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Topic: JBF Reading Club: Alpha Flight #15 (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Ryan Maxwell
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Joined: 16 April 2004
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Posted: 10 January 2008 at 9:51am | IP Logged | 1  

Lots of subplots still simmering here, one still 8 or 9 issues away from resolution.  The inking was a change for the worse.  Wiacek was faithful to the point where you could still tell it was JB's pencils, but everything is so thin, there's no weight here.  What looks really good on Snowbird didn't work on the rest of the characters, for me.

I would have loved to see Marrina come back as a regular villain, ala Namor in early Marvel titles.

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Kevin Hagerman
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Posted: 10 January 2008 at 10:43am | IP Logged | 2  

I hated Marrina as a  villain - not because it wasn't well done, but just because it was so tragic.  It WAS done well - so well, I hated it!

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Vinny Valenti
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Posted: 10 January 2008 at 10:46am | IP Logged | 3  

I was really down on Bob Wiacek after seeing this issue. I thought after seeing his great job inking Paul Smith I would have been happy to see it here, but I wasn't. Thing is, I found out years later that I was being a bit too rough on him. For one thing, the collaboration did seem to gel better as subsequent issues came out, plus I saw a Comics Interview which displayed JB's uninked pencils for She-Hulk, and I found that Wiacek was indeed being faithful to the pencils - just that he just doesn't ink the way JB does, and it's not really fair to be expecting him to be.
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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 10 January 2008 at 11:02am | IP Logged | 4  

I have told before of the trouble I had designing the Master. I had a pretty clear image in my mind, but every time I tried to get it on paper, it came out looking like Brother Blood, from TEEN TITANS. Struggle, struggle, struggle, and finally the form seen above was coaxed out of my pencil.

Years later, I mentioned this to George Perez, and he laughed. Seemed Brother Blood had been his conscious attempt to design a "John Byrne character". Perhaps he succeeded too well!!

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Brian Hunt
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Posted: 10 January 2008 at 11:07am | IP Logged | 5  

Marina was a tragic character.  So were all of the other Alphans.  If it was a play it would have been a tragedy of the highest order.  Did any of them have good fortune?
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Greg Kirkman
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Posted: 10 January 2008 at 11:38am | IP Logged | 6  

Another solid issue.
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Greg Woronchak
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Posted: 10 January 2008 at 11:55am | IP Logged | 7  

Man, those Namor shots really sing, if you know what I mean. Seems like you had fun wdrawing him <g>.
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Ted Pugliese
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Posted: 10 January 2008 at 12:00pm | IP Logged | 8  

John Byrne is my favorite John Byrne inker, but I liked Wiacek's work as much as Austin's over JB's pencils.  Sometimes more, as he tended to be more faithful to JB's style to me, that is I thought Wiacek's inks looked more like JB's than Terry's.
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Pat Ditton
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Posted: 10 January 2008 at 12:13pm | IP Logged | 9  

There are inkers whom I really like over certain pencils - mostly because they don't distract from the style of the pencil BUT still have solid skills that add a little something to the pencils.

Austin

Rubinstein

Wiacek

-- are but a few --- but everyone is entitled to an off-day.   I have seen better Wiacek than on this particular issue.

 

 

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Wallace Sellars
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Posted: 10 January 2008 at 12:19pm | IP Logged | 10  

It's neat to see how the way JB draws the Sub-Mariner has evolved over the years.
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Gil Dowling
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Posted: 10 January 2008 at 1:28pm | IP Logged | 11  

JB Wrote: Years later, I mentioned this to George Perez, and he laughed. Seemed Brother Blood had been his conscious attempt to design a "John Byrne character". Perhaps he succeeded too well!!

***********************************

That's funny. It's almost like he plucked the Master of the World design right outta your head.
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Geoff Gibson
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Posted: 10 January 2008 at 3:45pm | IP Logged | 12  

I didn't catch Alpha Flight first time around and I'm reading some of these issues for the first time and I am really enjoying them.  In the past reading clubs I had (for the most part) previously read the issues and my review was always colored by my recollection of having read (and in virtually all cases) and enjoyed the stories.  I am enjoying the stories but what I am really enjoying is seeing how much JB evolved as a writer and story teller since these comics. The economy of words JB uses now is a significant improvement over what I have seen in this run.  Seeing JB's evolution as an artist is "easy" -- seeing his evolution as a writer is more difficult but really evident reading this issue compared to anything he's done in the last 10 years.  This books are good and I think well written.  But not as well written as JB's most recent comics.

His old written stuff is not better.  So I hope you take that as a compliment JB because I think you have evolved into an excellent writer.  I am really looking forward to what you write next! 

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