other words, your characters look heroic, there is energy and implied motion in their poses, there is dramatic tension within and between panels etc. All of that, on the other hand, seems to be missing from current offerings from Marvel and DC (at least from the admittedly few I've seen over the past ten or fifteen years).

But even with that large helping of the benefit of doubt, "retro" is a sort of obnoxious way to say what I've just described. Instead, it could be said that you're providing the industry with a blue print to breath new life back into a floundering medium.

I still remember people (mostly staff as I recall) at my local comics shop marveling at the success of the AVENGERS relaunch by Busiek and Perez in 1998--23 years ago!  ("Where are the pouches and bubble physiques?")  I'm pretty sure the word "retro" was used there too.

In ELSEWHEN I’m drawing like I draw now, which really has little in common with how I drew forty years ago.

***

I've definitely seen an evolution of your style, but I also see a lot that's stayed the same -- in a good way.  If I had time-traveled from 1981 directly to 2021, I have no doubt that I'd immediately recognize the art on ELSEWHEN as yours -- there's an underlying quality that shines through.  Part of it may be so basic that you take it for granted: a genuine attention to detail (spacial perspective, layout, anatomy, body positioning/expression, backgrounds) that unfortunately seems all too rare in comics!  

The only specific retro aspect that comes to mind is faces with Neal Adams-esque shadows.

*****

JB, I see what you mean from a visual point of view, but ELSEWHEN does pick up from the time you left off in your legendary X-MEN run... so it can be seen as "retro", couldn't it?

Regardless, I think ELSEWHEN has a freshness sorely needed for any X-MEN fan.

-C!

In the inking thread, there are some attempts to imitate the style of early 80s Austin, which is retro.

The art does exhibit the hallmarks of classic Marvel storytelling, which has gone out of fashion in recent decades in favour of stodgy, lifeless poses and pedestrian angles. In this loose sense, I suppose, one could invoke some kind of retro feel, though still I think Elsewhen is absent the imitative part of the definition.

In a nutshell, then, no, it's not a fair description.